The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that Growth is our national mission in a speech this morning where she announced the go ahead for a third runway at Heathrow Airport
Growth is our national mission she said “to get more money in people’s pockets. We’re going further and faster to get Britain building, unlocking critical national infrastructure projects and stopping the blockers who have stifled growth for too long.”
A third runway is badly needed,” Rachel Reeves says, as she backs expansion at Heathrow
“As our only hub airport, Heathrow is in a unique position and we cannot duck the decision any longer,”
“Acting in our national interest also means resetting our relationship with the EU, our nearest and our largest trading partner, to drive growth and to support business.” she added and continued
“We are reducing the environmental requirements placed on developers when they pay into a nature restoration fund… they can focus on getting things built and stop worrying about the bats and the newts
Reeves also pledged to create the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, hailed as ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’, with the potential to boost the UK economy by up to £78 billion by 2035
The North of England was given a nod with Reeves promising to create a thriving South Yorkshire Airport
“The last government stood by as Doncaster Sheffield airport was closed by its owner despite the overwhelming support for it to stay open. It now sits idle, despite the potential to drive jobs and growth across the North.
“So, I can announce today that we will work with Doncaster Council and the Mayor of South Yorkshire Oliver Coppard to support their efforts to recreate South Yorkshire airport city as a thriving regional airport.”
While Greater Manchester’s Mayor also got a nod as Reeves said Andy Burnham was a “brilliant” metro mayor working hard to realise Manchester’s “potential and promise”, which was billed by Reeves as home to “the UK’s fastest growing tech sector”,
Chris Fletcher, Policy Director at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: “There are many things to welcome in the Chancellor’s speech today with a clear ambition to kickstart growth by tackling the barriers that have played a part in holding back critical parts of the economy.
“Confirmation of the recently announced plans for Old Trafford, reference to the great work being done in Stockport and outlining a pilot programme with the Office of Investment and the National Wealth Fund in GM are to be welcomed. There were other announcements around changes to planning procedures and other areas where the pace of infrastructure development will be speeded up and restrictions removed.
“However for many business owners listening to this they will not be comforted at all by the Chancellor’s confirmation of the NIC rise announced in the Budget and set to hit them from April onwards. We are hearing from businesses stating this will cost tens of thousands of pounds and for them the promise of faster developments will seem pretty meaningless.
“The announcement of a review of the Treasury’s ‘Green Book’ – the mechanism they use to assess the ‘value’ of infrastructure schemes and which naturally favours development in high value areas such as the South East, and therefore a major blocker of growth in the North, is long overdue and should help rebalance critical developments across the country.
“The ambitious plans for Oxford and Cambridge and expansion of Heathrow were other critical parts of the speech and we will be looking closely at how these will help local economies here in the north. In fact a lot of the final elements of the speech bore a passing resemblance to what the idea and concept behind the Northern Powerhouse when it was launched in 2014. That never materialised on the ground and hopefully the plans announced today and going forward will make up that wasted decade at pace and at speed.”
On the issue of the airport, David Walsh, head of public affairs at WWF, said:
“There is no trade-off between economic growth and net zero. As the Chancellor rightly recognises, building a clean economy is the industrial opportunity of the 21st century. Now is the time to put pounds back in people’s pockets by insulating homes, decarbonising power, and investing in public transport.
But the Chancellor is making a serious mistake by prioritising costly projects like airport expansions that take decades to build, send carbon emissions skywards, and leave real growth stuck on the runway.”
