The Spending Review

:00:07. > :00:08.George Osborne wants Britain to live within its means.

:00:09. > :00:11.His critics say he's cutting public services to the bone.

:00:12. > :00:14.We'll find out what the Chancellor has in store for us all

:00:15. > :00:18.in an hour when he tells us how he's going to spend our money over

:00:19. > :00:52.Welcome to this BBC News special on the Chancellor's combined

:00:53. > :00:56.Spending Review and Autumn Statement for 2015, which will help define tax

:00:57. > :01:00.and spend in this country for the rest of the decade.

:01:01. > :01:07.He wants to spend more on health, defence, security and now housing,

:01:08. > :01:10.all while balancing the books - which means big cuts

:01:11. > :01:18.That's not to mention the little matter of rowing back

:01:19. > :01:26.I'm here at this brand new shopping centre in Birmingham, the city

:01:27. > :01:29.at the heart of what the chancellor calls the Midlands Engine.

:01:30. > :01:31.We'll be getting reaction from businesses, local government,

:01:32. > :01:38.We'll also be in our virtual Treasury courtyard to look

:01:39. > :01:41.at where the chancellor can find the ?20 billion of savings he says

:01:42. > :01:48.I'll be here outside Parliament getting reaction from from

:01:49. > :01:56.across the political spectrum to a speech that could define

:01:57. > :02:00.And you can follow the story and find all the best analysis

:02:01. > :02:13.on the BBC news website, throughout the day.

:02:14. > :02:26.Did I mention best analysis? Of course I did.

:02:27. > :02:30.for the next four hours by the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg,

:02:31. > :02:33.our business editor Kamal Ahmed and, in his farewell lap before he

:02:34. > :02:35.leaves the BBC, our outgoing economics editor Robert Peston.

:02:36. > :02:37.We'll be frisking him before he leaves

:02:38. > :02:40.the studio to check he's not running off with any of the stationery.

:02:41. > :02:43.So it's a big day for the Chancellor - and for the country.

:02:44. > :02:45.It's Mr Osborne's thirrd Spending Review since he entered

:02:46. > :02:51.At its core, he will set how much is to be spent on Government

:02:52. > :02:56.departments and public services over the next four financial years.

:02:57. > :03:01.Cumulatively, we're talking about well over ?3 trillion.

:03:02. > :03:04.And if that's not enough excitement for one day, this year he's combined

:03:05. > :03:07.his Spending Review with his annual Autumn Statement, which sets out

:03:08. > :03:11.the latest official forecasts for inflation, employment, borrowing and

:03:12. > :03:18.other key indicators for the course of our economy through 2016.

:03:19. > :03:26.So a lot riding on today for the economy,

:03:27. > :03:29.our public services, our national and economic security -

:03:30. > :03:35.and, of course, for George Osborne himself.

:03:36. > :03:42.We have seen George Osborne leave the Treasury a few minutes ago. He

:03:43. > :03:46.made the trip safely. But the Prime Minister's car had a nasty prank

:03:47. > :03:52.this morning outside Number Ten Downing St.

:03:53. > :03:58.Do you think the Prime Minister was inside? I'm sure government

:03:59. > :04:06.ministers will be hoping that is not a harbinger of things to come.

:04:07. > :04:09.Laura, the Chancellor is under particular financial pressure, he

:04:10. > :04:13.has promised to get us into surplus by the end of the decade. Every time

:04:14. > :04:21.he turns a corner someone says, I want more money for this?

:04:22. > :04:25.Absolutely. Today is where the rhetoric smashes up with reality and

:04:26. > :04:30.their big aspiration is also their big faculty. How do you make a set

:04:31. > :04:35.of hard-fought decisions, hefty cuts to many departments, look like they

:04:36. > :04:39.are a programme, a coherent programme that matches the

:04:40. > :04:43.priorities of the millions of voters in the middle, the floating voters

:04:44. > :04:47.the Conservatives did not just want to get in this year, but want to

:04:48. > :04:57.secure with an even bigger majority next time round. That is what it is

:04:58. > :05:00.all about. The difficulties, with more money for health and housing,

:05:01. > :05:04.less money to local council, cuts to social care and cuts to the police.

:05:05. > :05:08.The most acute demonstration to this dilemma of all, what on earth will

:05:09. > :05:15.he do to tax credits? Significant cuts to people who are already in

:05:16. > :05:23.work. He had to signal a humiliating U-turn. The detail will be crucial

:05:24. > :05:26.today. And he is a Chancellor only halfway through his deficit

:05:27. > :05:32.reduction strategy which he started in 2010, he should have finished it

:05:33. > :05:35.by now. And yet on health, security, tax credits, defence, he is being

:05:36. > :05:55.asked to spend more money. lopsided approach to actually

:05:56. > :05:56.balancing the books, which lopsided approach to actually

:05:57. > :06:03.significant. There are people in lopsided approach to actually

:06:04. > :06:07.Conservative Party think the ring-fencing of health and other

:06:08. > :06:11.departments was fundamental strategic mistake. Instead of

:06:12. > :06:15.looking at the books starting from zero, they are looking at the books

:06:16. > :06:18.in a way which makes it completely lopsided and therefore making the

:06:19. > :06:22.sums add up in a way they have lopsided and therefore making the

:06:23. > :06:24.promised to do, it makes it almost impossible. OK.

:06:25. > :06:29.promised to do, it makes it almost We should point out no one was

:06:30. > :06:32.injured in the making of that crash, if crash is

:06:33. > :06:33.Today's statement is fundamentally about finding

:06:34. > :06:36.the further ?20 billion of savings the Chancellor says is needed to

:06:37. > :06:38.eliminate the deficit and move into modest surplus by 2019-20.

:06:39. > :06:41.We'll look in a moment at where he might find those savings.

:06:42. > :06:58.First, Robert take us through the Osborne plan.

:06:59. > :07:01.First, Robert take us through this school rules. Let's look at the

:07:02. > :07:06.deficit he forecast for this this school rules. Let's look at the

:07:07. > :07:21.in the July budget. -- famous fiscal rules. We already know he's going to

:07:22. > :07:29.miss the deficit of ?70 billion. Over the course of the parliament in

:07:30. > :07:32.the last budget, he saw that deficit declining and actually achieving a

:07:33. > :07:40.surplus, I think you have already mentioned, of ?10 billion in

:07:41. > :07:41.2019-20. My expectation is that surplus will be revised down,

:07:42. > :07:44.because of the sort of surplus will be revised down,

:07:45. > :07:48.have been talking to Laura about, the pressure just Ben Moore on

:07:49. > :07:56.priorities like security and housing. So, let's put that now into

:07:57. > :08:01.the context of the national debt, a whopping ?1.5 trillion in round

:08:02. > :08:09.numbers. In percentage terms, that began the last Parliament just under

:08:10. > :08:16.70% of GDP, or national income. It has risen progressively, painfully

:08:17. > :08:20.since then, and is currently a bit over 80% of GDP. In that last

:08:21. > :08:25.budget, the Chancellor made a big thing about how this would be the

:08:26. > :08:34.peak year for debt as a percentage of GDP. He might not achieve that.

:08:35. > :08:37.Let's see what the OBR says and we will have to wait until April am

:08:38. > :08:40.frankly, to find out the truth of that. Borrowing is not going quite

:08:41. > :08:44.as well as he would want. That said, he will make a priority of trying to

:08:45. > :08:49.get the debt down significantly over the parliament. The last set of

:08:50. > :08:55.forecasts saw the debt falling as a share of GDP to about 72% of our

:08:56. > :08:59.national income. The background to all of this, it matters to him and

:09:00. > :09:04.all of us, it is what happens to the economy in the round. He started the

:09:05. > :09:13.last Parliament with very weak growth. It was 0.7% at its weakest

:09:14. > :09:16.in the last Parliament. But then it grew progressively. It accelerated

:09:17. > :09:21.progressively to 2.9% last year. That was the fastest GDP growth of

:09:22. > :09:25.the big developed economies, almost back to where we were before the

:09:26. > :09:32.crash, but growth has weakened since then. We expect it to be about 2.4%

:09:33. > :09:36.this year, and actually, we don't expect it frankly to accelerate much

:09:37. > :09:40.from that in the coming years. It could even weaken the bit. Why?

:09:41. > :09:45.Because of what is happening on the other side of the world. You and I

:09:46. > :09:52.have talked a lot about the slowdown in China. It is the big economic

:09:53. > :09:56.event right now. We cannot rule out a Chinese crash. If that were to

:09:57. > :10:00.happen, of course, everything we hear today becomes irrelevant. The

:10:01. > :10:04.shock to the global economy in those circumstances would be significant.

:10:05. > :10:10.He is making great play of making friends with China. He is assuming

:10:11. > :10:13.the slowdown in China will be gradual and manageable. We will have

:10:14. > :10:17.to wait and see. We will indeed. Thank you.

:10:18. > :10:19.Today's Spending Review will set spending limits for every Whitehall

:10:20. > :10:24.department for each of the next four financial years.

:10:25. > :10:27.The Chancellor has been locked in discussions with his Cabinet

:10:28. > :10:28.colleagues for weeks to agree the figures.

:10:29. > :10:31.The meetings have taken place at the Treasury, just across the

:10:32. > :10:35.The Chancellor claimed on Sunday the negotiations have been amicable.

:10:36. > :10:36.That's not the word ministers whose departments

:10:37. > :10:42.We'll find out who is bruised, bloodied or unbowed today.

:10:43. > :10:46.At the heart of the Treasury is a circular courtyard - you might

:10:47. > :10:50.recognise it because it's often used as a location for filming, including

:10:51. > :10:56.the latest James Bond, which means it's now famous across the globe.

:10:57. > :11:00.Now, we couldn't get Jo Coburn inside the real courtyard, despite

:11:01. > :11:03.her being pretty famous - but here she is to tell us more about

:11:04. > :11:10.Welcome to our virtual Treasury courtyard.

:11:11. > :11:15.Now, they don't have one of these in the real courtyard,

:11:16. > :11:17.but it represents everything that the Government is due to spend this

:11:18. > :11:25.I'm going to start by highlighting a few of the most significant parts

:11:26. > :11:38.You can see the ?217 billion that goes on social security.

:11:39. > :11:39.That includes everything from jobseeker's allowance

:11:40. > :11:44.And there's the ?35 billion the UK is due to spend this year

:11:45. > :11:51.George Osborne says that's a figure he's is determined to bring down.

:11:52. > :11:55.Now, the focus of today's statement is the money that goes on

:11:56. > :11:58.administering and delivering public services - departmental spending.

:11:59. > :12:06.You can see it's just under half of the total the Government spends.

:12:07. > :12:09.Now, we're going to delve into the budgets of a few of the most

:12:10. > :12:17.It's the NHS that accounts for the biggest chunk

:12:18. > :12:23.Now, the Chancellor isn't going to find any of his savings here,

:12:24. > :12:27.because he has promised to increase NHS funding in England

:12:28. > :12:33.The Government has also promised a real-terms increase

:12:34. > :12:40.That's part of its commitment to meeting the Nato target of spending

:12:41. > :12:49.The Government has also committed to spending 0.7% of GDP

:12:50. > :12:55.on overseas aid, meaning that budget is also protected.

