Plans to expand London's other airports are already further along than Heathrow's and have in the past been viewed as an alternative to a third Heathrow runway. Work is set to start this year to expand capacity at Stansted's terminal. The government is due to make a decision on Gatwick airport by 27 February.

It is the rich and the corporations who will take the lion’s share of the benefits from Labour’s and all airport expansions, while the poorest around the world pay the costs.

In a major speech, the country’s top finance official pushed for faster economic growth, and supported a long-debated expansion at the London airport.

British finance minister Rachel Reeves is expected to back the expansion of Heathrow Airport on Wednesday, turning to the country's most controversial infrastructure project in her hunt for economic growth.

Airport bosses have been pushing for the expansion for years, arguing that Heathrow’s capacity is full. They said the £14 billion expansion is needed to add 260,000 flights. Many residents are against the expansion as homes and businesses near the airport’s safety perimeter face demolition,

U.K. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves says that the new Labour government is backing the construction of third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Declaring that “growth will not come without a fight”, she said that the government would back airport expansion and offered more clues about plans to unshackle housebuilding. The Heathrow decision is the surest sign yet of the government prioritising growth,

The third runway is part of its drive to lift the U.K. economy out of a long period of stagnation, Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said in a speech on Wednesday.

Heathrow's third runway could be built and operating in a decade's time, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said. The extra runway at Heathrow was one of a number of infrastructure projects announced by the chancellor on Wednesday as part of the government's plans to boost economic growth.