UK Chancellor bets on third Heathrow Airport runway for boost to growth
31.01.2025 - 14:35
/ euronews.com
/ Keir Starmer
Heathrow Airport's plan to build a third runway at London's main hub has been given a boost by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
During a speech aimed at promoting growth for the UK and turning around the economy, Reeves said a third runway would bolster the country's long-term economic growth prospects.
"We cannot duck the decision any longer," she said. "The case is stronger than ever."
Reeves said the government was inviting proposals over its construction by the summer and that it would then make a full assessment.
"This will ensure that the project is value for money and our clear expectation is that any associated service transport costs will be financed through private funding," she said.
In her speech, Reeves insisted the runway will be "delivered in line with our legal, environmental and climate objectives".
Reeves' support for a third runway came in a wide-ranging speech on boosting UK growth rates, which have been historically low since the 2008 global financial crisis for a variety of reasons.
She also outlined plans for the building of nine new water reservoirs, pledged to create a Silicon Valley-like technology hub between the two university towns of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as a "reset" of the UK's economic relations with the European Union, five years after Britain left the bloc.
The Labour government badly needs growth rates to increase over the coming years, so it can lift living standards following the cost-of-living crisis and to get money into ailing public services, as well as reduce the UK's soaring public debt.
Since taking office in July, Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been criticised for talking down the economy and for increasing taxes on business, a combination that critics argue have led to a growth downturn in the past few months and the sharp downturn in the government's ratings in opinion polls.
Although a third runway won't do much to bolster economic growth in the near-term, Reeves hopes that the announcement itself will provide investors with a signal that the government is serious about turning the economy around.
"We are not waiting for years into the future," she said. "We want to do things now, to turn around the performance, and we want to give businesses and investors confidence that this is a country to start doing things, to start making things in again."
A third runway at Heathrow has been discussed since 1946 in the aftermath of World War II, but has never got off the ground because of many reasons, including changes of government as well as legal challenges. Meanwhile, other European hub airports, have grown. Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport has four runways, while Amsterdam's Schiphol has six.
Heathrow’s plan to build a third runway - which has been under