:12:56. > :12:59.So, the Chancellor is not going to find any of his ?20 billion

:13:00. > :13:02.of savings says he he needs to make from either health, defence or aid.

:13:03. > :13:06.So, where could it come from instead?

:13:07. > :13:10.Well, what about from the education budget, a big part of what the state

:13:11. > :13:15.Here, the Conservatives have promised

:13:16. > :13:18.a cash increase per pupil in schools.

:13:19. > :13:22.That means savings from here would be limited, although

:13:23. > :13:27.the rest of the budget doesn't have any guaranteed protection.

:13:28. > :13:30.Here is the money that goes to English local authorities.

:13:31. > :13:34.This was one of the first departments to agree to big savings

:13:35. > :13:39.The Home Office, on the other hand, took longer

:13:40. > :13:45.The single biggest thing Theresa May's department spends

:13:46. > :13:49.money on is the grant it gives to police forces in England and Wales,

:13:50. > :13:53.although they also get some of their money from other sources, including

:13:54. > :14:03.Some of the other departments that are going to have to find

:14:04. > :14:05.big savings over the next four years are

:14:06. > :14:07.the Departments of Business, Transport and Justice.

:14:08. > :14:11.Let's go back to that big part of Government spending I mentioned

:14:12. > :14:18.Of course, that is where a lot of the focus has been in the weeks

:14:19. > :14:23.Now, again, here there is plenty the Chancellor won't touch.

:14:24. > :14:27.The state pension is a massive part of the Budget.

:14:28. > :14:32.But the Government has a long-standing promise not to cut it,

:14:33. > :14:40.The other areas of big spending the Government has had to look to

:14:41. > :14:45.are housing benefit, disability benefits and incapacity benefits.

:14:46. > :14:50.And you can see that big sum of money, ?30 billion,

:14:51. > :14:53.that is due to be spent on personal tax credits this year -

:14:54. > :14:56.an area where the Chancellor has found that making savings can prove

:14:57. > :15:12.Net speak to the BBC business editor now. One business that seems to be

:15:13. > :15:16.very happy because of what was leaked by the Treasury, the

:15:17. > :15:21.apparently 400,000 affordable homes, as the Chancellor calls them. This

:15:22. > :15:25.morning, house-building shares went through the roof? They did indeed.

:15:26. > :15:29.Listening to Laura and Robert, what is interesting is how it much the

:15:30. > :15:35.Government need the private sector to support delivery. The strategic

:15:36. > :15:38.purpose of George Osborne is to take pressure off microstate provision,

:15:39. > :15:45.give it to the private sector and say, go on, help us provide the kind

:15:46. > :15:49.of country and economy we want. In house-building, the centrepiece of

:15:50. > :15:53.David Cameron's Conference speech, he said he didn't want Generation

:15:54. > :15:57.Rent, he wanted to help people into affordable homes, that is an example

:15:58. > :16:00.of that. The Government have struggled with the supply-side

:16:01. > :16:05.problem. The issue they have had is that they have been constantly

:16:06. > :16:09.increasing demand. So, the help to buy policy increases demand, the

:16:10. > :16:13.support that we are hearing will be in the Autumn Statement that will

:16:14. > :16:17.help people buy affordable homes, that increases demand. They are also

:16:18. > :16:20.going to put some direct money into housing companies for them to build

:16:21. > :16:27.affordable homes. The problem is that housing new-builds are down

:16:28. > :16:30.slightly. That is because there is a real skill shortage in housing. Go

:16:31. > :16:38.country, they can't find enough country, they can't find enough

:16:39. > :16:42.in London, it had closed down by Thursday night, the builders had

:16:43. > :16:48.their money for the week and they took Friday off. House-building

:16:49. > :16:51.companies are building as many houses as they feel comfortable

:16:52. > :16:55.with, and their profits are up hugely, 40%. The other thing to

:16:56. > :17:02.watch for is how will social care changes, moving taxes down to local

:17:03. > :17:05.authorities to provide support for social care, how will that have an

:17:06. > :17:10.impact? The private sector provide the bulk of social care homes, they

:17:11. > :17:13.have been complaining about the rise to the National Living Wage

:17:14. > :17:17.affecting their business. They are being squeezed by having to pay more

:17:18. > :17:22.for workers, a lot of them on minimum wage, and getting less money

:17:23. > :17:27.from local authorities? Yes, those things, companies like Four

:17:28. > :17:36.Seasons, the biggest provider in the UK, has been saying it is no longer

:17:37. > :17:44.profitable to provide social care. It has become difficult. Sajid

:17:45. > :17:47.Javid, the Business Secretary, one of the unprotected departments, how

:17:48. > :17:52.much of an attack on his department will there be?

:17:53. > :17:55.If you've just joined us on BBC2 and the BBC News Channel,

:17:56. > :17:58.you're watching our coverage of the Spending Review and Autumn

:17:59. > :18:04.Let's join Jane Hill now, who's outside the House of Commons.

:18:05. > :18:12.Good morning, thank you very much. Let's get the thoughts of two of the

:18:13. > :18:15.new intake of MPs. With us in a blustery House of Commons, Oliver

:18:16. > :18:23.Dowden for the Conservatives and Rebecca longline for Labour. It is a

:18:24. > :18:26.Spending Review, are we going to be looking at headlines about cats? Are

:18:27. > :18:29.those the headlines that George Osborne is comfortable with? The

:18:30. > :18:35.headlines he will be comfortable Osborne is comfortable with? The

:18:36. > :18:36.with, remember we are still in a situation where the Government is

:18:37. > :18:40.spending far more situation where the Government is

:18:41. > :18:41.That means we are borrowing, and every pound of that is

:18:42. > :18:45.future generations. We are determined to get that under

:18:46. > :18:48.control, run a surplus by the determined to get that under

:18:49. > :18:53.the parliament so that when the next crisis hits, we are spending less

:18:54. > :18:57.than we earn and we are in a better position to deal with that. I think

:18:58. > :19:00.that will be the central thrust. We know that is the thrust, but there

:19:01. > :19:04.are plenty of economists, including the very respected IFS, who say that

:19:05. > :19:10.the Chancellor has locked himself into a corner, and given the date,

:19:11. > :19:15.he has boxed himself in? It's important we have a date, by 2019,

:19:16. > :19:20.when we aim to run the surplus, the economy, hopefully, will have been

:19:21. > :19:22.growing for ten years. If the economy has been growing for ten

:19:23. > :19:27.years and we can't grow a surplus, how would we be able to cope when

:19:28. > :19:32.the economy, inevitably, falls into another recession? We don't believe

:19:33. > :19:37.boom and bust has been abolished. So it is just our custody, that has to

:19:38. > :19:40.be cuts for those reasons? I agree with Oliver on the fact that we need

:19:41. > :19:46.to reduce the deficit, but it needs to be done in a long term,

:19:47. > :19:50.sustainable way. He has missed his financial targets time and again. He

:19:51. > :19:54.referred the IFS making comments about it. They have stated in order

:19:55. > :19:58.to meet its targets this time, he has to make cuts of an unprecedented

:19:59. > :20:04.scale. The cuts are no doubt going to fall on areas of key economic

:20:05. > :20:08.growth, such as education, skills, business investment. We need to

:20:09. > :20:12.start planning the infrastructure, investment, manufacturing strategy.

:20:13. > :20:16.I doubt we will have any of that from the Chancellor today. Our

:20:17. > :20:19.business editor was just saying that share prices are up in

:20:20. > :20:23.house-building companies, if we get lots of positive news about

:20:24. > :20:26.house-building, is that going to be the one positive that even your

:20:27. > :20:32.party would agree with, the desperate need for housing? I think

:20:33. > :20:35.that the Chancellor is definitely a shrewd political operator, he will

:20:36. > :20:40.offer some sweeteners to lessen the blow. In terms of house-building,

:20:41. > :20:44.the devil is always in the detail. I welcome the pledge to build 400,000

:20:45. > :20:48.more houses. We want to see where those houses are going to be and if

:20:49. > :20:51.they are going to be put in the social rented sector. A quick

:20:52. > :20:56.thought about a more political side to it, this is about George

:20:57. > :20:59.Osborne's personal ambitions, he's got to shake things so that the pain

:21:00. > :21:09.comes soon, so by the time he has his eyes on a even bigger job, the

:21:10. > :21:12.bulk of the cuts have gone? I think his ambition is on turning his

:21:13. > :21:15.country around. It is interesting what Rebecca was saying about

:21:16. > :21:19.investment. One of the decisions he has taken is to protect things like

:21:20. > :21:23.investment in schools, so it is maintained every year, per pupil. On

:21:24. > :21:26.housing, the massive investment in housing to make sure young people

:21:27. > :21:29.get on the housing ladder. The Chancellor wants to make sure that

:21:30. > :21:34.everybody gets the best start in life, investment in schools, housing

:21:35. > :21:37.in young people or for old people, so when they have worked hard all

:21:38. > :21:41.their lives, they get dignity and security in retirement, which is why

:21:42. > :21:44.there has been a big increase in the state pension. That is where his

:21:45. > :21:49.efforts are focused. We must leave it there, thank you very much. Much

:21:50. > :21:53.more from the once we have heard from the Chancellor.

:21:54. > :21:55.George Osborne's going to be talking a lot

:21:56. > :22:00.We'll hear a lot about his Northern Powerhouse and, now,

:22:01. > :22:06.At the heart of that is the city of Birmingham.

:22:07. > :22:09.Jo Coburn has left her virtual Treasury courtyard and is already

:22:10. > :22:21.Who needs HS2 when you have the magic of television?

:22:22. > :22:31.Yes, I am at Grand Central. Not New York, but the shiny new shopping

:22:32. > :22:36.centre in Birmingham. I'm here to talk about the Autumn Statement and

:22:37. > :22:43.George Osborne's five-year spending plan. First to talk to us, a

:22:44. > :22:46.representative from Unison and from the Taxpayers' Alliance. The

:22:47. > :22:52.announcement that extra cash to the NHS would be front loaded, welcome

:22:53. > :22:58.news? Any extra money is to be welcomed, but it is too little, too

:22:59. > :23:01.late. The real issue is the chronic underfunding of social care. It

:23:02. > :23:03.means elderly patients cannot be discharged quickly enough back into

:23:04. > :23:08.their homes, which means they are taking up beds and we are definitely

:23:09. > :23:12.going to end up with a real crisis in A this winter. There will be a

:23:13. > :23:16.lot of focus on savings and cuts that George Osborne has pledged to

:23:17. > :23:19.make in the Spending Review and over the course of the parliament. Does

:23:20. > :23:23.he really want to be known as the Chancellor of austerity? He ought to

:23:24. > :23:27.be known as the Chancellor that balances the nation 's books. If

:23:28. > :23:34.he's to do that, he has to make savings. This year, the Government

:23:35. > :23:36.is spending ?70 billion more than it raised in revenue. That means

:23:37. > :23:39.borrowing and the national debt is going up and we are paying more debt

:23:40. > :23:44.interest payments and we are spending on defending the nation,

:23:45. > :23:47.the defence Budget. That is unacceptable. He needs to balance

:23:48. > :23:51.the books, get the nation living within its means to ensure future

:23:52. > :23:57.prosperity. Lets get a little bit more about growing the economy.

