Rachel Reeves has set out her spending plans for the coming years in the Commons, announcing boosts for the NHS, defence and schools.
Reeves laid out her plans for “securonomics” and said an extra £29 billion will be provided per year for the NHS. Major investment was also announced for nuclear energy and regional transport projects.
The government also said it would take forward plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail in the coming weeks, alongside an additional £3.5 billion to upgrade the TransPennine route.
A new four-year settlement was also announced for Transport for London but Sir Sadiq Khan said it was “disappointing” that there had been no commitment from the Treasury “to invest in new infrastructure London needs”.
There were only a handful of references to London throughout the Chancellor’s speech.
Reeves’ room for manoeuvre has also been further constrained by the Government's U-turn on winter fuel payments, which will see the benefit paid to pensioners receiving up to £35,000 per year at a cost of around £1.25 billion to the Treasury.
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves begins her spending review
Straight after Prime Minister’s Questions, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has begun her spending review.
She began by telling MPs: “My driving purpose since I became Chancellor is to make working people, in all parts of our country, better off.
“To rebuild our schools and our hospitals to invest in our economy so that everyone has the opportunity to succeed, after fourteen years of mismanagement and decline by the party opposite, culminating in a £22bn black hole in the public finances.
That was their legacy and the first job I faced as Chancellor was to set that right.”
Prime Minister 'uttlerly condemns' violence in Northern Ireland
Stepping away from speaking about the economy, the Prime Minister has condemned violence in Northern Ireland.
Seventeen police officers have been injured following a second night of sustained violence in Ballymena, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has warned that the rioting “risks undermining” the criminal justice process into an allegation of a sex attack on a teenage girl in the Co Antrim town at the weekend.
Stormont ministers have also made an urgent appeal for calm and said the justice process had to be allowed to take its course.
Sir Keir Starmer told MPs: “I utterly condemn the violence that we have seen overnight in Ballymena and in other parts of Northern Ireland.
“It’s absolutely vital that the PSNI are given the time they need to investigate the incidents concerned rather than face mindless attacks as they seek to bring peace and order to keep people safe.”
Kemi Badenoch says Prime Minister 'wants to hide his economic record'
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has once again insisted the Government is struggling to balance the books as Prime Minister’s Questions became more heated.
She cited the Government’s U-turn on winter fuel payments and added that “unemployment has increased every month since Labour took office”.
The Prime Minister joked that Liz Truss must be back advising the Conservatives about the economy.
He said: “She’s obviously missed the interest rate cuts, the growth figures for earlier this year, the strategic defence review, local transport £15 billion going in, free school meals, Sizewell, social housing.
“She stands there to lecture us, and I see Liz Truss is obviously back in vogue. Advising Reform officially now, haunting the Tories.”
Badenoch responded: “He loves talking about Liz Truss. Why? Because he wants to hide from his own economic record.
“He’s a coward and every time he stands up there and talks about Liz Truss it’s because he is scared of talking about his record and what is happening to the economy out there.”
Kemi Badenoch takes aim at Prime Minister over the economy
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has taken aim at the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Questions, saying that inflation has nearly doubled, growth has halved and unemployment has surged.
In response, Sir Keir Starmer has highlighted that since the General Election 500,000 more people are in work. “I know she doesn’t mention that,” he quipped. “She is fixated on talking Britain down.”
He added that in the past few weeks, the strategic defence review has been announced, creating 30,000 new jobs building submarines, as well as thousands of more jobs that will be created from building new social and affordable housing.
Prime Minister's Questions begin
Prime Minister’s Questions has begun with Sir Keir Starmer taking questions in the Commons.
But many will consider the event a ‘warm up act’ for the spending review, which will take place shortly afterwards.
The Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to address the Commons at around 12.30pm.
Prime Minister says spending review 'marks end of first phase of this Government'
Sir Keir Starmer told Cabinet that today’s spending review “marks the end of the first phase of this Government, as we move to a new phase that delivers on the promise of change for working people all around the country and invests in Britain’s renewal”, Downing Street said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the ministers the spending review “would invest in economic growth, creating jobs and backing British industry in all parts of the country”.
She promised “investments in defence, protection of our borders, and energy security; and public services including health and education”.
'NHS has done really well relative to other parts of public service,' says NHS England boss
NHS England boss Sir Jim Mackey said the NHS has done “really well” in the spending review.
Speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester, he said: “The NHS has done really well relative to other parts of the public service.
“But we all know it’s never enough because of the scale of advancement, all the ambition, all things we want to do, the day-to-day cost pressures we’re trying to get on top of, etc.
“We’re always going to be in a world where we want more money, but I think everyone’s starting to accept and understand that we’ve got what the country can afford to give us.
“We really need to get better value for that money – it is broadly the equivalent of the GDP of Portugal, so it’s a huge amount of money by any standards.
“It’s a huge amount – (the) Government has done us a really good turn compared to other parts of the public service.
“But it’s not going to allow us all to just take our feet off the pedal and just run loose and do what we want to do in this next period, we have still got an awful lot of difficult things to do.”
On social care, he added: “Social care in local authorities won’t do brilliantly in the spending review, and then we have the review of social care, so we will be left with what we can do as much as we can within our gift.”
More tax rises could be on the way 'if anything goes wrong' warns the IFS
Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes again if “anything at all goes wrong” with her economic plan, leading experts are warning.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies stressed that the Chancellor has little room for manoeuvre if she wants to avoid busting her economic rules.
IFS director Paul Johnson explained that there would be some “genuinely big increase in investment spending”.
“The risk is certainly that when we get to the next Budget this coming autumn, if the economic forecasts move at all in the wrong direction, then we may have to have some more tax increases,” Mr Johnson told BBC radio.
“The Chancellor is sticking to the overall spending plan that she set out back in October, what she is doing is allocating that money (in the Spending Review).
“The risk in terms of further tax rises is if anything at all goes wrong with any of the current forecasts then they will come again in the autumn.”
You can read more about Mr Johnson’s analysis here.
Rachel Reeves seen leaving Downing Street
The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has left 11 Downing Street ahead of presenting the spending review to Parliament.
Reeves is expected to address MPs following Prime Minister’s Questions at around 12.30pm.
Boost for social housing welcomed as waiting lists in London at 10 year high
London boroughs are expected to breathe a sigh of relief as Rachel Reeves boosts affordable and social housing spending.
The Chancellor has designated £39 billion over the next 10 years to build affordable and social housing, providing much-needed funds for boroughs facing deep housing cutbacks.
Last month, research by London Councils warned the capital’s town halls will need to reduce their spending on council housing by £264m to avoid busting their budgets in the next three years, unless the government boosts support.
The number of people on London borough waiting lists for social housing has reached 336,366 households - a 10 year high.
Homelessness is also at the highest ever recorded levels, with London Councils estimating that one in 50 Londoners is homeless and living in temporary accommodation.
The capital accounts for 56% of all homeless households in England, and London boroughs collectively spend £4m every day on temporary accommodation.
