A runway is a several kilometre length of reinforced pavement. Building Heathrow’s first runway took around a year. It is everything else that now takes time.

This paper tries to answer a simple question: could the government speed up the construction of Heathrow’s third runway to such an extent that flights take off before the next election?

In government, Labour has committed to reducing migration. Labour Together is supporting this agenda with a series of papers looking at how to create a migration system that puts country first. In October, we published our first proposal, for an Australian-style National Migration Plan, showing one way Labour could reduce the number of legal migrants while making sure Britain’s economy gets the contributions it needs. Now, in this paper, we turn to how a mandatory, universal, national identity credential - BritCard - can help Britain control illegal migration and secure its borders.

This report, authored by Jonathan McClory, urges the UK government to adopt a fresh soft power strategy to strengthen Britain’s global influence against the backdrop of geopolitical and economic insecurity. 

The previous government was asleep at the wheel on critical minerals. Its approach was too slow, too general and given too little support. This failure of strategy endangered the UK’s growth, green ambitions and security. The Labour government has an opportunity to fix this in the new critical minerals strategy. This should be closely informed by the upcoming industrial strategy, laser-focused on the UK’s strengths and needs, and supported by the institutions and policy tools to deliver it.

Labour has committed to reducing migration. There are various ways this can be achieved. This paper sets out one way an Australian-style National Migration Plan could work. This is the best answer we have seen to the problem of how to reduce numbers while making sure Britain’s economy gets the contributions it needs.

This report, by Sam Freedman, sets out how empowering mayors with greater oversight of the health, education, criminal justice and other public service systems, could help Labour deliver its public services mission. JP Spencer, Director of Devolution Policy at Labour Together, writes a foreword.

This report, by Christopher Thornton, argues that British foreign policy can lead the world in the pursuit of peace and the resolution of conflict. Jonathan Powell, formerly chief of staff to the Prime Minister and chief negotiator during the Northern Ireland peace process, writes a foreword.

In this report, Oli de Botton, an education policy expert and former headteacher, makes the case for curriculum reform that is “broad and bold”. Rather than simply preparing children for running the gauntlet of examinations and university applications, de Botton argues that education can, and should, prepare children to live a full life - and that we will all benefit as a result.

In this paper, Hamish Falconer - a Labour Together Policy Fellow, former diplomat and Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Lincoln - draws together industrial strategy and diplomacy, which have traditionally occupied separate domains within government. The convergence of domestic and foreign policy is perhaps the central policy trend of the past decade. Here, Falconer shows how Labour could place national security at the heart of its wider economic agenda.