Heathrow’s investors will reassess plans to build a third runway if Andy Burnham does not give explicit backing to the ambitious £33bn project by the end of this year, the airport’s boss has warned.
Thomas Woldbye told the FT that the backers of Britain’s only hub airport “cannot wait forever” for commitment from the prime minister, who has so far declined to support the new runway, in contrast with Sir Keir Starmer’s administration.
Heathrow’s owners — which include Ardian, Qatar’s investment authority, Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Singapore’s GIC — must decide in the new year whether to submit a formal planning application for a third runway.
“Our shareholders would like to do this,” Woldbye said in an interview. “They do think that things are taking a long time, and so far they have decided to be OK with that . . . But of course we cannot wait forever.”
He added: “At some point in time we need a level of certainty. I think by the end of the year we’ll be looking and saying, ‘Let’s assess this, let’s take stock and see where we are’.”
New chancellor John Healey has said an expanded airport would boost growth, but Burnham has avoided questions so far on whether he supports the plan, which is opposed by environmental campaigners and Labour Mayor of London Lord Sadiq Khan.
The FT previously reported that Burnham told several Labour MPs that he had always opposed the idea.
Speaking before the Holborn and St Pancras by-election in which Labour defeated the Green Party, Burnham said the runway was a “matter for London” despite Starmer being a firm supporter of the scheme.
Without the premier’s explicit backing, it will be very hard to push the project through the planning and legal processes required to get approval to start construction work.
Heathrow has stressed the economic benefits to ministers, including 100,000 new jobs and a fillip to GDP, while it forecasts that 60 per cent of the economic benefit will be felt outside of London.
Woldbye said supportive figures within the government were “clear” about the benefits of the scheme, for which political support has ebbed and flowed over the past two decades.
He added: “I’m not a politician; there may be other reasons why [Burnham] is not committed to that right now. But of course there is a point where we would probably look and say, ‘We need to commit’. It may not be the highest on his agenda, but I think we can get it up there because that is where it belongs.”
Several key processes need to be completed before Heathrow and its investors push the button on a planning application.
MPs on the House of Commons transport committee are scrutinising a new policy framework that would allow the airport to build a new runway, while the Civil Aviation Authority, the sector regulator, is exploring changes to Heathrow’s model for clawing back investment costs.
Heathrow is also holding its own consultation on the project, which closes in December.
Former chancellor Rachel Reeves, who resurrected the idea of a third runway in 2025 to help boost the economy, set out a timeline for building work to start by 2029, with a new runway partly operational by 2035.
Delays to the process mean Heathrow has already pushed the earliest opening date for the runway to 2039.
Woldbye said hitting the 2029 deadline for planning permission would be “challenging” but “we are working to 2029 and can see a path to 2029 now”. Meeting the deadline would “require the government to be clear,” he stressed.
The independent Climate Change Committee warned last month that Heathrow expansion was incompatible with the government’s climate targets, and that it would produce as much CO₂ as Birmingham, the UK’s second city.
The Department for Transport said it supported “airport expansion across the country where this can contribute to growth and opportunity, while meeting tests on the environment”.
“We are moving swiftly to review the responses received to the recent consultation on the policy framework underpinning expansion, and considering the appropriate next steps,” it added.