UK Government outlines support for third runway at Heathrow

January 29, 2025

During a speech on economic growth – something she described as the government’s “number one mission” – Reeves expressed the Labour government’s intention to take a “whole new approach” to boost growth, with a controversial third runway for London Heathrow among the measures outlined to challenge “low expectations and accepted decline”.
“I can confirm today that this government supports a third runway at Heathrow, and is inviting proposals to be put forward by the summer,” Reeves explained this morning. “We will then take forward a full assessment through the Airport National Policy Statement. This will ensure that the project is value for money, and our clear expectation is that any associated surface transport costs will be financed through private funding.” This, she continued, will also ensure a proposed third runway is delivered “in line with [the UK government’s] legal, environmental and climate objectives”.
With the long-debated third runway a subject of some contention – balancing economic and social needs with issues of noise, air quality and environmental pollution – Reeves continued that there is “no trade off between economic growth and net zero,” describing the later as “the opportunity of the 21st century”.
With the environmental agenda firmly at the forefront of economic growth, Reeves also announced the UK government is to invest £63 million into advanced fuels over the next year – something to help bring skilled jobs to areas like Teeside. (Earlier this month, power-to-liquid SAF producer LanzaJet announce it was to collaborate with British Airways to build the UK’s first scaled ethanol-to-SAF production plant in the area.) With the UK’s inaugural SAF mandate having also come into effect earlier this year, increased access to non-kerosene-based alternatives would seem to be central to any ambitions to expand the commercial aviation sector.
Last year, Heathrow posted its highest passenger numbers to date, with the record 83.9 million passengers passing through its doors in 2024 indicative of supply far outstripping demand. This surpassed its pre-pandemic 2019 total by three million. A Heathrow spokesperson has previously highlighted that as the “best-connected airport in the world,” the facility already enables over £200 billion of British trade annually.
However, with a third runway a subject of much discission for two decades, opponents of the plan include Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Last week, a spokesperson confirmed that “the Mayor has a long-standing opposition to airport expansion around London – linked to the negative impact on air quality, noise and London’s ability to reach net zero by 2030”. Reeves noted today that although the government has “low growth is not our destiny,” she acknowledged that this “growth will not come without a fight”.
Although no development consent order has yet been submitted by the airport, an airport spokesperson confirmed last week that Heathrow is “looking at potential options to deliver a third runway at Heathrow in line with strict tests on carbon, noise and air quality”.
With plans for the potential expansion to be submitted by the summer, Reeves concluded that “for too long we have accepted low expectations and accepted decline” – maintaining Labour’s commitment to “[taking] the right decisions now to change our country’s future for the better”.