Britain’s government has backed a tortured effort to build a third runway at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, throwing its weight behind a decades-old proposal that has been beset by political, legal and environmental challenges.

Heathrow's third runway can be built and operating in a decade's time, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Rachel Reeves is facing fierce opposition within Labour over her plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Chancellor’s optimistic economic growth vision hit in the short term as Tesco and Lloyds announce hundreds of job losses and she admits fixing the economy is ‘not an easy job’

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.

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

London Heathrow could finally see a third runway, but even with Government approval, the project still has to undergo several steps before construction starts

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,