More now from Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who says there's "no tension between being ambitious on climate and being ambitious on the economy", ahead of the government's expected backing to a third runway at Heathrow.

Earlier today, Labour donor and green energy entrepreneur Dale Vince called the decision "a mistake".

But, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Reynolds says people flying via different aviation hub would still lead to "the same emissions".

Pressed on this, the business secretary says "people will fly regardless whether they use a different country as their hub or not".

When presented with figures that show Heathrow could drastically increase the number of flights from the airport if a third runway were to be built, Reynolds says "even if there is no expansion in aviation it would still need to decarbonise, the challenge is still the same one".

• Earlier he told BBC Breakfast that that chancellor will give substance to the government's plans for change during a speech later this morning

Heathrow has long argued that an expansion is needed to help it keep up with rival airports in Europe, which handle fewer passengers with more runways.

But even if Chancellor Rachel Reeves provides backing in her major speech today, the government cannot prejudge the results of a formal planning application for a specific runway scheme.

The formal planning process could take up to two years, and any planning decision could then be subject to a judicial review, as well as needing to answer questions from opponents over environmental concerns.

Local authorities and nearby residents will also have questions. After all that, construction could take another six or seven years.

The BBC also understands the plans will be privately-funded, meaning there will be no public money for the expansion scheme.

Questions remain around who will fully fund works on the M25 motorway around London, and other transport links.

• Read more: What's the plan for a third runway at Heathrow Airport?

Matt Spivey
Live page editor

In an hour's time, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will make a major speech unveiling the government's plans to "fight" for economic growth.

The chancellor is expected to lay out plans for development in the corridor between Oxford and Cambridge to create a "Silicon Valley of Europe", as well as to reiterate support for the redevelopment of Manchester United's Old Trafford football ground.

She is also expected to back an expansion of Heathrow Airport, which has been met with some criticism. The formal planning process could take up to two years, and any planning decision could then be subject to a judicial review. We've got more on that here.

This morning, we've heard from Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who says the UK "can't afford" to be a country that "doesn't build runways", while Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride has criticised Labour's growth plans as being "hastily cobbled together".

Our team of writers and correspondents in London will be covering Reeves' speech here as it happens, as well as analysis and reaction. The BBC's political editor Chris Mason will be in attendance at the speech in Oxfordshire.

You can follow along with the chancellor's speech by pressing Watch live at the top of this page. Stay with us.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

According to Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK growth “has been feeble for nearly 20 years now”.

To get it on “a new trajectory” will need “a concerted effort across a whole range of policies”.

These include “planning, aviation, investment, education, tax reform, regulation, competition and much more besides”.

This is possible, but all the talk of “kickstarting” could “come back to haunt them”, he says.

“Good growth policies need time, often many years, to take effect. The government is right to focus on this and to start now. It may be their successors who reap the rewards,” he says.

Theo Leggett
International business correspondent

Image source, Reuters

This is a key week for the government and its pledge to grow the UK economy.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport as part of measures to propel investment and kick some life into Britain's lacklustre performance.

However opponents claim that expanding the airport would lead to higher emissions and blight local communities with extra noise and pollution. Last week, Friends of the Earth said it would be "hugely irresponsible in the midst of a climate emergency".

A third runway has been on the cards for many years. It has also been kicked into the long grass on several occasions.

The argument in favour has always been an economic one. Large airports create jobs, promote trade and bring in both business travellers and tourists.

Expansion of Heathrow is highly controversial - opponents include environmental groups, local authorities as well as nearby residents.

• Read more about the arguments for and against the Heathrow runway expansion

UK government borrowing costs on one type of bond - 10-year gilts - are the highest they've been since 2008. While costs go up and down, they have been steadily rising since September.

Higher borrowing costs tend to discourage growth.

This is not just in the UK - borrowing costs have also been going up in other major economies as investors fret over possible taxes on trade that could be brought in by US President Donald Trump.

