Heathrow’s £33bn proposal for a third runway has been chosen as the plan to expand the airport, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has announced. It means the competing idea for a shorter runway, as proposed by hotel tycoon Surinder Arora, has been rejected. Heathrow says the project will be 100% privately financed, through higher airline costs, and no taxpayer money will be used to build the runway or the associated infrastructure. Money blog: ‘My husband died before getting his state pension’ Heathrow plans to spend £33bn on the third runway and £15bn to upgrade the existing airport. Image: Heathrow’s proposed third runway But it will require re-routing the M25 motorway and the demolition of nearby villages, Longford and Harmondsworth. The decision means that a cheaper, alternative proposal by the billionaire hotel magnate Surinder Arora, for a shorter runway, was rejected. He told Sky News the fact that a decision had been made was good for the UK and its economy but hinted that he still hoped to influence the outcome: “The door is open for us, …