:23:58. > :24:01.Let's talk to somebody from the Greater Birmingham Chamber Of

:24:02. > :24:06.Commerce. We were talking about austerity against growth. What is

:24:07. > :24:11.more important to businesses? Got to be a mix. We recognise that the UK

:24:12. > :24:13.deficit is out of control, the Government spending more than the

:24:14. > :24:20.defence Budget servicing the interest on the debt. It really does

:24:21. > :24:23.need to be put in line, but it can't be at the expense of facilitating

:24:24. > :24:25.business growth. That is what we are looking for today, how the

:24:26. > :24:29.Chancellor was going to help businesses, which helps grow jobs

:24:30. > :24:33.and, in turn, helps increase the tax receipts to get the deficit down.

:24:34. > :24:37.What particularly would you like to see him do? We would like some

:24:38. > :24:41.clarity on a number of points, the apprenticeship levy, how it is going

:24:42. > :24:45.to work. Businesses are really keen to boost the skills and

:24:46. > :24:48.employability of youngsters in the region, but we don't know how the

:24:49. > :24:51.funding is going to work. Clarity would be fantastic. We would like to

:24:52. > :24:57.see further announcements on business rates. The Chancellor was

:24:58. > :25:00.going to devolve spending on that, but we need reform and more

:25:01. > :25:03.certainty on whether there will be small business rates relief into

:25:04. > :25:06.next year. Henrietta, thank you. One of the things that will be most

:25:07. > :25:12.important to people as they are starting to think about Christmas

:25:13. > :25:16.shopping is personal finances. Their financial security. So, who better

:25:17. > :25:21.to talk to than our personal finance expert, Annie Shaw? One thing is

:25:22. > :25:24.people were worried about is cuts to tax credits. George Osborne run into

:25:25. > :25:28.problems with those plans, and there are expectations he will soften that

:25:29. > :25:32.in some way. If he does, where else could he get savings? This is the

:25:33. > :25:36.big question. Is he going to go back to the same people and try to get

:25:37. > :25:41.the money out of them in other ways? Things like cuts to housing benefit,

:25:42. > :25:48.that would be affected by cuts to their tax credits. Is he going to go

:25:49. > :25:56.around the periphery? I think I would be slightly worried about

:25:57. > :25:59.these pensions... Pension scene. He said he won't do any major pension

:26:00. > :26:03.reforms until after the Budget, but I think there could be some measures

:26:04. > :26:07.stopping the buy now while stocks last, people doing last-minute

:26:08. > :26:15.avoidance things like stuffing pensions now. I would watch out for

:26:16. > :26:19.tinkering with pension issues. If you have any questions to put to our

:26:20. > :26:30.guests saw any stories, if you are in Birmingham, you can e-mail us,

:26:31. > :26:38.tweet us or you can send us a text message. It's too much for me to

:26:39. > :26:40.remember without my Hundi -- handy iPad.

:26:41. > :26:44.And you can also take advantage the BBC's range of expert analysis

:26:45. > :26:53.and all the latest developments on the BBC website.

:26:54. > :26:55.It's coming up midday here at Westminster -

:26:56. > :26:57.very soon we'll go over to the House of Commons

:26:58. > :27:11.and that will be followed by the Chancellor's statement.

:27:12. > :27:14.First, let's look at some of the measures that have been

:27:15. > :27:20.already announced, and others we're expecting to hear today.

:27:21. > :27:27.The biggest was the announcement earlier this week, we were told the

:27:28. > :27:32.NHS in England, equivalent spending will be for Scotland, Wales and

:27:33. > :27:36.Northern Ireland, it needs to get an extra ?4 billion above inflation

:27:37. > :27:39.next year, part of the frontloading that the NHS has been asking for to

:27:40. > :27:43.get the money in now as it rises towards an extra ?8 billion towards

:27:44. > :27:49.the end of the parliament. Schools and foreign aid are protected

:27:50. > :27:53.departments, so no cuts expected in these areas. Defence was not

:27:54. > :27:57.protected, it is now, indeed, it got an extra ?12 billion earlier this

:27:58. > :28:02.week to spend on defence equipment over the next five years, taking the

:28:03. > :28:11.total on defence equipment to 178 billion. Locked in, like foreign

:28:12. > :28:14.aid, as a percentage of GDP, 2%. Tax credits, the Chancellor came out

:28:15. > :28:18.with a number of cuts in the July Budget. It is only November, but

:28:19. > :28:22.he's already having to roll back on that. It will cost him money and we

:28:23. > :28:28.will look to see how he does it. We expect tax credit changes to be

:28:29. > :28:32.eased. The latest thing to be leaked by the Treasury leak machine is the

:28:33. > :28:38.idea that the Government will encourage, preside over the building

:28:39. > :28:40.of 400,000 affordable homes at a cost of ?7 billion. There

:28:41. > :28:45.of 400,000 affordable homes at a an alert on these, a warning, the

:28:46. > :28:49.Government often set is kind of targets, whether they meet them is

:28:50. > :28:51.another matter. Because central government spending and local

:28:52. > :28:56.government spending has been squeezed, the Chancellor will allow

:28:57. > :29:02.local authorities to raise council tax by 2%, provided the money, and

:29:03. > :29:08.only if the money, goes to social care, because of the move from NHS

:29:09. > :29:11.hospitals and so on into care in the community. Whether that will be

:29:12. > :29:14.enough is another matter. Whether those areas that need social care

:29:15. > :29:18.most, it tends to be the poorer areas, we'll get that much from a 2%

:29:19. > :29:26.rise in council tax, those are all things we will be keeping an eye on

:29:27. > :29:30.and discussing as this three and a half hours goes on. Laura, we have a

:29:31. > :29:31.pretty fair idea what he's going to do, they have helpfully leaked a lot

:29:32. > :29:38.of it! do, they have helpfully leaked a lot

:29:39. > :29:40.is the rabbit? I'm not do, they have helpfully leaked a lot

:29:41. > :29:48.going to be a rabid today. There will be surprises, I'm

:29:49. > :29:58.understanding, but I don't think, or I have

:29:59. > :29:58.understanding, but I don't think, or be led back to their

:29:59. > :30:04.constituencies... Which he has been be led back to their

:30:05. > :30:07.famous for? Indeed he has, I don't think we will see it. There will be

:30:08. > :30:13.surprises, cunning wheezes, but I'm not too sure about that. May be like

:30:14. > :30:22.a little mouse, rather than a rabbit? He has an astute political

:30:23. > :30:27.as well as economic brain. On this occasion, the judgments are similar

:30:28. > :30:34.for him personally. We are still relatively early in Parliament.

:30:35. > :30:40.Personally, he has had a bit of a popularity dip as a result of the

:30:41. > :30:43.tax credit debacle. I think he will be thinking what I need to do is to

:30:44. > :30:47.make some quite tough decisions, because the last thing he wants is

:30:48. > :30:49.for things to go wrong when he is running for the Tory party

:30:50. > :31:06.leadership. Everyone in this House and everyone

:31:07. > :31:11.watching at home know from Yes, Prime Minister, the central role

:31:12. > :31:16.that Bernard plays in the life of the Prime Minister and Number Ten

:31:17. > :31:21.Downing St. This morning, my Bernard, my principal private sector

:31:22. > :31:26.we died of cancer. Chris Martin was only 42. He was one of the most

:31:27. > :31:31.loyal, hard-working, dedicated public servants I have come across.

:31:32. > :31:35.I have no idea what his politics were but he would go to the ends of

:31:36. > :31:41.the Earth and back again, for his Prime Minister, for ten and the team

:31:42. > :31:45.we work for. Today, we are leaving the seat where he used to sit empty,

:31:46. > :31:50.as a mark of respect to him. We think of his wife, Zoe, his family,

:31:51. > :31:54.the wider Number Ten family, because it is like a family, and we feel

:31:55. > :31:58.like we have lost someone between a father and brother to all of us, and

:31:59. > :32:01.whatever happens, we will never forget him.

:32:02. > :32:28.Mr Speaker, this morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues

:32:29. > :32:30.and others, and in addition to the duties of the House, I will have

:32:31. > :32:32.further meetings today. Can I firstly echoed the prime Mr's

:32:33. > :32:34.sentiments regarding the passing of Chris Martin. I'm sure all members

:32:35. > :32:37.will have heartfelt thoughts and prayers today and we would be

:32:38. > :32:42.grateful if they could be conveyed to the family at this time. The

:32:43. > :32:48.Prime Minister is a champion of family life, so could he confirm

:32:49. > :32:58.that the announcements he will make today will pass the family test for

:32:59. > :33:03.vulnerable people? Can I thank the honourable member for her words.

:33:04. > :33:07.Families are the best welfare state we have. They teach us the right

:33:08. > :33:15.Phileas, they bring up our children and they care for us when they are

:33:16. > :33:21.sick and unwell. We will boost the national Living Wage, delivered tax

:33:22. > :33:25.cuts and crucially help with childcare. All of these policies

:33:26. > :33:31.should pass the test of helping Britain's families.

:33:32. > :33:36.Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you, Mr Speaker. On the half of the

:33:37. > :33:42.opposition, could I also express my condolences regarding Chris Martin.

:33:43. > :33:46.The Prime Minister told me how it will he was on Remembrance Sunday

:33:47. > :33:50.and I'm glad he could visit him at that time. Many members of

:33:51. > :33:54.government appreciates the work he did in the very highest and best

:33:55. > :33:56.traditions in the civil service of this country. If our condolences

:33:57. > :34:01.could be passed on, I think that would be very helpful.

