Government has ‘moved heaven and earth’ to deliver third runway

Ministers have moved “heaven and earth” to speed up the delivery of Heathrow’s third runway, the transport secretary has said, in a speech that cheered the megaproject’s potential to bring jobs and investment to Britain.

Heidi Alexander told an aviation summit that no government “has moved further and faster on airport” improvement than the current Labour administration, as she hailed its approval of Gatwick and Luton expansions as a “shot in the arm” for the South East.

She added the “same logic applies to Heathrow”, despite the Prime Minister refusing to back the £49bn scheme since entering office.

“We’ve been clear that a third runway has the potential to unlock opportunities, jobs, investment and growth across the country,” Alexander said. “That’s why we’ve moved heaven and earth to deliver a draft Heathrow [planning blueprint] faster than anyone expected.”

The remarks are some of the transport secretary’s most supportive since Andy Burnham threw the future of expansion into doubt when he branded the decision “a matter for London and Londoners”.

The Prime Minister’s comments, made in the days leading up to September’s Labour party conference, represented striking departure from the tack of the Starmer government, which had made the mega-project a key pillar in its growth agenda.

Heathrow expansion in limbo ahead of key vote

Earlier this year, the government concluded a public consultation into the planning framework against which ministers would judge the applications of Heathrow airport and rival bidder Heathrow West. It is now expected to publish the final draft – known as the National Policy Statement – early next year ahead of a crucial MP vote.

Alexander also launched a fresh broadside on the organisation responsible for Britain’s struggling air traffic control system, which has been struck by two major outages this year.

The transport secretary said she was “angry” at the breakdown, which left thousands of passengers stranded and triggered a wave of cancellations and delays.

“The impact on passengers was simply unacceptable, and it would have been even worse had the airlines and airports not pulled out all the stops to clear the disruption in just a few days,” she told the Airlines 2026 conference, adding that the results of a watchdog inquiry would be published soon.

“I can assure you that I will do whatever it takes to ensure that lessons are learned,” said.