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.

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.

"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.

Britain's Labour government will back the construction of a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport to boost trade and economic growth, finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday. Successive governments have dithered over whether to expand the site to the west of London,

Joanna Wattis, a resident of Datchet, Berkshire, said the community was "very much against it" and pleaded for the plans to be dropped. But another resident, Bob Beresford, said he thought Heathrow needed to expand to avoid losing traffic to other European airports.