Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Rachel Reeves has in effect banned new “bat tunnels” in big infrastructure projects, as she claimed that flights could be taking off from a new Heathrow third runway “within a decade”.
Defending plans set out on Wednesday aiming to boost growth, the chancellor claimed that costly schemes to protect wildlife were one of the reasons Britain was failing to deliver affordable new transport and housing schemes, and said that the situation had to end.
“The balance has gone too far in the direction of always protecting every bat and every newt,” she said on Thursday, arguing that Britain had higher costs for new building projects than virtually every other country.
Reeves said one of the reasons costs on the HS2 rail project ran out of control was because of “things like £100mn on a bat tunnel”.
The tunnel, which was intended to protect a rare species of bat, has become a symbol of the myriad costly regulations that hold up national infrastructure work.
Asked by the BBC whether she would block a proposed bat tunnel on a railway line for the government’s new “Oxford-Cambridge arc” project, she said: “Other ways will be found.”
The chancellor said a new “nature restoration fund” would allow developers to put money into schemes to protect wildlife diversity “but not necessarily where the project is happening”.
Reeves claimed this new approach would maintain Britain’s wildlife in a more cost-effective way. Liz Truss, former Conservative prime minister, also wanted to reduce wildlife protections to promote growth.
HS2 said last year the railway had been forced to build the structure to protect a species of bat because of legal requirements in the planning process to protect an endangered species.
Meanwhile the chancellor defended her support for a third runway at Heathrow — a project opposed by London Labour mayor Sir Sadiq Khan — saying she had to make decisions “in the national interest”.
Asked by the BBC’s Today programme when she hoped the project might get planning permission with spades in the ground, Reeves replied: “By the end of the parliament.” The next election is expected in 2029.
She claimed flights on the new runway could be leaving by 2035. “We think we can get flights off within a decade,” she said, adding that Heathrow had to compete with other hub airports in Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Heathrow chief Thomas Woldbye told the Financial Times the government’s timeline was “ambitious, but not undoable”.
Although a third runway is opposed by Khan and some Labour MPs — particularly those representing seats in the capital — it has the support of the Conservatives.
“On Heathrow we are in principle in favour of this move,” said Mel Stride, shadow chancellor, adding that he would back Labour’s efforts to get infrastructure projects built.
“Labour don’t appear to be entirely united on this,” he said. “But I think the main point is we should absolutely be talking about long-term investment in this country.”
In the same interview Stride declined to say whether the Tories would reverse last year’s £25bn increase in national insurance for business, saying he would set out the party’s fiscal plans closer to the election.
Meanwhile Daisy Cooper, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, said expanding Heathrow was “the wrong thing to do” and that “the damage to the climate will be huge”.
