Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has promised "a swift and robust" review of the rules governing airport expansion to ensure a final decision on Heathrow's third runway can be made within this parliament, which runs until summer 2029.
Ministers want the review of the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), the framework within which any expansion is considered, to be put out to consultation next year.
Previous work to launch the ANPS in 2018 took five years, but the government has said it is committed "to going further and faster" to deliver a reviewed draft ANPS by summer 2026.
Alexander this week told parliament the ANPS needed updating owing to new environmental and climate obligations agreed since 2018 which cover climate change, noise, air quality and a scheme's contribution to economic growth.
The government said it would seek advice from the Climate Change Committee on any relevant proposed amendments to the ANPS to ensure consistency with the country's net zero commitments.
"This will ensure planning applications to build a third runway progress fast enough for a final planning decision to be made within this parliament," said the government, adding it remained hopeful "of seeing flights take off from a new runway by 2035".
Efforts to accelerate the process will require Heathrow airport and Arora Group, the bodies behind the two expansion plans under active consideration, to provide additional details of their plans, clarifying any associated impacts for affected communities, businesses and investors.
The government will then announce by the end of November which of the two schemes will be taken forward to inform the rest of the ANPS review.
Alexander described the decision to speed up the process as "a critical building block which will advance plans for the delivery of a third runway at Heathrow".
"As our only hub airport, Heathrow is critical to the UK’s economy, connecting millions of people every year and exporting British businesses across the globe," she said. "Enabling Heathrow expansion will drive economic growth and create jobs across the country."
The government has reiterated efforts to expand Heathrow must be entirely privately financed with no cost to taxpayers. This includes covering an related costs, such as improvements to transport to and from the airport.
Other considerations for government to drive Heathrow expansion include:
- assessing whether expanding Heathrow should be designated critical national priority infrastructure , meaning it must meet enhanced security and resilience requirements;
- setting up a new UK Airspace Design Service to modernise the UK's airspace and progressing reform of how airport slots are allocated in future; and
- pursuing wider reform of the UK's planning rules to "streamline" delivery of major infrastructure projects while also cutting the time taken for reviews to move through the court system "to ensure projects can be realised more swiftly"