But in the UK there are also concerns about a sluggish economy.

Due to a UK government pledge, more tax money could be spent on borrowing costs.

This could leave less money to spend on public services, or higher taxes, or both.

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

The British public will "feel a difference this year" because of the government's growth plans, the business secretary has said.

But Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged that it would "take a little bit of time" for the full benefits of Rachel Reeves's policies to be tangible for many people.

Reynolds told BBC Breakfast: "What we want is people to feel [growth] in their pockets, that will take a little bit of time to come through. But the signs are positive. We need to build on that. But there's no complacency, we want to go faster, further, push for this."

Pressed on when the public would feel the proceeds of growth, Reynolds replied: "I think they will feel a difference this year because of the revisions to growth that we have seen. But what the decisions you will see today will mean is that we will generate that sense of excitement, momentum, dynamism. People will be clear that if you aren't investing in the UK you stand to miss out.

"Big infrastructure projects do take time to deliver but the sense of things happening in the UK... that can be generated by what you hear today."

The Conservative Party has criticised Labour's plans for boosting economic growth as "hastily cobbled together".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to deliver a major speech later this morning, where she is expected to focus on plans for development between Oxford and Cambridge to create a "Silicon Valley of Europe", and outline government backing for the expansion of Heathrow Airport.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride says: "The biggest barriers to growth in this country are Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer, and their job destroying Budget.

"Hastily cobbled together announcements of growth in the 2030s will do nothing to help the businesses cutting jobs right now."

Green energy entrepreneur and Labour Party donor Dale Vince says the prospect of a third runway at Heathrow "is a mistake".

It's "an illusion of growth", he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He adds that "it will take 10 years to build a runway and cost maybe £50bn. It will create the wrong kind of growth - we'll be exporting tourism money abroad - creating a bigger imbalance than we already have and it will come at the expense of our carbon-cutting effort.... that can't make sense".

Looking at the rest of the government's plans for growth, Vince says he thinks "the Silicon Valley plan is a good one. I think a lot of what Rachel Reeves has done is good. I liked the last budget... [but] expanding Heathrow is a mistake and we shouldn't be doing it."

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

In the UK, growth picked up in the first half of 2024 after a brief recession at the end of 2023. But, it has slowed down since then and had zero growth between July and September last year.

If you strip out inflation and population growth, economic output actually went down in that period. There was a slight uptick in November.

If growth is going up, people pay more in tax, and that can be spent on public services.

If growth is in reverse, that means governments may decide to freeze or cut public spending. If it borrows more, it may set aside more for debt repayments and spend less on public services.

In October's Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves changed the definition of debt that the government would use in the target to enable her to raise more money for investment.

Image source, PA Media

Ahead of the chancellor's speech later this morning, we've been hearing from Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who says Rachel Reeves will be giving "substance" on how the government's plan for change will make a difference across the UK.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he says that for "too long" governments have not been able to build basic infrastructure, and "this is not good enough".

Asked when people will be able to feel a difference, he says "clearly" it has been a difficult time for many, but adds that "wages are rising... inflation is down", and growth forecasts have improved.

However it will "take some time" for that to be felt in people's pockets, he says. When pressed on when that will be, Reynolds says: "They will feel a difference this year."

On the specifics of today's announcements, the business secretary says he won't "pre-empt" the chancellor's speech, but says the government is not willing to say "oh it's just too difficult, oh it's just too long".

Ben Chu, Mark Poynting & Gerry Georgieva
BBC Verify

Image source, Getty Images

The construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport - which the government is expected to give its backing to in a speech from the chancellor later today - has long been opposed by environmental groups, but Rachel Reeves says "a lot has changed in aviation" since the plans were first discussed decades ago.

BBC Verify has assessed the government's claims.

The chancellor said over the weekend that "sustainable aviation fuel" would help cut emissions, but there are a number of issues with using the rollout of sustainable fuels as a justification for airport expansion.

