Heathrow’s third runway can be built in 10 years, Reeves says

Heathrow’s third runway can be built and operating in a decade’s time, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.

Reeves told the BBC she wanted to see “spades in the ground” in the current Parliament and planes to start using the runway by 2035.

She also said London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who is opposed to Heathrow’s expansion, could not stop the new runway.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the Conservatives were in favour of a third runway at Heathrow “in principle” but “it remains to be seen” whether it can be built in a decade.

The extra runway at Heathrow was one of a number of infrastructure projects announced by the chancellor on Wednesday as part of the government’s plans to boost economic growth.

“We think that we can get flights off within a decade,” Reeves told the BBC.

“I say that because we’re not just announcing that we back it, we are changing the way that our planning system works to make it easier to deliver projects like the third runway at Heathrow.”

When asked if Sadiq Khan could stop the expansion the chancellor said “no”.

“There can be judicial reviews but we are confident that this airport expansion will happen, that we will get the third runway built,” she said.

Some have argued that it will take much longer than a decade for a third runway at Heathrow to become reality.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has called the plan “a dead cat”.

“If it ever arrives, it will be about 2040, 2045 or 2050… it will not deliver any growth,” he said on Wednesday.

The project still has to go through a formal planning process, and the airport’s expansion is highly controversial – facing opposition from environmental groups, local authorities and nearby residents.

The Green Party has called Heathrow’s expansion the “definition of irresponsible”, with the party’s co-leader, Adrian Ramsay, saying it was a “fantasy” that the projects could be done without environmental damage.

Reeves was questioned over her previous opposition to the expansion of Leeds-Bradford airport over air and noise pollution grounds.

“If Leeds-Bradford came back with plans to expand I would support these because I think things have changed significantly in the past few years,” she said.

She said there were now more efficient plane engines and the use of sustainable aviation fuel was a “game changer”.

But the director-general of the International Air Transport Association, Willie Walsh, has cast doubt on how quickly this can be achieved.

“Sustainable fuel is a real thing, but we need it in significantly greater volumes than are available today.

“Mandating airlines to use a fuel source that doesn’t exist today doesn’t make an awful lot of sense,” he told LBC on Wednesday.

Under the government’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate, 22% of all jet fuel has to come from sustainable sources by 2040.

Stride said that while the Conservatives backed the third runway in principle, “it will take some considerable time”.

“If the government keeps pushing on this it will be maybe the 2040s or the 2050s or who knows before it comes off.”

Despite broadly backing plans to boost the UK’s infrastructure, the Conservatives have argued tax rises in the Budget and planned changes to employment rights will damage growth.

“The biggest barriers to growth in this country are Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer and their job-destroying Budget,” Stride said.

Separately, a leading economic think tank has warned that higher borrowing costs for the government may mean tax rises or spending cuts if it wants to stick to its own self-imposed rules.

According to a report from the Resolution Foundation, the government is spending £7bn a year more paying interest on its debt than it was at the time of the Budget.

As a result, the think tank said higher tax or cuts “may be needed” if the government wants to keep its promise not to spend more day-to-day than it brings in through tax.

A Treasury spokesperson told the BBC its commitment to its fiscal rules is “non-negotiable”.