:34:02. > :34:06.This week, 55 Labour councils has made a commitment for their areas to

:34:07. > :34:10.be running entirely on green energy by 2050. With the Paris climate

:34:11. > :34:21.talks just days away, with the Prime Minister commend those councils? I

:34:22. > :34:27.certainly commend councils for wanting to promote green energy and

:34:28. > :34:31.we have had green tariffs and other measures to help, particularly solar

:34:32. > :34:35.power and also wind power. We will be taking part in the Paris climate

:34:36. > :34:40.talks because it is absolutely vital to get that global deal, but we have

:34:41. > :34:43.to make sure we take action locally as well as globally. I would make

:34:44. > :34:49.the point that if you compare the last Parliament, to the previous

:34:50. > :34:54.parliament, we saw something like a trebling of the installation of

:34:55. > :34:58.renewable electricity. The commitment of those Labour

:34:59. > :35:03.councils is a bit of a contrast to the Prime Minister's performance. He

:35:04. > :35:07.used to tell us that his was the greenest government ever. Does he

:35:08. > :35:11.remember those days? Does he agree with the Energy Secretary that

:35:12. > :35:17.Britain is likely to miss its target of getting 15% of our energy from

:35:18. > :35:20.renewables by 2020? First of all, I believe that the

:35:21. > :35:26.last government does rightly claim that record, the world's first green

:35:27. > :35:31.investment bank, pioneered in Britain. The trebling of renewable

:35:32. > :35:36.energy, a meeting of all our climate change targets contributing to an EU

:35:37. > :35:40.deal that means we go to the climate change conference in Paris, with a

:35:41. > :35:44.very strong European record and the ability to say to other countries

:35:45. > :35:48.that they should step up to the plate. It was in the last

:35:49. > :35:51.Parliament, we spent record sums helping developing countries to go

:35:52. > :35:56.green, and in the next five years, we will be spending $9 billion on

:35:57. > :36:00.helping other countries, which will be crucial to building the Paris

:36:01. > :36:05.deal next week. The problem with the prime and is

:36:06. > :36:09.the's answer is, the gap between Britain's 2020 target and our

:36:10. > :36:12.current share of renewable energy, is the biggest in the European

:36:13. > :36:17.Union. Some of his decisions he has made recently, such as cutting

:36:18. > :36:21.support for solar panels on home and industrial projects, scrapping the

:36:22. > :36:27.green deal, cutting support for wind turbines, putting a new tax of

:36:28. > :36:30.renewable energy, increasing subsidy for diesel generators, is it any

:36:31. > :36:33.wonder that the chief scientists of the United Nations environment

:36:34. > :36:39.programme has criticised Britain for going backwards on renewable energy?

:36:40. > :36:44.The facts paint a different picture. As I said, trebling of wind power in

:36:45. > :36:48.the last Parliament. That is an enormous investment. Also, he makes

:36:49. > :36:52.the point about solar panels. Of course, when the cost of

:36:53. > :36:56.manufacturing solar panels plummets as it has, it is right to reduce the

:36:57. > :37:01.subsidy. If we don't reduce the subsidy, we ask people to pay higher

:37:02. > :37:05.energy bills, something I seem to remember the Labour Party in the

:37:06. > :37:09.last Parliament making a lot of. I think if you look for the

:37:10. > :37:13.secretaries climate change's speech, you can make the right

:37:14. > :37:15.balance between affordable energy and making sure we meet our green

:37:16. > :37:20.targets. That is what we are committed to. In addition to that,

:37:21. > :37:25.building the first new clip power station for decades in our country,

:37:26. > :37:29.something the Labour Party talked about a lot in government but we are

:37:30. > :37:33.putting into action now we are in government -- first new nuclear

:37:34. > :37:37.power station. In the past weeks, thousands have

:37:38. > :37:42.been lost in solar companies in Britain as they have gone bust. I

:37:43. > :37:49.have a question from some apprentices solar fitters. They say

:37:50. > :37:53.cutting feed in tariffs means you are stopping solar projects that

:37:54. > :37:58.they need to help our environment give us jobs. They asked the Prime

:37:59. > :38:03.Minister this: Wide you want to throw all this away? We are doubling

:38:04. > :38:07.investment in renewable energy in this Parliament and as for solar

:38:08. > :38:11.panels, I think I am right in saying, in the last Parliament, over

:38:12. > :38:16.a million homes were fitted with solar panels. It is right we go on

:38:17. > :38:21.supporting that industry, but we should do it recognising that the

:38:22. > :38:24.cost of manufacturing solar panels has plummeted, and so therefore the

:38:25. > :38:28.subsidy should be what is necessary to deliver solar power, not as what

:38:29. > :38:34.is necessary to pump up the bills of hard-working families.

:38:35. > :38:38.That is not much help to those who are losing their jobs in the solar

:38:39. > :38:43.industry at the present time. However, I would like to ask the

:38:44. > :38:46.Prime Minister something else. Today is the International Day for the

:38:47. > :38:52.elimination of violence against women. On average, two women a week

:38:53. > :38:55.are killed by a current or former partner, and domestic violence

:38:56. > :38:58.accounts for a quarter of all violent crime. Can the Prime

:38:59. > :39:02.Minister explain why one third of those referred to women's refuges in

:39:03. > :39:07.England are now being turned away? We have put more money into refuges

:39:08. > :39:15.and the Chancellor will have something to say about funding

:39:16. > :39:18.women's charities in his Autumn Statement today. The fact is, when

:39:19. > :39:22.it comes to rape crisis centres that we protect or domestic violence

:39:23. > :39:25.centres that we fund, this government has a good record on

:39:26. > :39:30.helping women and making sure that the crime of domestic violence is

:39:31. > :39:41.properly investigated by the police and prosecuted in our courts. 20, Mr

:39:42. > :39:46.Speaker. The late Denise Marshall who was chair of a domestic violence

:39:47. > :39:49.charity put this throw well when she said, if you are a woman who has

:39:50. > :39:55.experienced some form of violence, I believe you have the right to the

:39:56. > :40:00.very best service and the community owes you a right to recover. In

:40:01. > :40:04.2012, the Prime Minister's government signed the Istanbul

:40:05. > :40:07.convention on preventing and combating violence against women.

:40:08. > :40:13.This would make women's support services statutory and would have

:40:14. > :40:16.stopped the closure of Eve's. Will the primers to tell the House when

:40:17. > :40:23.he will ratify the Istanbul convention. We are going further

:40:24. > :40:28.than that. We will be putting more money into women's charities,

:40:29. > :40:31.including charities which fight domestic violence, which fight rape

:40:32. > :40:36.and make sure we cut out these appalling crimes in our country. In

:40:37. > :40:40.addition to that, we have also done more than any previous government,

:40:41. > :40:44.in terms of preventing forced marriage and preventing the horrors

:40:45. > :40:47.of FGM which do not just happen in Nigeria and countries in North

:40:48. > :40:54.Africa, they happen here in our country as well. I don't think any

:40:55. > :40:59.government before this one has a stronger record on those grounds.

:41:00. > :41:02.Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have many constituents and Lewis who come to

:41:03. > :41:07.my surgery desperate to end their own home. Many of them are on a low

:41:08. > :41:12.income and they recognise that a monthly mortgage payment would be

:41:13. > :41:15.significantly lower than that current monthly rental payments.

:41:16. > :41:19.Does my right honourable friend share in the excitement of any of my

:41:20. > :41:23.constituents, towards the starter homes initiative contained in the

:41:24. > :41:26.housing bill which will see affordable housing lower than the

:41:27. > :41:32.monthly outgoings of many people in this country?

:41:33. > :41:36.I do share my honourable friend's enthusiasm for that. Clearly there

:41:37. > :41:41.are lots of individual interventions like help by which has basically put

:41:42. > :41:44.buying homes in the of many more people by reducing the deposits they

:41:45. > :41:50.need. We can help people to save which we do with our Help to Buy ISA

:41:51. > :41:55.will stop our biggest contribution we can make is by building more

:41:56. > :41:57.housing which we will be doing during this Parliament, and

:41:58. > :42:01.crucially by maintaining during this Parliament, and

:42:02. > :42:06.secure and stable economy with low interest rates so people can afford

:42:07. > :42:10.to take out a mortgage. May I begin by associating the

:42:11. > :42:11.Scottish National Party with the condolences of the Prime Minister.

:42:12. > :42:15.Having spoken to him last condolences of the Prime Minister.

:42:16. > :42:19.aware of how much a personal loss it is to him and also to

:42:20. > :42:21.aware of how much a personal loss it Martin's family and friends. The

:42:22. > :42:24.fatal dangers of Martin's family and friends. The

:42:25. > :42:29.consequences and escalation in Syria, are clear for everybody to

:42:30. > :42:32.consequences and escalation in see in these days. It is agreed that

:42:33. > :42:36.an air campaign alone will not lead to the ultimate defeat of Daesh on

:42:37. > :42:39.the ground and ground forces will be needed. How many troops and from

:42:40. > :42:44.which countries does the Prime Minister having his plan for Syria?

:42:45. > :42:50.Firstly, can I thank the right honourable gentleman for his

:42:51. > :42:53.comments on Chris Martin who I know helped all members of this House

:42:54. > :42:58.when they had enquiries. Let me deal with the issue of Syria.

:42:59. > :43:03.I am not for one moment arguing that action from the air alone can solve

:43:04. > :43:07.the very serious problem we have with Isil. Clearly we need a

:43:08. > :43:12.political settlement in Syria and government in Syria which can act on

:43:13. > :43:17.pensively with us against Isil. The question for the House that we need

:43:18. > :43:21.to address tomorrow and in the to come, can we afford to wait for that

:43:22. > :43:26.political settlement before we act? My view is, we cannot wait for that

:43:27. > :43:29.political settlement. Should we should work as hard as we can for it

:43:30. > :43:34.but we should be acting now with our allies, because it is about keeping

:43:35. > :43:39.our own people and our own country safe. He asked specifically about

:43:40. > :43:41.ground troops. There are troops in Syria. The three Syrian army and the

:43:42. > :43:45.Kurdish forces that would work Syria. The three Syrian army and the

:43:46. > :43:55.us to help eliminate Isil, but the full range of ground troops will

:43:56. > :43:57.only be a valuable when there is a political settlement in Syria. The

:43:58. > :43:59.question is simple, can we wait for that political settlement before

:44:00. > :44:02.taking action to keep our people safe at home, and my answer is, we

:44:03. > :44:07.cannot afford to wait. The United Kingdom spent 13 times more bombing

:44:08. > :44:11.Libya then investing in its reconstruction after the overthrow

:44:12. > :44:16.of the Gaddafi regime. We construct in Syria will be essential to

:44:17. > :44:18.of the Gaddafi regime. We construct restore stability and allow refugees

:44:19. > :44:23.to return. How much does the Prime Minister estimate this will cost and

:44:24. > :44:25.how much has he allocated from the UK?

