Blitz Bureau
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has backed a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport as part of a fresh plan to get the UK’s sluggish economy growing. In a speech to business leaders, she said Heathrow expansion, delayed for decades over environmental concerns, would “make Britain the world’s best connected place to do business”.
She told the BBC she wanted to get a planning application “signed off” before the next election. Reeves also backed expansions at Luton and Gatwick airports, as well as a “growth corridor” between Oxford and Cambridge, which she claimed could be “Europe’s Silicon Valley”.
The Tories welcomed the plans, most of which leader Kemi Badenoch said had been stolen from her party. But she claimed any prospect of growth would be “destroyed” by the government’s Employment Rights Bill, which she said would place more burdens on business.
In her speech in Oxford, Reeves sought to inject some optimism and confidence into the economy, which has taken a battering in recent months as growth has flatlined. She did not explicitly rule out further tax increases in the spring – but insisted the Government had “begun to turn things round” and was determined to go “further and faster” to boost growth.
She described the UK as a country of “huge potential” which had been “held back” for “too long” because politicians lacked the “courage” to challenge the status quo. “Low growth is not our destiny, but growth will not come without a fight, without a government willing to take the right decisions now to change our country’s future for the better,” she added.
