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

In a major growth speech in Oxfordshire, Reeves said that a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport was "badly needed," adding it would boost investment, support economic expans

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.

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.

"Three-quarters of the village would be demolished. It wouldn't be a viable community. Pubs, the shops will go because there aren't enough customers. "The bus won't come up on the main road because there's a runway in the way.

The Daily Telegraph says Heathrow's third runway will not be ready until 2050, according to Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary. The paper quotes him as saying the airport will not get a new runway "in my lifetime and certainly not in [Reeves'] political lifetime",

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,

Reeves told the BBC she wanted to see "spades in the ground" in the current Parliament and planes to start using the runway by 2035. She also said that Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London who is opposed to Heathrow's expansion,

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.