Spending review special: A massive reallocation of funds - with some significant losers
Welcome to the ITV News digest bringing you the best of our original journalism, insight and analysis from across the nation, regions and the world.
Hello, and welcome to a special Spending Review edition of the News Briefing. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her first multi-year spending review in the House of Commons, with more cash revealed for the NHS, defence and schools, while other areas are squeezed.
She has laid out the government's spending plans for the next three years - showing us what the government's priorities are and shaping the direction of travel until 2029.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says the spending review “could prove to be one of the most significant domestic policy events of this parliament”.
ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston says: “If you listened to her, you would have thought the biggest winner was housing and transport - and they are getting significant sums.
“But by a country mile the biggest winner is defence. In terms of the capital budgets, defence gets £33bn every year.
“Housing is really way less - less than £10bn by the end of the period.
“And there are the cuts that many departments will be enduring - in order to fund very generous increases in health and social care, for example, the Home Office suffers a cut every year of 1.7%
“The foreign office 6.9% cut every year.
“There is a massive reallocation of funds and some pretty important departments turn out to be significant losers.”
For the Tories, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride warned her spending promises would only mean one thing: tax rises in the autumn budget.
He told the Commons: “Her tone today suggests that all is well, the sunny uplands await.
“What a hopeless conceit. A masterclass in delusion.”
You can get the full story on our website here and watch the chancellor’s speech in full on our YouTube channel.
And don’t forget, our Talking Politics podcast team will dig beneath the headlines here.
Did the chancellor do enough? Here’s what do our experts think
Housing: The need to build more social housing - the most affordable - could not be more urgent, says ITV News Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt.
The number of homeless children is the highest on record, so to is the number of families in temporary accommodation with some families living in ageing, decaying, unliveable homes.
In a win for Deputy PM Angela Rayner, she has convinced the Chancellor to nearly double funding for a new Affordable Homes Programme - £39 billion over 10 years.
It has been widely welcomed, but key details are missing, most notably how much of the £39 billion will go towards building homes for social rent. The last government only committed 20% of funding to social housing, the rest going on Shared Ownership and less affordable homes.
Campaigners want 60% to go towards social housing, and rough number crunching suggests that could see 40,000 social homes built each year by 2030, a enormous jump from the 9,000 built last year.
Health: The NHS emerges as the big beneficiary of the Spending Review, with a 3% increase in day-to-day funding, writes Health Correspondent Rebecca Barry.
The Chancellor promises the extra £29bn per year will deliver “more appointments, more doctors, more scanners”.
NHS Trust leaders acknowledge that taxpayers will now rightfully demand more “bang for their buck”.
But the NHS is currently facing one of the most pressurised financial situations in its history.
Even though frontline hospital staffing has increased, productivity has fallen - and along with it, the public’s satisfaction with the health service.
The government has pledged to cut waiting lists and treat 92% of patients within 18 weeks.
But health leaders warn this funding increase isn’t enough to cover rising costs and won’t “guarantee” that those targets are met.
NHS bosses say there now needs to be “an honest conversation” about what they can achieve - while balancing the potentially conflicting demands of reform and recovery.
Meanwhile, the Lib Dems say there’s a potential “blackhole” for social care, with local government budgets at “breaking point”. They insist putting more cash into the NHS without fixing social care is “like pouring water into a leaky bucket”.
And the losers…: Economics Editor Joel Hills says there are “significant losers” in the spending review.
The Home Office was the last department to agree a settlement with the chancellor. Today, the chancellor made a big thing about core policing, getting bobbies on the beat.
But that leaves others parts of the Home Office - which overall is going to be worse off at the end of the spending review period - facing some pretty big cuts.
And we don’t know where those cuts will be made; immigration and visas? the passport office? could it come to security and counter-terrorism?
I think what we will see in the days ahead is those sort of cuts, areas where people face squeezes, local authorities in particular, will start to come into the limelight.
Peston: Spending review is Reeves’ last chance
Today’s spending announce is arguably the most important political moment for this government. And no I haven’t taken leave of my senses in saying that, says Political Editor Robert Peston
The reason it matters so much is because all public services in England and Wales (and in the rest of the UK, subject to the allocative formula) will be allocated their resources up to the next election.
So, for example, if in 2029 you still can’t get a timely GP appointment or you are still waiting for a hip replacement, or street crime continues to blight your neighbourhood, that will to a large extent be determined today.
And there is a second reason. The British malaise is low growth, stagnating living standards and regional inequalities. And the government is today pulling on two of the only levers it has to create renewed economic dynamism.
Also from Robert: Why aren’t Treasury and Reeves investing more?
Winter fuel u-turn sees 9million more pensioners able to claim
Pensioners with an annual income of £35,000 or less will have their winter fuel payments restored this winter, it has been announced, as the government laid out details of their U-turn following weeks of speculation.
The government says the move will see nine million people receive the payments, compared to the 1.5 million people who got winter fuel payments last winter after the cut.
However, the Tories say Rachel Reeves has "buckled" under the pressure of a huge backlash
So, what do pensioners make of the about-face? Watch our report on YouTube here.