Sustainable fuels are currently used in a tiny fraction of jet fuel, and scaling this up will be a major challenge. They are not completely carbon-neutral either, because of the energy used in producing, refining and transporting them.

She also said there was huge investment going into electric planes. But currently most analysts believe widespread electric air travel is not seen as a realistic prospect in the near future, with the weight of the batteries required considered a major obstacle.

• Will electric planes and sustainable fuel make Heathrow's third runway green?

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

The chancellor is also expected to make other infrastructure announcements, including boosting the area between Oxford and Cambridge, and London.

The government wants to make this area England’s answer to Silicon Valley, the part of California that is home to tech giants including Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook.

The chancellor will announce more funding for transport links, including funding for East-West Rail, a project slated to run between Cambridge and Oxford.

The Environment Agency has also dropped objections to building 4,500 homes around Cambridge.

Image source, Reuters

Ahead of the chancellor's speech later this morning, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed that the government's wider plans to encourage growth would "kick down the barriers to building" and "clear out the regulatory weeds".

Writing in the Times, , externalStarmer says that for "too long regulation has stopped Britain building its future".

He criticises the "morass of regulation that effectively bans billions of pounds" of investment, describing "thickets of red tape" that have "spread through the British economy like Japanese knotweed".

Ministers will "kick down the barriers to building, clear out the regulatory weeds and allow a new era of British growth to bloom", he says.

"A change in the economic weather can only ever come from a supply-side expansion of the nation's productive power.

"In the 1980s, the Thatcher government deregulated finance capital. In the New Labour era, globalisation increased the opportunities for trade. This is our equivalent," Starmer adds.

As we're set to hear from Rachel Reeves later this morning, many of the UK's Wednesday papers are leading on the major forthcoming speech.

The Daily Telegraph says the announcement will attempt to focus on new projects, external, and new policies developed during what it calls Labour's "economically bumpy" first six months in power.

The speech is also expected to include a £55m investment to provide 30,000 electric vehicle kerbside charging points, external outside homes, according to the i newspaper.

The Guardian adds the chancellor is staking the government's success on kickstarting economic growth, external, and says it is being considered inside government as a chance to pivot towards focusing on delivering real change.

While the Daily Mail reports that the barriers to growth that the government needs to tear down are the ones it created, external.

Faisal Islam, Mitchell Labiak and Chris Mason
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to welcome Heathrow's expansion on Wednesday, the BBC understands, as she reveals Labour's plans aimed at boosting economic growth.

A move to encourage in principle a planning application for a third runway at the airport will mark the first stage of the process and come as part of a major speech setting out several other projects aimed at boosting the economy.

The announcement in a major speech later will likely anger campaigners - including within Reeves' Labour Party - who have opposed a third runway for decades because of environmental concerns.

The Conservatives have criticised Labour's plans as "hastily cobbled together".

The Heathrow announcement comes after weeks of hints Labour would back the controversial airport expansion.

On Sunday, Reeves told the BBC she would not comment on "speculation" when asked if the government would support a third runway, but added that "sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand".

• For more on the potential Heathrow expansion plans, head to our news piece

Image source, EPA

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage ahead of a major speech from Chancellor Rachel Reeves that will outline more government plans to boost the UK economy.

The chancellor will declare that the UK's economy has "huge potential" and is at the "forefront of some of the most exciting developments in the world like artificial intelligence and life sciences".

Reeves is expected to focus on development between Oxford and Cambridge to create a "Silicon Valley of Europe", where restricted planning has long stunted the growth of the economy in the area.

In an article in The Times, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says "growth is the defining mission of this government", adding that "we will kick down the barriers to building, clear out the regulatory weeds and allow a new era of British growth to bloom".

Our team of reporters and correspondents will bring you everything you need to know ahead of the chancellor's speech at 10:00 GMT, and we'll be covering the latest updates from the speech as it happens, so stay with us.