UK ‘can’t afford’ not to build runways, says minister ahead of Rachel Reeves’ big growth speech – UK politics live

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The Treasury did not mention Heathrow in its advance press notice. In their London Playbook briefing for Politico this morning, Andrew McDonald and Bethany Dawson suggest that, even though all the speculation has been about Heathrow, the more significant news today may be about other airports. They say:

The expectation — reported first in Bloomberg last week and widely today — is that Reeves will offer political support to expanding three airports: Luton, Gatwick and Heathrow. But while her support is important, she can’t actually bulldoze the process. Gatwick and Luton have both submitted “development consent orders” for expansion, but the decisions — due by Feb. 27 and April 3 respectively — are quasi-judicial ones for Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

Just a thought: One possible outcome, of course, is that one or both of those DCOs — Gatwick’s being due sooner — just happens to be approved today, giving Reeves a big fat airport-shaped thing to talk about. Your author and POLITICO’s Dan Bloom were asking round the houses last night and didn’t get any denials.

What Reeves is proposing to boost 'Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor'

The Treasury’s overnight briefing on Rachel Reeves’ speech focused on plans to develop “the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor”. Here is an extract from the press notice with details of what is being proposed. I’ll post it here at length because it is not available yet online.

The Environment Agency has lifted its objections to a new development around Cambridge that could unlock 4,500 new homes and associated community spaces such as schools and leisure facilities as well as office and laboratory space in Cambridge City Centre. This was only possible as a result of the government working closely with councils and regulators to find creative solutions to unlock growth and address environmental pressures.

That the government has agreed for water companies to unlock £7.9bn investment for the next 5 years to improve our water infrastructure and provide a foundation for growth. This includes nine new reservoirs, such as the new Fens Reservoir serving Cambridge and the Abingdon Reservoir near Oxford.

Confirming funding towards better transport links in the region including funding for East-West Rail, with new services between Oxford and Milton Keynes this year and upgrading the A428 to reduce journey times between Milton Keynes and Cambridge.

Prioritisation of a new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital as part of the New Hospitals Programme bringing together Cambridge University, Addenbrookes Hospital and Cancer Research UK.

Support for the development of new and expanded communities in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and a new East Coast Mainline station in Tempsford, to expand the region’s economy.

That she welcomes Cambridge University’s proposal for a new large scale innovation hub in the city centre. As the world’s leading science and tech cluster by intensity, Cambridge will play a crucial part in the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.

A new Growth Commission for Oxford, inspired by the Cambridge model, to review how best we can unlock and accelerate nationally significant growth for the city and surrounding area.

Appointment of Sir Patrick Vallance as Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor Champion to provide senior leadership to ensure the Government’s ambitions are delivered.

The briefing includes more specific detail about transport. This is what it says about rail services.

The chancellor today announced that delivery of a new East Coast Mainline station in Tempsford will be accelerated by 3-5 years. The station will link services directly to London, with services in under an hour. It will eventually also be an interchange with the East West Rail station.

And this is what it says about the A428.

The A428 (Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet) scheme will improve journeys between Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge. The scheme will see a new 10-mile dual carriageway delivered, as well as three grade separated junctions, three tier at Black Cat roundabout (A1/A421) and two tier at Cambridge Road (B1428) and Caxton Gibbet (A428/A1198) junctions, respectively. Main construction began in December 2023 and the road is expected to open in 2027.

Reynolds claims there's 'no tension between being ambitious on climate and ambitious on growth'

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, told the Today programme that he did not agree with Dale Vince about Heathrow expansion being incompatible with climate commitments. Reynolds told the programe:

There is no tension between being ambitious on climate and being ambitious on growth.

We need to decarbonise aviation come what may. There are jobs in that. There is a whole industry in sustainable aviation fuel which we are committed to.

“ut the business case, the economic case for aviation, for a services led economy, for the fact that airports are our major ports in terms of goods entering the country, is very strong indeed.