:44:26. > :44:29.We have one of the largest development budgets anywhere in the

:44:30. > :44:32.world as is the support that we have given to Syrian refugees which

:44:33. > :44:34.stands at one of the largest development budgets anywhere in the

:44:35. > :44:36.world as is the support that we have given to Syrian refugees which

:44:37. > :44:39.stands at ?1.2 billion in demonstrates. Part of our plan will

:44:40. > :44:44.be to help fund the reconstruction and rebuilding of Syria alongside

:44:45. > :44:48.the political deal that we believe is necessary. I would far rather

:44:49. > :44:52.frankly spend the money reconstructing Syria, than in

:44:53. > :44:59.supporting people kept away from their homes, kept away from their

:45:00. > :45:03.country, who do you want to return. I know that my right honourable

:45:04. > :45:08.friend was aware of the growing cause of concern surrounding the

:45:09. > :45:15.conviction of Alexander Blackman, the former Royal Marine

:45:16. > :45:19.non-commissioned officer who shot an insurgent in 2011. If there is

:45:20. > :45:23.indeed new evidence and many feel that has been a miscarriage of

:45:24. > :45:27.justice, would my right honourable friend agree with me that it is

:45:28. > :45:36.right that this matter should be looked into again? This is exactly

:45:37. > :45:39.what the Criminal Cases Review Commission is there to look at,

:45:40. > :45:43.where there may have been a miscarriage of justice. We gave the

:45:44. > :45:46.internal report of the Naval services to Sergeant Blackman's

:45:47. > :45:50.legal advisers. There is proper disclosure in this case and the

:45:51. > :45:52.legal team have said they look at the option of applying to the

:45:53. > :45:56.Criminal Cases Review Commission. Let me say while we are on this

:45:57. > :46:01.point that our Royal Marines have a worldwide reputation as one of the

:46:02. > :46:06.world's elite fighting forces. They have made an success, and incredible

:46:07. > :46:14.conservation to our country and we should pay tribute to them. The

:46:15. > :46:18.Government's handle of child sexual abuse inquiries has done little to

:46:19. > :46:23.instil public confidence so far. The Gothard inquiry announced they had

:46:24. > :46:26.accidentally and permanently deleted all of the victim testimony

:46:27. > :46:32.submitted through the website over an 18 day period, without anyone

:46:33. > :46:35.from the inquiry ever reading now. These victims deserve justice, and

:46:36. > :46:39.for their voices to be heard. Can the Prime Minister please tell the

:46:40. > :46:44.House what independent investigation has taken place to establish the

:46:45. > :46:48.cause of the data loss and to establish whether or not there was

:46:49. > :46:56.any criminality behind it? I am sure the whole House will welcome the

:46:57. > :46:59.fact that the Goddard inquiries about running. The best way to get

:47:00. > :47:05.justice for these victims is to make sure we have the full independent

:47:06. > :47:09.inquiry. The specific issue she raises, it is a matter for the

:47:10. > :47:12.inquiry, if there is further details, I will write to her, what

:47:13. > :47:22.matters is that it is up and running. 3000 jobs in Newark were

:47:23. > :47:32.lost and a Labour. This month, we celebrate the 10,000 new job in

:47:33. > :47:35.Newark since 2010. Does the Prime Minister agree that once again

:47:36. > :47:43.Newark leads the way to a strong economy, high employment, higher

:47:44. > :47:47.wages and lower welfare? I'm delighted to hear that Newark has

:47:48. > :47:50.met this landmark and it is worth remembering that these 10,000

:47:51. > :47:55.figures, they are 10,000 people, each with a job, with a livelihood,

:47:56. > :47:59.with the chance to support their families. I well remember visiting

:48:00. > :48:03.my honourable friend's constituency. I can't promise to visit as many

:48:04. > :48:12.times in this Parliament as the last, but I do recognise a business

:48:13. > :48:16.that we visited announced the creation of over 200 jobs. I am sure

:48:17. > :48:25.others will follow. Has the Prime Minister ever heard of Alan

:48:26. > :48:28.Cartwright, Stefan Appleton? Teenagers that were stabbed to death

:48:29. > :48:39.on the streets of Islington last year. Vaso was murdered just two

:48:40. > :48:42.days ago. Given the growing culture of drugs, guns and violence in my

:48:43. > :48:46.borough and many others like it, does the Prime Minister really think

:48:47. > :48:49.it is in the interests of my constituents, for their safety and

:48:50. > :48:53.security, to cut the Metropolitan Police? First of all, every life

:48:54. > :48:57.lost in a way that she talks about is a tragedy. Many of these lives

:48:58. > :49:01.have been lost because of drugs, gangs and because of my crime.

:49:02. > :49:08.Overall, knife crime has come down over the last few years, which is

:49:09. > :49:11.welcome. There are still too many people carrying a knife and not

:49:12. > :49:14.recognising that not only is it against the law, it is also an

:49:15. > :49:17.enormous danger to themselves and others. We will continue with the

:49:18. > :49:20.tough approach on knife crime, with the work we're doing to disband and

:49:21. > :49:24.break of gangs and the work to try to deal with the problems of drugs.

:49:25. > :49:28.When it comes to policing, what we have seen in London is an increase

:49:29. > :49:32.in neighbourhood policing. The Metropolitan Police have done a good

:49:33. > :49:41.job at cutting back-office costs and putting police on streets. After

:49:42. > :49:44.many years of neglect under Labour, Cornwall is once again seeing

:49:45. > :49:50.investment in roads, railways, airport and in tourism. But Cornwall

:49:51. > :49:55.is ambitious to diversify its economy and become a centre for the

:49:56. > :50:02.UK aerospace industry. Indeed, Newquay airport is to be the

:50:03. > :50:05.forerunner for the creation of a UK spaceport. Could the Prime Minister

:50:06. > :50:09.provide an update on the decision, and does he agree with me that

:50:10. > :50:13.Newquay would be the perfect place for it? It is good in this

:50:14. > :50:20.Parliament we have such strong voices for Cornwall speaking up for

:50:21. > :50:24.that county and making sure that it makes the resources it needs. I'm a

:50:25. > :50:28.strong supporter of the airport, not just as a user, but also I think it

:50:29. > :50:32.provides the opportunity for a hope of great businesses in Cornwall. We

:50:33. > :50:35.want to become the European hub for space flight, which will attract

:50:36. > :50:39.further investment into the UK and create jobs. There are a number of

:50:40. > :50:42.other airports in the running, I wish them all well and I can tell

:50:43. > :50:50.him we are aiming to launch selection process next year. The

:50:51. > :50:55.Government and I disagree on much of what constitutes progress on gender

:50:56. > :50:59.equality, but I agreed with the Prime Minister when he pledged to

:51:00. > :51:02.change the law to include mothers on marriage certificates. I have heard

:51:03. > :51:08.nothing since. I wondered if the Prime Minister agreed with me that,

:51:09. > :51:11.with the fast approaching birth of my daughter, I would like to be

:51:12. > :51:16.valued as equally in her life as my husband. Will the Prime Minister

:51:17. > :51:22.take this important, symbolic step to ensure that mothers are not

:51:23. > :51:27.written out of history? This is an area where the honourable lady and I

:51:28. > :51:31.agree. My understanding is that the proposals for legislation have gone

:51:32. > :51:34.to the relevant committee in Government and she has made a very

:51:35. > :51:42.articulate case for why that bill should be included in the next

:51:43. > :51:46.session. Will the Prime Minister join with me in commending the

:51:47. > :51:50.French government for facing down terror are continuing with the

:51:51. > :51:54.climate summit in Paris next week, and will acknowledge the important

:51:55. > :51:58.role of legislators such as at the Globe Summit on the fourth and 5th

:51:59. > :52:01.of December, does he agree with me that his personal presence in Paris

:52:02. > :52:07.sends a message out to the world about our continuing commitment to a

:52:08. > :52:10.lasting climate deal? I am grateful for what my honourable friend says.

:52:11. > :52:14.I will certainly be going to Paris to the start of this vital

:52:15. > :52:17.Conference, to set out what Britain and the European Union will be doing

:52:18. > :52:21.to bring about this deal. What we put on the table in terms of climate

:52:22. > :52:24.finance, nearly $9 billion over the next five years, is one of the most

:52:25. > :52:30.generous offers made by any country anywhere in the world. The good news

:52:31. > :52:34.about the Paris Conference is that we are going to see China and

:52:35. > :52:37.America as signatories to a deal. That means that much more of the

:52:38. > :52:42.world's emissions are going to be covered by the deal. What we have to

:52:43. > :52:48.make sure we achieve is to make sure it is a proper deal with proper

:52:49. > :52:52.review clauses, to make sure we keep to 2 degrees. Nobody should be in

:52:53. > :52:57.any doubt that Britain is playing a leading role, and has lead by

:52:58. > :53:00.example and with money. Mr Speaker, there will never be a future where

:53:01. > :53:06.we do not need steel, but the Government is spending millions of

:53:07. > :53:10.pounds to compensate for the use of you... -- loss of UK steel-making.

:53:11. > :53:13.Guy Aston Prime Minister he will send a clear signal that he will do

:53:14. > :53:21.whatever it takes to back a sustainable, cutting-edge UK steel

:53:22. > :53:25.future? We want to see more steel across the world stamped with made

:53:26. > :53:29.in Britain. I completely agree with the honourable lady. We want to

:53:30. > :53:34.support the steel business, which is why we are taking action on

:53:35. > :53:39.procurement. When we look at what we have done through the Royal Navy,

:53:40. > :53:42.what we can do through Railtrack and other organisations, we can back

:53:43. > :53:49.British Steel. We are also going to be exempting users like British

:53:50. > :53:57.Steel from energy usage charges. It does go to the questions asked by

:53:58. > :54:00.the leader of the position. If we endlessly pressure builds for

:54:01. > :54:04.everybody else, it costs more to exempt the high users. Everything we

:54:05. > :54:06.can do to help British Steel, including a very clear

:54:07. > :54:08.infrastructure plan you will be hearing about in a minute, is all to

:54:09. > :54:22.the good. In 2010, unemployment in my

:54:23. > :54:27.constituency stood at 5% of the population. It has now dropped to

:54:28. > :54:32.just 1.6%. I am sure my honourable friend agrees with me, to help those

:54:33. > :54:36.people still unemployed and boost productivity and wages in places

:54:37. > :54:39.like wire forest, we need to offer more opportunities for skills

:54:40. > :54:45.training. Does my right honourable friend agree with that, and what

:54:46. > :54:51.more can the Government offer in order to help places like Wyre

:54:52. > :54:57.Forest? All young people should have a real choice of being able to take

:54:58. > :55:01.on in chilly an apprenticeship, or to be able to go to a university. We

:55:02. > :55:04.don't want everybody left behind. Everybody should have that choice.

:55:05. > :55:11.He is right that unemployment has fallen in his constituency, as

:55:12. > :55:15.around the company. The fact is, Britain, over those five years, has

:55:16. > :55:18.grown as fast as any other G-7 country in terms of economic

:55:19. > :55:23.performance. You can now look back and see that the decisions made in

:55:24. > :55:25.2010, 2011, 2012, difficult decisions, but they laid the

:55:26. > :55:31.platform for decisions, but they laid the

:55:32. > :55:37.growth and jobs. Education in Bradford is facing a funding and

:55:38. > :55:42.school places crisis and we remain at the bottom of the league tables.

:55:43. > :55:47.Bradford's children cannot be failed any longer. Will the Prime Minister

:55:48. > :55:52.support my call for a Bradford Challenge, based on the highly

:55:53. > :55:57.successful London Challenge? Will he stop the dangerous changes to the

:55:58. > :56:02.schools funding formula that will drag the children Bradford further

:56:03. > :56:10.into the land of inequality, despair and neglect? We made commitments at

:56:11. > :56:15.the last election about funding our schools, funding school places. We

:56:16. > :56:19.will be keeping all of those commitments, not just the revenue

:56:20. > :56:21.that we provide for schools, where we will not be reducing the amount

:56:22. > :56:25.per pupil, but also spending much we will not be reducing the amount

:56:26. > :56:27.more on new school places in this Parliament than in the Parliament

:56:28. > :56:31.that preceded Parliament than in the Parliament

:56:32. > :56:35.Minister. We are also helping with building new academy chains and free

:56:36. > :56:40.schools, they are available for his constituency, as for others. Does my

:56:41. > :56:44.right honourable friend the Prime Minister agree with me that the

:56:45. > :56:47.turmoil in northern Iraq and Syria gives opportunities to resolve

:56:48. > :56:51.long-standing international disputes, not least with Russia?

