Chancellor George Osborne claimed Britain was “on the path to prosperity” as official figures showed the economy grew at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter.
The 0.8% upturn in gross domestic product (GDP) was the best performance since the second quarter of 2010, including a 2.5% surge in the construction sector, which has been bolstered by Government initiatives such as Help to Buy.
It is also the first time in three years that growth has improved for three quarters in succession, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.
However, the size of the economy remains 2.5% off the pre-recession peak of early 2008 and there were warnings that the pace of growth could start to tail off.
Economists fear a continued squeeze on wages and rising household energy bills threaten consumer purchasing power.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned on Thursday that growth was weighted heavily towards the household sector, while investment and exports were lagging behind.
But he acknowledged that the rate of growth was “towards the top end of the advanced economies”.
For Mr Osborne, it was another boost at the end of a week when figures showed that stamp duty revenues helped public borrowing come in £1 billion lower in September.
The Chancellor tweeted after the growth figures were announced: “This shows that Britain’s hard work is paying off & the country is on the path to prosperity.”
However, Business Secretary Vince Cable insisted more still needed to be done to address a lack of bank lending.
Choosing a more cautious metaphor, he said: “We’ve always said the road to recovery would be a marathon, not a sprint.”