Heathrow airport should be decommissioned and replaced by a new national airport, according to a controversial new discussion paper published the Town and Country Planning Association.

Relocating Heathrow could free up more than 1,000 hectares of land for redevelopment potentially worth more than £6.8 billion, with the potential for the creation of a new sustainable community of more than 30,000 homes in one of the country’s worst housing hotspots, argues the report.

The key argument for relocation is that there is no longer room to expand to accommodate increasing volumes of long haul flights. For years, the policy has been to build relief airports to take the pressure of Heathrow, but this has not worked.

The government's airports policy is "completely disconnected" from any attempts at regional planning, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) said. The association attacked a 2003 government decision to rule out a single South East hub airport in the Thames Estuary.

Aiming to replace the bulk of environmentally damaging short-haul flights through the development of a new high-speed rail network linked to the new airport, the paper makes a persuasive case for relocating Heathrow. The move would reduce delays and help to secure Britain’s future as a world economic centre.

A number of potential sites for the new airport are examined, but the case for creating a new island in the Thames Estuary is found to be overwhelmingly strong. This would ensure no aircraft noise over London or the Southeast, no displacement for people currently facing upheaval around London’s expanding airports, and direct rail links to mainland Europe, as well as to London and the rest of the UK.

The authors say other major world cities including New York, Paris, Berlin and Hong Kong have responded to pressure to take increasingly large volumes of long haul traffic by relocating their principal airports, frequently to off-shore locations.