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(Bloomberg) — The UK plans to allow companies to invest pension funds surpluses in order to unlock billions of pounds to help drive economic growth, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will tell executives at some of Britain’s biggest firms on Tuesday. 

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Under the plan, employers will be able to invest a portion of the surplus of defined benefit pension funds in their core business to purchase equipment or provide additional benefits to members of the pension program, Starmer’s office said in an emailed statement. The Labour government’s two most senior ministers will host a round table meeting in the City of London to discuss their strategy for growth with the chief executive officers of Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, BAE Systems Plc and Tesco Plc, among others, it said. 

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After being criticized for their gloomy messaging about the state of the UK’s public finances during their first few months in power, Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer are now trying to talk up the economy and attract investors by de-regulating, relaxing planning regulations and unlocking long-delayed infrastructure projects. They’re trying to turn around a stagnant economy that’s smaller than when they entered office in July, in order to deliver on election promises to make Britons better off.

“To achieve the change our country needs requires nothing short of rewiring the economy,” Starmer said in the statement. “It needs creative reform, the removal of hurdles, and unrelenting focus. Whether it’s how public services are run, regulation or pension rules, my government will not accept the status quo.”

Ministers are banking on the pensions changes to free up billions of pounds in investment. Britain’s defined benefit programs, most of which are closed final salary arrangements where the employer bears the risk, have £1.1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) of assets but are largely invested in safe securities with reliable revenue streams.

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Figures from the Pension Protection Fund for this month show they had a £226 billion surplus above lifetime payment liabilities to retired staff. At least £50 billion could be released for employers to invest in their businesses, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association said.

The plan will form part of a major speech Reeves will make on economic growth on Wednesday. She’s poised to signal support for airport expansion at London’s main airports, despite cabinet concern over the environmental impact, as well as outline plans to deregulate the planning system and clamp down on the use of judicial reviews against government policy.

“This government and businesses are united on growth being the top priority for our economy, which is why I am fighting every day to tear down the biggest barriers to growth, taking on regulators, planning processes and opposition to this urgent mission,” Reeves said in the statement.

Late on Monday, the chancellor met with rank-and-file Labour Members of Parliament to outline her strategy. She told them that her six months in office have taught her that “government has become used to saying ‘no,’” and that now “we must start saying yes.”

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“If we get this right – and I know we will – the prize on offer to us is immense,” Reeves will say. “Cranes in the sky. High streets revitalized. The next generation with more opportunities than the past. The sounds and the sights of the future arriving. Wealth created, and wealth shared, in every part of Britain.”

MPs were largely supportive when Reeves urged them to support her push to unlock a series of infrastructure projects in the meeting, with just one MP, whose constituency is under the Heathrow flight path, challenging the chancellor on a her expected decision to support a third runway there, Reeves’ spokesman told reporters following the meeting.

Bloomberg reported last week that Reeves may green-light airport expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton, and the chancellor at the weekend hinted she’s preparing to signal that support. The long-planned proposal for a Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, is particularly controversial amid environmental concerns long advanced by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. 

On Monday, Miliband signaled he’s open to airport expansion, so long as it doesn’t jeopardize the UK’s greenhouse gas reduction targets, outlined in successive five-year “carbon budgets.”

“Any aviation expansion must be justified within carbon budgets, and if it can’t be justified, it won’t go ahead,” Miliband told MPs on the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee.   

With the economy flat-lining and little room for maneuver provided by the public finances, Reeves told MPs on Monday that “there are no easy routes out. There always reasons for government to say ‘no.’” 

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