London Heathrow is the best location for a major hub airport in the UK, a new report has found.

The study was conducted by the airport itself alongside planning consultants AECOM and Quod and will form part of evidence issued to the Airports Commission, which will decide on the most suitable way to enhance runway capacity in the south-east of England.

According to the research, passengers, taxpayers and businesses will be worse off if a new hub airport is built in the Thames Estuary or at Stansted.

If one of these two sites is chosen ahead of Heathrow, up to 76,600 people could be made redundant or forced to relocate.

Crucially, the report indicated that developing Heathrow would be the most cost-effective solution, as huge sums of money would be required to build new infrastructure around the Thames Estuary site.

Chief executive officer at Heathrow Colin Matthews said: "Why build from scratch at a new hub when we can build on the strength that already exists around Heathrow today?"

Some experts refute the notion that Britain needs a new hub airport in order to compete internationally and instead want to see greater competition between existing facilities.