Airport expansion: is Labour choosing growth over the environment?

Labour has pledged that Britain will achieve the highest economic growth in the G7, while hitting its net-zero climate commitments. But with growth stubbornly sluggish and the economic outlook gloomy, those two promises have been looking increasingly in tension.

Now Rachel Reeves has given "her biggest indication yet" that she would support a third runway at London's Heathrow airport, said Reuters – despite longstanding opposition from environmental groups and key Labour party figures.

"When we say that growth is the number-one mission of this government, we mean it," the chancellor said at the World Economic Forum in Davos today. And "that means it trumps other things".

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What did the commentators say?

Reeves is on a drive to show that Labour is "committed to spurring growth", said Bloomberg. The government also plans to bring the second runway at Gatwick into full-time use, and allow the expansion of Luton airport. Expanding airport capacity is "vital" to UK growth, said British Chambers of Commerce director general Shevaun Haviland in a statement.

Labour is also planning to "strip environmental watchdogs of the power to delay major housebuilding and infrastructure projects", said political correspondent Archie Mitchell in The Independent. New laws will stop regulators demanding that developers "mitigate the environmental impact of new buildings" before construction begins; developers will instead have to pay into a new nature-restoration fund to "offset any potential damage". Ministers claim this will help as many as 150 major road, rail and energy projects get the go-ahead by 2030.

Securing approval for the Luton and Gatwick expansions will be a "major test" for the government's overhaul of planning regulations, said Sky News's business presenter Ian King. The economic case for airport expansion is "unimpeachable", but Reeves could face "implacable opposition" from Cabinet colleagues. Then there's the environmental lobby: the WWF has said expanding Heathrow would "send the UK's carbon emissions skywards, while leaving economic growth stuck on the runway".

What next?

Although Heathrow won its court battle over a third runway in 2020, there is currently no outstanding application to develop one. But London mayor Sadiq Khan, who was part of the group that lost that battle, said he would launch a fresh legal challenge if a new application were made.

If Reeves can defy opposition from a Labour London mayor and her own MPs, "it will show a willingness to embrace pro-growth measures – even when they are not politically convenient", said political correspondent James Heale in The Spectator.