This country has attracted more investment in renewables than other comparable European countries.

We need to be ambitious both for decarbonisation and for the economy and the two things go hand in hand.

Heathrow expansion 'wrong kind of growth', says Labour donor and energy boss Dale Vince

The Labour donor and energy boss Dale Vince ridiculed the Rachel Reeves’ expected support in her speech for a third runway at Heathrow, calling the move “an illusion of growth”.

Vince told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

I think it’s a mistake. Actually, I think it’s an illusion of growth.

It’ll take 10 years to build a runway, cost maybe £50bn. It’ll create the wrong kind of growth – we’ll be exporting tourism money abroad, creating a bigger imbalance than we already have, and it will come at the expense of our carbon-cutting effort.

Reflecting on the government’s green agenda he said:

It’s the wrong kind of growth ... we can have growth but we shouldn’t try to get it in these ways that increase our carbon emissions.

We’ve got to decarbonise energy, transport and food, and at the moment we’re on course to do energy, and we won’t do that with this Heathrow expansion, which is a big mistake.

UK ‘can’t afford’ not to build runways, says Jonathan Reynolds, ahead of Rachel Reeves’ growth speech

Good morning. Rachel Reeves is today delivering a speech on growth that has been subject to almost as much advance pitch-rolling and pre-briefing as you get for a budget. And no wonder, because she is hoping that it will do almost as much work, politically at least, as a budget. Although she has not had to unravel the mega, £25bn tax raising package she announced in October, it suppressed business confidence more than she expected and there now seems to be a Westminster consensus that she included a bit too much gloom powder in the cake mix.

Here is our preview of what Reeves will say today, by Pippa Crerar and Heather Stewart.

If you judge a speech by the advance headlines (and, yes, that is exactly how some people in government do judge these things), the pre-speech part of the exercise has gone well.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and on BBC Breakfast he defended the plan to green-light airport expansion, including a third runway at Heathrow.

I want people to know that things that have been too difficult in the past will be focused on, will be changed, will be delivered on, by this government.

It’s not just about aviation expansion, there’s a whole range of things.”

We’re not going to have endless judicial reviews effectively try to second-guess democratically-elected decisions from the elected government of the day. We will follow process, but that process has got to be one that can deliver the things.

We simply cannot afford to say we don’t build reservoirs any more, we don’t build railways, we don’t build runways. That’s not good enough, we will be left behind.

Keir Starmer has delivered a similar message in an article for the Times. This is what he says about why the government is committed to deregulation.

There is a morass of regulation that effectively bans billions of pounds more of investment from flowing into Britain. Thickets of red tape that, for all the Tories talked a good game, was allowed to spread through the British economy like Japanese knotweed. Our pledge today is that this government will do what they could not. We will kick down the barriers to building, clear out the regulatory weeds and allow a new era of British growth to bloom.

This may seem like an unusual goal for Labour politicians. But deregulation is now essential for realising Labour ambitions in this era — a crucial component of my Plan for Change. If we don’t deregulate the planning system, then we cannot spread the security of home ownership to the next generation. If we don’t simplify environmental protections, then we cannot decarbonise our electricity grid and generate cheaper, homegrown energy. And if we don’t curb regulator overreach, then we won’t unlock the investment needed for a more prosperous future.

Labour politicians also know that, whatever they say on policy, the only dead cert way of impressing a rightwing paper is by invoking Margaret Thatcher, and so in his article Starmer has a go at that too (explaining the splash headline above).

In the 1980s, the Thatcher government deregulated finance capital. In the New Labour era, globalisation increased the opportunities for trade. This is our equivalent.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Sir Peter Schofield, permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.

9.30am: Amanda Pritchard, NHS England’s chief executive, and other officials give evidence to the Commons health committee.

10am: Rachel Reeves delivers her speech on growth.

Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.

2.30pm: Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.

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