Rachel Reeves expected to welcome Heathrow expansion plans

The government wants thousands of homes and a new rail link to be developed in the area between Oxford and Cambridge.

Restrictive planning has long stunted the growth of the economy in the area, especially among companies linked to world leading scientific discoveries. There will also be new reservoirs and funding for specialist hospitals.

The biggest of initiatives to be confirmed are centred in the south east of England, raising some questions about the government’s commitment to the “levelling up” agenda.

But the government will also review the so-called Green Book rules – guidance issued by the Treasury on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects – which it said have in the past biased infrastructure spending to already fast growing areas, mainly in the south.

New powers in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill aim to cut years off the length periods it has taken to improve major infrastructure.

A senior minister said they were taking big long term decisions ignored by previous governments in the knowledge that “the benefit won’t be achieved until after this parliament, but they are the right long term decisions”.

The Treasury is confident that there will be “spades in the ground well before that”.

The key difference, a senior minister said, was that the government will demonstrate that when the growth agenda comes into conflict with something else they “will make the difficult decisions”.

Labour has been talking about the importance of economic growth in the months before the general election and in the months after.

Reeves has previously suggested big projects like Heathrow need to go ahead to help the UK economy grow.

However, despite the government’s words on growth, the economy remains sluggish.

Figures from January revealed growth in November, but the 0.1% expansion was less than expected.

The economy has stuttered and stumbled and critics have argued a sense of gloom and pessimism from ministers over the summer and into the autumn made matters worse.

Some ministers acknowledge privately that with hindsight they got that wrong.

Now they appear to be making up for lost time by mentioning growth all the time.

The Conservatives have hit back at Labour’s growth plans.

“The biggest barriers to growth in this country are Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer, and their job destroying Budget,” said shadow chancellor Mel Stride.

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

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “Trying to boost growth without fixing our trading relationship with Europe is like driving with the handbrake on.”

The Lib Dems are calling for “a new UK-EU customs union that would put rocket boosters under the economy”.