Rachel Reeves has given her backing to the long-awaited expansion of Heathrow airport as she set out her “optimistic” vision for Britain’s economy with a plan for growth based around building “faster and better”.
However, the chancellor’s upbeat message was almost immediately hit by short-term economic woes, with Tesco cutting 400 jobs and Lloyds announcing the closure of 136 branches. This followed Sainsbury cutting 3,000 jobs last week.
