UK: Chancellor Speaks On Transport Investment & Spending Review

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has been speaking at a plant in the north of England regarding investment in public transport, as well as next week's spending review. Livestream here. Chancellor claims that the gov't "faces a binary choice: investment or decline". Says that "We will be making the biggest ever investment by a British government in transport links within our city regions and their surrounding towns", with GBP15.6B announced. 

• On the spending review next week, she says that not all departments "will get what they want." Says that this is not due to her fiscal rules, but due to the previous Conservative gov't, "I have had to say no to things that I want to do too, but that is not because of my fiscal rules. It is the result of 14 years of Conservative maltreatment of our public services, our public realm and of our economy."
• Former Treasury advisor to ex-chancellor and PM Rishi Sunak, James Nation, claims on X that some of the funding announced today may not be new spending: "Old City Region Transport deal allocations are here with planned £ up to 2031/32. Nearly £14bn in total. Question for the Treasury is how much of today’s announcement is additional funding. Good to see continual reform of the Green Book. But confirming cash for city regions - while welcome - is solid Treasury orthodoxy. Look instead for schemes which the Treasury thinks are low value for money but key for communities and whether these survive e.g. bus fare caps."