by Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party
Bats or great crested newts? “Neither”, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told The Times, “because I want growth”. It’s a bizarre answer, referring to her announcement that Labour will start ripping up red tape and planning law protections and endorse a third runway at Heathrow airport.
There is plenty of long-standing opposition. There are those concerned about the threat to local wildlife, residents angry at being thrown out or facing more noise and traffic, and wider anger at how the runway will contribute to the climate crisis. All have been cast aside in the name of ‘growth’.
While government departments and local councils are told to make more cuts, Labour is preparing to throw billions of pounds at projects they assure us will bring ‘growth’. The runway plans were due to cost £14 billion, but this figure will be updated and can only go up. And how much of the bill is the Labour government prepared to foot, after which the airport owners will reap the rewards?
The Labour government ditched its £28 billion climate fund pledge, and now faces pressure from big business to subsidise infrastructure directly contributing to climate change.
Tech corridor
The third runway announcement was one of several infrastructure projects announced, alongside linking Oxford and Cambridge to create ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’.
Reeves made wild promises of 100,000 jobs and a £17 billion boost to the economy from the third runway, plus £78 billion from the ‘Oxbridge Corridor’. Let’s be clear, there is no guarantee of economic growth. And no guarantee that workers will feel the benefits of it.
The sluggish economy we have now has come after £895 billion of quantitative easing, corporation tax being cut from 28% to 19% for 13 years, and plenty more pro-business measures.
The relative weakness of British capitalism is plain to see – the economy has barely grown, and most of that wealth has been hoovered up by the super-rich. ‘Trickle-down economics’ has never worked, but Labour is pretending it will work this time. They’re taking billions more pounds of money that could be used to restore public services and pay, to throw at a pipe dream.
Trade unions in the sectors being promised this ‘growth’ should not accept Reeves’s promise of jam tomorrow – or rather jam at some point between 2035 and 2050, according to reports on when we may see benefits of the projects. Workers are struggling now. Services are overstretched now.
It should be the working class that democratically decides what infrastructure and investment we actually need. Using the wealth and resources of society we could democratically plan to create socially useful jobs like those cut from councils over the last decade and a half, and transition away from being reliant on polluting fossil fuels. That way we could ‘grow’ our living standards, not the bursting bank accounts of the bosses.