Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces backing for third Heathrow runway
The government supports a third runway at Heathrow, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced.
Ms Reeves said the expansion of Europe’s busiest airport was “badly needed” to connect the UK to the world and open up new opportunities for growth.
A third runway will “unlock further growth, boost investment increase exports and make the UK more open and more connected”, she said.
Politics latest: Reaction to third runway decision
It could increase potential GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 0.43% by 2050, a Frontier Economics study found, she said.
Ms Reeves said an expansion could create more than 100,000 jobs.
The announcement has been welcomed by some business groups but anger by London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan, the Lib Dems, the Green Party and environmental groups.
Heathrow is right next to large residential areas. Pic: PA
As part of a speech on funding infrastructure across the UK to promote growth, Ms Reeves said: “Persistent delays have caused doubts about our seriousness towards improving our economic prospects.”
She added that business groups like the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the Chambers of Commerce (BCC), as well as trade unions “are clear – a third runway is badly needed”.
Ms Reeves said the UK is “already making great strides in transitioning to cleaner and greener aviation” and announced the government is investing £63m over the next year into the Advanced Fuel Fund grant programme to support the development of sustainable aviation fuel production plants.
The government will be accepting proposals until the summer and will then carry out a “full assessment” through the Airport National Policy Statement to “ensure a third runway is delivered in line with our legal, environmental and climate objectives”.
Ms Reeves said the government expects any associated surface transport costs to the third runway’s construction will be financed through private funding.
Read more:
A long history of Heathrow’s third runway plans
The debate around whether Europe’s busiest airport should expand has been circling over British politics for decades.
Ms Reeves‘s decision will likely put her at odds with Climate Secretary Ed Miliband, who has said airport expansions will not go ahead if they cannot meet climate targets.
However, he said last week he would not resign if the government approved a third runway despite threatening to resign from Gordon Brown’s cabinet as climate change secretary in 2009 over the plans and in 2018 he said an expansion was “very likely” to make air pollution worse.
He has now said the government can meet both its growth and net zero missions together.
Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he remains opposed to a third runway “because of the severe impact it will have on noise, air pollution and meeting our climate change targets”.
He said he will carefully scrutinise any new proposals, “including the impact it will have on people living in the area and the huge knock-on effects for our transport infrastructure”.
“Despite the progress that’s been made in the aviation sector to make it more sustainable, I’m simply not convinced that you can have hundreds of thousands of additional flights at Heathrow every year without a hugely damaging impact on our environment,” he added.
Green Party MP Sian Berry said expanding airports “in the face of a climate emergency is the most irresponsible announcement from any government I have seen since the Liz Truss budget”.
Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride accused Ms Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer, and “their job destroying budget” of being “the biggest barriers to growth”.
“What’s worse, the anti-growth chancellor could not rule out coming back with yet more tax rises in March,” he added.
“This is a Labour government run by politicians who do not understand business, or where wealth comes from. Under new leadership, the Conservatives will continue to back businesses and hold this government to account.”
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Australia’s financial intelligence agency has told inactive registered crypto exchanges to withdraw their registrations or risk having them canceled over fears that the dormant firms could be used for scams.
There are currently 427 crypto exchanges registered with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), but the agency said on April 29 that it suspects a significant number are inactive and possibly vulnerable to being bought and co-opted by criminals.
The agency is contacting any so-called digital currency exchanges (DCEs) that appear to no longer be trading, and AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said they’ll be told to “use it or lose it.”
“Businesses registered with AUSTRAC are required to keep their details up to date; this includes details about services that are no longer provided,” he added.
Businesses wanting to offer Australians conversions between cash and crypto, including crypto ATM providers, must first register with AUSTRAC, which monitors for crimes including money laundering, terror financing and tax evasion.
The agency can cancel a registration if it has reasonable grounds to believe the business is no longer active or offering crypto-related services.
Ten firms have had their AUSTRAC registration canceled since 2019, with the most recent being FTX Express in June 2024, the local subsidiary of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX.
AUSTRAC to launch public list of registered exchanges
Following its blitz on inactive crypto exchanges, AUSTRAC said it will publish a list of registered exchanges to help Australians verify legitimate providers.
Thomas said the goal is to make it harder for criminals to scam people and improve the integrity and accuracy of AUSTRAC’s register.
“If a DCE does intend to offer a service, they need to contact us otherwise we will cancel the registration and this information will be added to the register,” he said.
