Chancellor John Healey said building a third runway at Heathrow Airport represents "a case for growth" after Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to back the expansion. Healey made the comments while speaking at the International Monetary Fund in Bangkok, stating airport expansion had been "a big part of jobs and growth" in recent decades.
Burnham has been more cautious. Last month he told the BBC the third runway was "a matter for London and Londoners" and suggested the government should hear from residents first before deciding. The Department for Transport is currently reviewing responses to a public consultation on the National Policy Statement that will form the basis for a final decision on whether to grant permission for the new runway.
Heathrow's chief executive Thomas Woldbye said in recent days that not building the third runway would be a "huge missed opportunity". He told the BBC the benefits would extend beyond London, arguing "our supply chain reaches all the way from the north all the way to the south of the UK". Woldbye indicated the airport's owners need explicit backing from Burnham before the end of the year to proceed.
The project, estimated at £33bn, would demolish hundreds of homes, divert rivers and tunnel the M25 motorway between junctions 14 and 15. It would raise annual flights at Heathrow from a current cap of 480,000 to 720,000. The airport currently serves more than 80 million travellers a year across two runways. Heathrow originally scheduled the new runway to open by 2035 but has suggested a delay to 2039 due to planning and regulatory issues.
The third runway has faced decades of opposition from residents, politicians and climate campaigners. Healey's predecessor Rachel Reeves made the expansion a centrepiece of arguments that Britain was open for business, announcing government backing last year and saying "a third runway is badly needed".