:56:52. > :56:54.Does he agree with me that the attack on the Russian bomber,

:56:55. > :56:59.something that never happened in the whole of the duration of the Cold

:57:00. > :57:03.War, was disproportionate, and we need to make sure absolutely that we

:57:04. > :57:09.do not get into conflict with Russia over Syria? What I would say to my

:57:10. > :57:12.honourable friend is, look, I think there are opportunities for sensible

:57:13. > :57:17.discussions with Russia about the agenda in Syria, which is about a

:57:18. > :57:21.political transition, so there can be a Government that represents all

:57:22. > :57:26.of the people of Syria. I have that conversation with President Putin

:57:27. > :57:29.last week. He mentions the issue of the downed Russian jet. The facts on

:57:30. > :57:35.this not yet clear. I think we should respect Turkey's right to

:57:36. > :57:42.respect its airspace, as we defend our own. I think we have to get to

:57:43. > :57:46.the bottom of what happened. The Prime Minister very often tells us

:57:47. > :57:49.that the first duty of any government is to protect the

:57:50. > :57:54.public. Will he give an undertaking to restore the cuts to the police

:57:55. > :57:59.and emergency services to ensure that the public in this country are

:58:00. > :58:03.protected? I think this Government has a good record of protecting the

:58:04. > :58:07.public, not least because we protected counterterrorism policing

:58:08. > :58:11.and we had a funding situation with the police that enabled them to help

:58:12. > :58:17.in a cut of crime of 31% since I became Prime Minister.

:58:18. > :58:25.Thank you, Mr Speaker. John Wharton, a good driver, destroyed the lives

:58:26. > :58:28.of Amy Baxter and Hayley Jones, with Miss Baxter being so severely

:58:29. > :58:35.injured she is paralysed from the neck down and in hospital 16 months

:58:36. > :58:40.later. He was sentenced to just a 3 month driving ban, a fine and a 20

:58:41. > :58:43.week tag. Weeks later he successfully applied to Bolton

:58:44. > :58:47.Magistrates' Court for his type to be removed so he could go on holiday

:58:48. > :58:51.to a stag party. Would my right honourable friend looked to issue

:58:52. > :58:55.guidance to magistrates that a tag, when part of a sentence, should

:58:56. > :58:58.never be removed to allow criminals to go on holiday? I think my

:58:59. > :59:02.honourable friend makes a very powerful point and I will look at

:59:03. > :59:08.this very carefully. Let me first of all express my sympathy to the

:59:09. > :59:12.victim and her family, in what is, undoubtedly, a very distressing

:59:13. > :59:16.case. It is always very difficult to comment on specific cases, I was not

:59:17. > :59:20.sitting in the courthouse and here all the arguments that were made,

:59:21. > :59:26.but the point he makes seems to be very sensible, a punishment as a

:59:27. > :59:30.punishment and he's making a case. The Middle East is increasingly

:59:31. > :59:35.resembling the central Europe of a century ago, minorities, linguistic,

:59:36. > :59:39.religious or sexual, find themselves under more pressure than ever. I, my

:59:40. > :59:46.constituents and the Scottish National Party understand the threat

:59:47. > :59:48.posed to these groups by Daesh. How is the Prime Minister planning to

:59:49. > :59:58.prosecute a bombing campaign that does not alter the demographic map

:59:59. > :00:03.of the Middle East, preventing Ross Hill becoming the new Budapest? We

:00:04. > :00:10.will set up the items tomorrow, but there is a clear and present danger

:00:11. > :00:13.to the United Kingdom of Isil, based in Syria, planning attacks against

:00:14. > :00:18.our country today. We don't live in a perfect world and we can't deliver

:00:19. > :00:22.a perfect strategy, but we can deliver a clear, long-term strategy

:00:23. > :00:25.that can work. He talks about the lessons we learned from the last

:00:26. > :00:28.century. One of the lessons I say we should learn from the last century

:00:29. > :00:34.is when your country is under threat, when you face aggression

:00:35. > :00:37.against your country, you cannot endlessly sit around and dream about

:00:38. > :00:54.a perfect world, you need to act in the world we are in. Will my right

:00:55. > :01:00.honourable friend join me in congratulating all the staff at a

:01:01. > :01:05.local birthing unit. They scored 100% on their friends and family

:01:06. > :01:10.survey for satisfaction and care. The commitment of midwives is only

:01:11. > :01:15.matched by the Conservatives' commitment to the NHS. With two

:01:16. > :01:19.elections in a row, we have promised and delivered greater investment in

:01:20. > :01:23.our National Health Service than Labour.

:01:24. > :01:28.Can I say to my honourable friend, she is absolutely right to highlight

:01:29. > :01:31.the friends and family test. It is a simple way of measuring whether our

:01:32. > :01:35.hospitals are delivering great care. As well as good schemes to make sure

:01:36. > :01:39.you would want your friends and family treated in a hospital, we

:01:40. > :01:42.need to provide the resources for that hospital and that is what we

:01:43. > :01:46.are doing with the spending figures announced today. Crucially on

:01:47. > :01:50.childbirth, it is not often I stand here" the Daily Mirror, but it is

:01:51. > :02:03.worth looking at what they are raising about the importance of a

:02:04. > :02:06.seven-day NHS and making sure we have high standards across our NHS

:02:07. > :02:08.every day of the week. As well as the extra money this government is

:02:09. > :02:10.putting into the NHS, a seven-day NHS would also mean a much stronger

:02:11. > :02:13.NHS. The big lottery fund supports local

:02:14. > :02:22.projects in my constituency, including the Gate, a small children

:02:23. > :02:26.was a playground and a women's project which plays a vital role in

:02:27. > :02:31.supporting the vulnerable people this Parliament has left behind.

:02:32. > :02:33.Would-be Prime Minister join me in congratulating these local projects

:02:34. > :02:39.on their work, and reassure the House that this government will

:02:40. > :02:44.protect the lottery funding earmarked for charity and community

:02:45. > :02:49.projects? We will certainly protect the big

:02:50. > :02:55.lottery fund. It does an excellent job. One of the things the United

:02:56. > :02:57.Kingdom brings is a bigger National Lottery, a bigger pot which can

:02:58. > :03:06.support Scottish charities and let me just make this point, following

:03:07. > :03:10.what has happened to the oil price, if there was a Scottish November

:03:11. > :03:15.Autumn Statement, it would be a statement that was about cuts, cuts,

:03:16. > :03:32.cuts, taxes, taxes, taxes and no relief from the National Lottery.

:03:33. > :03:37.Order. Order. Mr Brendan McNeill. Mr Angus Brendan McNeill. Calm

:03:38. > :03:42.yourself. You may be a cheeky chappie, but you also an

:03:43. > :03:48.exceptionally noisy one. Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

:03:49. > :03:57.Mr Speaker. This Spending Review delivers on the commitment we made

:03:58. > :04:02.to the British people that we would put security first. To protect our

:04:03. > :04:08.economic security by taking the difficult decisions to live within

:04:09. > :04:13.our means, and bring down our debt. And to protect our national security

:04:14. > :04:18.by defending our country's interests abroad and keeping our citizens safe

:04:19. > :04:23.at home. Economic and national security provide the foundations for

:04:24. > :04:28.everything we want to support. Opportunity for all. The aspirations

:04:29. > :04:32.of families, the strong country we want to build. Five years ago, when

:04:33. > :04:37.I presented our first Spending Review, our economy was in crisis,

:04:38. > :04:44.and as their letter said, there was no money left. We were borrowing ?1

:04:45. > :04:50.in every forward is spent, and our job then was to rescue Britain.

:04:51. > :04:56.Today, as we present this Spending Review, our job is to rebuild

:04:57. > :05:01.Britain, build our finances, build our defences, build our society, so

:05:02. > :05:05.that Britain becomes the most prosperous and secure of all the

:05:06. > :05:09.major nations of the world. And so we leave to the next generation a

:05:10. > :05:12.stronger country than the one we inherited. That is what this

:05:13. > :05:18.government was elected to do, and today we set out the plan to deliver

:05:19. > :05:23.on that commitment. Mr Speaker, we have committed to running a

:05:24. > :05:27.surplus. Today, I can confirm that the four-year public spending plans

:05:28. > :05:31.I have set out are forecast to deliver that surplus, so we don't

:05:32. > :05:38.borrow forever, and are ready for whatever storms lie ahead. We

:05:39. > :05:42.promise to bring our debts down. Today, the forecast I present shows

:05:43. > :05:47.that after the longest period of rising debt in our modern history,

:05:48. > :05:56.this year, our debt will fall and keep falling in every year that

:05:57. > :06:01.follows. We promised to move Britain from being a high welfare low-wage

:06:02. > :06:05.economy, to being a lower welfare are higher wage economy. Today I can

:06:06. > :06:10.tell the House that the ?12 billion of welfare savings we committed to

:06:11. > :06:19.at the election will be delivered in full, and delivered in a way that

:06:20. > :06:21.helps families as we make the transition to our national Living

:06:22. > :06:25.Wage. We promised that we would strengthen our national defences,

:06:26. > :06:30.take the fight to our nation's enemies, and protect our country's

:06:31. > :06:33.influence abroad. Today, this Spending Review delivers the

:06:34. > :06:38.resources to make sure Britain, unique in the world, will meet its

:06:39. > :06:43.twin obligations to spend 7% of its income on development, and 2% on the

:06:44. > :06:47.defence of the realm. At this Spending Review not only ensures the

:06:48. > :06:51.economic and national security of our country, it builds on it. It

:06:52. > :06:56.sets out far-reaching changes to what the state does and how it does

:06:57. > :07:01.it. It reforms our public services so we truly extend opportunity to

:07:02. > :07:05.all, whether it is the way we educate our children, train our

:07:06. > :07:08.workforce, rehabilitate our prisoners, provide homes for our

:07:09. > :07:13.families, deliver care for our elderly and sick, or the way we hand

:07:14. > :07:17.back power to local communities, this is a big Spending Review by a

:07:18. > :07:24.government that does big things. It is a long-term economic plan for our

:07:25. > :07:28.country's future. Mr Speaker, nothing is possible without the

:07:29. > :07:33.foundations of a strong economy. Let be turned to the new forecast

:07:34. > :07:37.provided by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility and let me

:07:38. > :07:42.thank Robert choked and his team for their work. Since the summer budget,

:07:43. > :07:46.new economic data has been published which confirms this, since

:07:47. > :07:50.new economic data has been published economy in the G7 has grown faster

:07:51. > :07:54.than Britain -- Robert Chote. We have grown three times faster than

:07:55. > :07:59.Japan, twice as fast as France, faster than Germany and the same

:08:00. > :08:02.rate as the United States. That growth has not been fuelled by an

:08:03. > :08:04.irresponsible banking boom such as in the last decade.