“Members of the public should feel confident that they can identify legitimate cryptocurrency providers that are registered and subject to regulatory oversight and that we are driving criminals out of this industry,” Thomas added.
Related: Australia’s top court sides with Block Earner, dismisses ASIC appeal
In February, the Anti-Money Laundering regulator took action against 13 remittance service providers and crypto exchanges, with over 50 others still being investigated regarding possible compliance issues.
Six providers were refused registration renewal on the grounds that key personnel were either convicted, prosecuted, or charged with a serious offense.
Australia has yet to pass crypto regulations. In August 2022, the ruling center-left Labor Party initiated a series of industry consultations to draft a crypto regulatory framework.
In March, the government proposed a new crypto framework regulating exchanges under existing financial services laws ahead of a federal election slated for May 3.
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The government wants councils to crush more vans used to fly-tip rubbish, as it announces a crackdown on the illegal dumping of waste.
No new funding is being given to local authorities for the initiatives, with ministers saying the seven percent raise announced in the budget can be used.
As part of the announcement, the government has also proposed that fly-tippers could face up to five years in prison, although this would require a change in the law.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed attacked the Conservatives’ record. Pic: PA
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Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “Councils will get much more aggressive against fly-tippers and that includes using the latest technology, things like the new mobile CCTV cameras and drones to identify, track and then seize the vehicles that are being used for fly-tipping to a yard like this and crush them.
“That’s both as a punishment for those people who are dumping the rubbish but also as a deterrent for those who are thinking about doing it.”
He added: “We’re also looking to change the law so that those rogue operators who take rubbish from someone’s home and then dump it on a nearby road – they were getting away almost scot-free under the previous government – they will now be looking at potentially five-year prison sentences.”
The minister claimed the fly-tipping was “out of control” under the last government.
Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) shows local authorities in England dealt with a record 1.15 million incidents last year – a 20% increase from 2018/19.
Environment Agency chief executive Philip Duffy said: “We’re determined to bring these criminals to justice through tough enforcement action and prosecutions.
“That’s why we support the government’s crackdown on waste criminals, which will ensure we have the right powers to shut rogue operators out of the waste industry.”
However, the Conservatives claimed that rubbish is “piling high” in areas like Birmingham as refuse workers strike against a pay and jobs offer from the Labour-run council.
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Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said: “Wherever Labour is in charge, waste is piling high – like in Birmingham, where Labour’s inability to stand up to their union paymasters has left rat-infested rubbish littered across the street.
“And with statistics showing that of the 50 worst local areas for fly-tipping, 72% are Labour controlled, it is clear that voting Labour gets you rubbish and rats.
“So the British public deserve real action, not this series of reheated announcements and policies already introduced by previous governments that Labour is peddling.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Under the Conservatives’ watch, local communities have been plagued by a fly-tipping epidemic.
“From overflowing bins to piles of hazardous waste, fly-tipping is blighting our landscapes, poisoning livestock on farming land and causing misery for residents.
“Enough is enough.
“The Liberal Democrats are calling for a fly-tipping fighting fund, to push for stronger local enforcement and tougher penalties for offenders.”
US Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly told Republican lawmakers that the chamber would address a bill on stablecoin regulation before the May 26 Memorial Day holiday.
According to an April 29 Politico report, Thune made the comments in a closed-door meeting with Republican senators, who hold a slim majority in the chamber. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty in February and passed the Senate Banking Committee in March.
Thune did not mention any crypto or blockchain-related bills in his public comments on US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has signed several executive orders with the potential to affect US crypto policy, including one affecting stablecoins. Still, many of the actions do not carry the force of law without an act of Congress.
Related: $649B stablecoin transfers linked to illicit activity in 2024: Report
The proposed GENIUS bill could essentially restrict any entity other than a “permitted payment stablecoin issuer” from issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States. The House of Representatives, also controlled by Republicans, has proposed a companion bill to the legislation: the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act.
Trump accused of conflicts of interest over stablecoins, crypto ventures
The president’s executive order, signed on Jan. 23, established a working group to study the potential creation and maintenance of a national crypto stockpile and a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Republican lawmakers followed by introducing the STABLE and GENIUS acts.
Trump also introduced the order before World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm backed by the president’s family, launched its US-dollar pegged USD1 stablecoin. Many Democratic lawmakers said that Trump’s ties to the firm, coupled with his political influence and position, could present an “extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system” as Congress considers the two stablecoin bills.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
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