:08:05. > :08:06.irresponsible banking boom such as investment has grown twice as fast

:08:07. > :08:14.as consumption. Exports faster than imports and the North

:08:15. > :08:19.has grown faster than the south. We are determined that this will be an

:08:20. > :08:24.economic recovery felt in all parts of our nation. That is already

:08:25. > :08:29.happening. In which area of the country are we seeing the strongest

:08:30. > :08:33.jobs growth? Not just in our capital city, the Midlands is creating jobs

:08:34. > :08:38.three times faster than London and the south-east. In the past year we

:08:39. > :08:41.have seen more feeble in work in the Northern Powerhouse than ever

:08:42. > :08:46.before. And where do we have the highest employment rate of any pout

:08:47. > :08:53.of our country? In the south-west of England. Our long-term economic plan

:08:54. > :08:57.is working. But the OBR reminds us today of the huge challenges we

:08:58. > :09:02.still face at home and abroad. Our debts are too high and our deficit

:09:03. > :09:07.remains. Productivity is growing but we still lag behind most of our

:09:08. > :09:11.competitors. I can tell the House that in today's forecast, the

:09:12. > :09:17.expectations for world growth and world trade have been revised down

:09:18. > :09:21.again. The weakness of the eurozone remains a persistent problem. There

:09:22. > :09:24.are rising concerns about debts in emerging economies. These are yet

:09:25. > :09:30.more reasons why we are determined to take the necessary steps to

:09:31. > :09:36.protect our economic security. That brings me to the forecast for our

:09:37. > :09:41.own GDP. Even with the weaker global picture, our economy this year is

:09:42. > :09:44.predicted to grow by 2.4%. Growth is then revised up from the Budget

:09:45. > :09:54.forecast in the next two years, to two years, and two x 5%. If then

:09:55. > :10:02.starts to return to its long-term trend with growth of 2.4% in 2018

:10:03. > :10:06.and 2.3% in 2019 and 2020. That growth this more balanced than in

:10:07. > :10:10.the past. Whole economy investment is set to grow faster in Britain

:10:11. > :10:15.than in any other major advanced economy in the world, this year, the

:10:16. > :10:22.next year, and the year after that. Mr Speaker, when I presented my

:10:23. > :10:26.first Spending Review in 2010, I set this country on the path of living

:10:27. > :10:30.within its means. Our opponents claimed the growth would be choked

:10:31. > :10:36.off, and million jobs would be lost and inequality would rise. Every

:10:37. > :10:44.single one of those projections has proved to be completely wrong --

:10:45. > :10:47.predictions. So too did the claim that Britain had to choose between

:10:48. > :10:54.sound public finances and great public services. It is a false

:10:55. > :10:58.choice. If you are bowled with your reforms, you can have both. That is

:10:59. > :11:01.why when we have been reducing government spending, crime has

:11:02. > :11:06.fallen, and million more children have been educated in good and

:11:07. > :11:11.outstanding schools and public satisfaction with our local services

:11:12. > :11:15.has risen. That is the exact opposite of what our critics

:11:16. > :11:18.predicted. And yet now, the same people are making similar claims

:11:19. > :11:22.about this Spending Review, as we seek to move Britain out of deficit

:11:23. > :11:27.and into surplus. They are completely wrong again. The OBR has

:11:28. > :11:32.seen our public expenditure plans, analysed our effect on our economy.

:11:33. > :11:36.Forecast today is that the economy will grow robustly every year,

:11:37. > :11:40.living standards will rise every year, and more than a million extra

:11:41. > :11:47.jobs will be created over the next five years. That is because sound

:11:48. > :11:52.public finances are not the enemy of sustained growth, they are its

:11:53. > :11:56.precondition. Our economic plan puts the security of working people

:11:57. > :12:01.first, so we are prepared for the inevitable storms that lie ahead.

:12:02. > :12:05.That is why our charter for budget responsibility commits us to

:12:06. > :12:10.reducing the debt to GDP ratio in each and every year of Parliament,

:12:11. > :12:14.reaching a surplus in 2019-20, and keeping that surplus at normal

:12:15. > :12:18.times. I can confirm that the OBR has certified that the economic plan

:12:19. > :12:24.we present delivers on our commitment. Mr Speaker, that brings

:12:25. > :12:29.me to the forecast for debt and deficit. As usual, the OBR has had

:12:30. > :12:34.access to published and unpublished data and has made its own assessment

:12:35. > :12:38.of our public finances. Since the summer budget, housing associations

:12:39. > :12:42.in England have been reclassified by our independent Office for National

:12:43. > :12:46.Statistics, and their borrowing and debts have been brought on to the

:12:47. > :12:53.public balance sheet and that change will be backdated to 2008. This is a

:12:54. > :12:59.statistical change and therefore, the OBR has recalculated its

:13:00. > :13:04.previous budget forecast to include housing associations, so we can

:13:05. > :13:10.compare like with like. On that new measure, debt was forecast in July

:13:11. > :13:15.to be 83.6% of national income this year. Now today in the sort and

:13:16. > :13:20.statement, we forecast debt to be lower at 82.5% -- now today in this

:13:21. > :13:30.Autumn Statement. It then falls every year... Order, order. Mr

:13:31. > :13:36.Lewis, get a grip of yourself, man! Calm, take up yoga, you will find it

:13:37. > :13:40.beneficial, man. The Record shows that the Chancellor stays for a very

:13:41. > :13:45.considerable period after his statement, to respond to questions,

:13:46. > :13:50.and members will always find the chair a friend if they wish to

:13:51. > :13:59.question the Minister. Yes, they will. Those who have questions to

:14:00. > :14:04.ask will be heard. Meanwhile, the Chancellor will be heard. The

:14:05. > :14:08.Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Speaker, I am looking forward to

:14:09. > :14:15.it. Now, on that new measure, debt was forecast in July to be 83.6% of

:14:16. > :14:20.national income. Now today in this Autumn Statement they forecast debt

:14:21. > :14:32.to be lower at it then falls every year down to 81.7% next year, down

:14:33. > :14:39.to 77.9%, then 77.3%, reaching 71.3% in 2020, 2021. In every single year,

:14:40. > :14:45.the national debt as a share of national income is lower than when I

:14:46. > :14:49.presented the Budget for months ago. And this improvement in the

:14:50. > :14:56.nation's finances is due to two things. First, the OBR expects tax

:14:57. > :15:01.receipts to be stronger, a sign that our economy is healthier than

:15:02. > :15:05.thought. Second, debt interest payments are expected to be lower,

:15:06. > :15:10.reflecting the further fall in the rates we paid to our creditors.

:15:11. > :15:16.Combine the effects of better tax receipts and lower debt interest,

:15:17. > :15:20.overall the OBR calculates, aiming to 27 7p improvement in our public

:15:21. > :15:28.finances over the forecast period compared to where we were at the

:15:29. > :15:33.Budget. This improvement in the nation's finances allows me to do

:15:34. > :15:36.the following. First, we will borrow ?8 billion less than we forecast,

:15:37. > :15:40.making faster progress towards eliminating the deficit and paying

:15:41. > :15:53.down the debt, fixing the roof when the sun is shining. Second, we will

:15:54. > :15:57.spend ?12 billion more on capital investments, making faster progress

:15:58. > :16:03.to building the infrastructure our country needs. Third, the improved

:16:04. > :16:08.public finances allow us to reach the same goal of a surplus, while

:16:09. > :16:13.cutting less in the early years. We can smooth the path to the same

:16:14. > :16:21.destination. That means we can help on tax credits. I have been asked to

:16:22. > :16:26.to help in the transition as we move to the higher wages, lower welfare

:16:27. > :16:29.society that the country wants to see. I have heard representations

:16:30. > :16:33.that these changes to tax credits should be phased in. I have listened

:16:34. > :16:37.to the concerns, I hear and understand them, and because I have

:16:38. > :16:39.been able to announce today an improvement in the public finances,

:16:40. > :16:47.the simple thing to do is not to phase them in, but to avoid them

:16:48. > :16:51.altogether. Tax credits are being phased out anyway as we introduce

:16:52. > :16:59.Universal Credit. What that means is that the tax credit tabor rate and

:17:00. > :17:05.threshold remain unchanged, the disregard will be ?2500. I propose

:17:06. > :17:09.no further changes to the Universal Credit taper or the work allowances,

:17:10. > :17:13.beyond those passed through Parliament last week. The minimum

:17:14. > :17:17.income floor in Universal Credit will rise with the National Living

:17:18. > :17:21.Wage. I set a lower welfare cap in the Budget. The House should know

:17:22. > :17:25.that helping with the transition obviously means we will not be

:17:26. > :17:29.within that lower welfare cap in the first years, but the House should

:17:30. > :17:35.also know that, thanks to the welfare reforms, we meet the cap in

:17:36. > :17:37.the later part of this Parliament, indeed, on the figures published

:17:38. > :17:40.today, we still achieve indeed, on the figures published

:17:41. > :17:48.billion per year of welfare savings we promised. Now, that is because of

:17:49. > :17:52.the permanent savings we have already made, and the further

:17:53. > :17:55.long-term reforms we announced today. The rate of housing benefit

:17:56. > :17:59.in the social sector will be capped at the relevant local housing

:18:00. > :18:03.allowance, in other words, the same rate paid to those in the private

:18:04. > :18:08.rented sector who receive the same benefit. That will apply to new

:18:09. > :18:13.tenants is only. It will also stop paying housing benefit and pension

:18:14. > :18:17.credit payments for people that have left the country more than a month.

:18:18. > :18:21.The welfare system should be fair to those that need it, and fair to

:18:22. > :18:24.those who pay for it as well. Improved public finances our

:18:25. > :18:28.continued commitment to form mean we continue to be on target for a

:18:29. > :18:32.surplus. The House will want to know the level of that surplus. Let me

:18:33. > :18:36.give the OBR forecast for deficit and borrowing. In 2010,

:18:37. > :18:38.give the OBR forecast for deficit we inherited was estimated to be

:18:39. > :18:43.11.1% of we inherited was estimated to be

:18:44. > :18:48.it is set to be almost a third of that, 3.9%. Next year, it falls to

:18:49. > :18:52.less than a quarter of what we inherited, 2.5%.

:18:53. > :18:55.less than a quarter of what we down again to

:18:56. > :18:56.less than a quarter of what we to just 0.2% a year after that,

:18:57. > :19:02.before moving to just 0.2% a year after that,

:19:03. > :19:06.of national income in 1919-20, rising to 0.6% the following year.

:19:07. > :19:10.Let me turn to the cash borrowing figures. With house borrowing

:19:11. > :19:15.figures included, the OBR predicted at the time of the Budget that

:19:16. > :19:19.Britain would borrow ?74.1 billion this year. They now forecast we will

:19:20. > :19:24.borrow less than that, at 73.5 billion. Borrowing them falls to

:19:25. > :19:28.49.9 billion next year. It continues to fall, and falls to lower than was

:19:29. > :19:32.forecast in the Budget in every single year after that, to 24.8

:19:33. > :19:34.billion next year. It continues to fall, and falls to lower than was

:19:35. > :19:40.forecast in the Budget in every single year after that, to 24

:19:41. > :19:47.2018-19, in 2019-20, we reach a surplus of ?10.1 billion. That is

:19:48. > :19:55.higher than was forecast in the Budget. Britain out of the red and

:19:56. > :20:00.into the black. Surplus rises to 40.7 billion a year after that. So,

:20:01. > :20:05.Mr Speaker, the deficit falls every year. The debt share is lower in

:20:06. > :20:09.every year than previously forecast. We are borrowing ?8 billion less

:20:10. > :20:13.than we expected overall and we reach a bigger surplus. We have

:20:14. > :20:21.achieved this, well, the same time, helping working families as we move

:20:22. > :20:24.to a higher wage, lower welfare economy, and we have the security of

:20:25. > :20:29.knowing our country is paying its way in the world. Mr Speaker, that

:20:30. > :20:34.brings me to our plans for public expenditure and taxation. I want to

:20:35. > :20:36.thank my right honourable friend the Chief Secretary, other ministerial

:20:37. > :20:39.colleagues at the Treasury and the brilliant officials that have

:20:40. > :20:44.assisted us for the long hours and hard work they have put into

:20:45. > :20:48.developing these plans. We said ?5 billion would come from the measures

:20:49. > :20:52.on tax avoidance, evasion and imbalances. Those measures were

:20:53. > :20:56.announced in the Budget. Together, we go further today with new

:20:57. > :20:59.penalties for the general anti-abuse rule that the Government

:21:00. > :21:02.introduced, action on the Government introduced, action undisguised

:21:03. > :21:07.numeration schemes and Stamp Duty avoidance, and we will stop abuse of

:21:08. > :21:10.the intangible fixed assets regime and capital allowances. We also

:21:11. > :21:15.exclude energy generation from the venture capital schemes, to ensure

:21:16. > :21:19.they remain well targeted at high risk companies. HMRC is making

:21:20. > :21:25.efficiencies of 18% in its own Budget. In the digital age, we do

:21:26. > :21:29.not need taxpayers to pay for paper processing or 170 separate tax

:21:30. > :21:31.offices around the country. Instead, we are reinvesting some of those

:21:32. > :21:38.savings with an extra ?800 million in the fight against tax evasion,

:21:39. > :21:42.with a return of almost ten times the additional tax collected. We are

:21:43. > :21:44.going to build one of the most digitally advanced tax

:21:45. > :21:48.administrations in the wilderness Parliament so that every individual

:21:49. > :21:51.and every small business will have their own digital tax account by the

:21:52. > :21:57.end of the decade to manage their tax online. From 2019, once the

:21:58. > :22:03.accounts are up and running, we require Apple gains tax to be paid

:22:04. > :22:05.within 30 days of completion of any disposal of residential property.

:22:06. > :22:09.Together, these form part of the digital revolution that we're

:22:10. > :22:17.bringing to Whitehall that the Spending Review. The court Cabinet

:22:18. > :22:22.Office Budget will be cut by 26%, matching a 24% cut in the Budget of

:22:23. > :22:27.the Treasury. The cost of all Whitehall administrations will be

:22:28. > :22:30.cut by ?1.9 billion. These form part of the ?12 billion of savings to

:22:31. > :22:36.government departments I am announcing today. In 2010,

:22:37. > :22:40.Government spending took up 45% of national income. This was a figure

:22:41. > :22:43.we could not sustain because it was neither practical sensible to raise

:22:44. > :22:47.taxes high enough to pay for that. We ended up with a massive

:22:48. > :22:50.structural deficit. Today, the state accounts for just under 40% of

:22:51. > :22:55.national income and it is forecast to reach 36.5% by the end of the

:22:56. > :23:00.Spending Review. The structural spending this represents is at a

:23:01. > :23:04.level that a competitive, modern, developed economy can sustain and it

:23:05. > :23:09.is a level that the British people are prepared to pay their taxes for.

:23:10. > :23:13.It is precisely because this Government believes in decent public

:23:14. > :23:17.services and a properly funded welfare state that we are insistent

:23:18. > :23:21.that they are sustainable and affordable. To simply argue all the

:23:22. > :23:25.time that public spending must always go up, never be cut, is

:23:26. > :23:31.irresponsible and lets down the people that rely on public services

:23:32. > :23:34.most. To fund the things we want the Government to provide in the modern

:23:35. > :23:39.world, we have to be prepared to provide the resources. Mr Speaker, I

:23:40. > :23:43.am setting the limits for total managed expenditure as follows. This

:23:44. > :23:52.year, public spending will be ?756 billion. 773 billion next year, 780

:23:53. > :23:57.billion a year after, 801 billion, before reaching 821,000,000,020

:23:58. > :24:03.19-20, the year we are forecast to eliminate the deficit and a surplus.

:24:04. > :24:06.After this, the focus of public spending rises broadly in line with

:24:07. > :24:13.the growth of the economy and will be at 857 in 2020-21. The figures

:24:14. > :24:19.from the OBR show over the next five years, welfare spending falls as a

:24:20. > :24:23.percentage of national income, while departmental capital income is

:24:24. > :24:28.maintained and is higher at the end of the period. That is the right

:24:29. > :24:31.switch for a country that is serious about investing in long-term

:24:32. > :24:34.economic success. People will want to know what the levels of public

:24:35. > :24:38.spending mean in practice, and the scale of the cuts we are asking

:24:39. > :24:41.government departments to undertake. In this Spending Review, the

:24:42. > :24:45.day-to-day spending of Governor departments is set to fall by an

:24:46. > :24:49.average of 0.8% per year in real terms. That compares to an average

:24:50. > :24:53.fall of 2% over the last five years. So, the savings we need are

:24:54. > :24:57.considerably smaller. This reflects the improvement in the public

:24:58. > :25:02.finances and the progress we have already made. Indeed, the overall

:25:03. > :25:04.rate of annual cuts I set out in today's Spending Review are less

:25:05. > :25:09.than half of those delivered over the last five years. So, Britain is

:25:10. > :25:12.spending a lower proportion of money on welfare and a higher proportion

:25:13. > :25:17.on the structure. The Budget balanced, with cuts half what they

:25:18. > :25:21.were in the last Parliament, making the savings we need, no less and no

:25:22. > :25:27.more, and providing economic security so the working people of a

:25:28. > :25:34.country with a surplus lives within its means. This does not mean that

:25:35. > :25:38.the decisions required to deliver the savings are easy. Nor should we

:25:39. > :25:42.lose sight of the the Spending Review commits ?4 trillion over the

:25:43. > :25:45.next five years. It is a huge amendment of the hard earned cash of

:25:46. > :25:49.British tax payers and all those that dedicate their lives to public

:25:50. > :25:53.service will want to make sure it is well spent. Our approach is not

:25:54. > :25:58.simply retrenchment, it is to reform and rebuild. These reforms will

:25:59. > :26:03.support our objectives for the country. First, to develop a modern,

:26:04. > :26:06.integrated health and social care system that supports people at every

:26:07. > :26:11.stage in their lives. Second, to spread economic power and wealth

:26:12. > :26:16.through a devolution revolution and invest in long-term infrastructure.

:26:17. > :26:19.Third, to extend opportunity by tackling the big social failures

:26:20. > :26:22.that for too long have helped people back in our country. Fourth, to

:26:23. > :26:27.reinforce national security with the resources to protect us at home and

:26:28. > :26:30.project our values abroad. The resources allocated by this Spending

:26:31. > :26:34.Review are driven by these four goals. The first priority of this

:26:35. > :26:41.government is the first priority of the British people, the National

:26:42. > :26:47.Health Service. The Health Service was cut by the Labour administration

:26:48. > :26:52.in Wales, but we, the Conservatives, have been increasing health spending

:26:53. > :26:55.in England. In this Spending Review, we do so again. We will work with

:26:56. > :27:00.our health professionals to deliver the very best value for that money.

:27:01. > :27:04.That means ?22 billion of efficiency savings across the service, it means

:27:05. > :27:11.a 25% cut in the Whitehall Budget for the Department of Health, it

:27:12. > :27:15.means modernising the way we fund students of health care. Today,

:27:16. > :27:18.there is a cap on student nurses. Over half of all applicants are

:27:19. > :27:22.turned away and it leaves hospital is relying on agencies and overseas

:27:23. > :27:27.staff. We will replace direct funding with loans for new students

:27:28. > :27:30.so we can abolish this self-defeating cap and creativity

:27:31. > :27:36.10,000 new training places in this Parliament. Alongside these reforms,

:27:37. > :27:40.we will give the NHS the money it needs. We made a commitment to a ?10

:27:41. > :27:45.billion real increase in the health service Budget. We fully deliver

:27:46. > :27:52.that today with the first ?6 billion delivered up front, next year. It

:27:53. > :27:55.fully funds the five-year plan that the NHS put forward as its plan for

:27:56. > :28:01.its future, as the chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stephen, said,

:28:02. > :28:08.the NHS has been heard and actively supported. Let me explain what that

:28:09. > :28:18.means in cash. The NHS Budget will rise from ?101 billion today to ?120

:28:19. > :28:22.billion by 2020-21. This is a half ?1 trillion commitment to the NHS

:28:23. > :28:29.over this Parliament, the largest investment in the health service

:28:30. > :28:34.since its creation. So, we have a clear plan for improving the NHS. We

:28:35. > :28:41.fully funded it and, in return, patients will see more than ?5

:28:42. > :28:43.billion of health research in everything from genome is to

:28:44. > :28:48.antimicrobial resistance, to a new dimension Institute and a new

:28:49. > :28:54.world-class public health facility in Harlow, and more. 800,000 more

:28:55. > :28:58.elective hospital admissions. 5 million more outpatient

:28:59. > :29:02.appointments. 2 million more diagnostic tests. New hospitals

:29:03. > :29:06.funded in Cambridge, Sandwell and Brighton. Cancer testing within four

:29:07. > :29:16.weeks and a brilliant NHS available seven days a week. Mr Speaker, there

:29:17. > :29:19.is one part of our NHS that has been neglected too long, and that is

:29:20. > :29:22.mental health. I want to thank the all-party group, led by my right

:29:23. > :29:25.honourable friend for Sutton Coldfield, the right honourable

:29:26. > :29:29.member for North Norfolk and Alistair Campbell, for their work in

:29:30. > :29:32.this vital area. In the last Parliament we made a start by laying

:29:33. > :29:35.the foundations for equality of treatment with the first-ever

:29:36. > :29:45.waiting time standards for mental health. Today we are building on

:29:46. > :29:47.that with ?600 million of additional funding, meaning that by 2020

:29:48. > :29:49.significantly more people will have access to talking therapies,

:29:50. > :29:52.perinatal mental health services and crisis care. It is all possible

:29:53. > :29:56.because we made a promise to the British people to give our NHS the

:29:57. > :30:02.funding it needs. In this Spending Review, we have delivered. Mr

:30:03. > :30:07.Speaker, the Health Service cannot function effectively without good

:30:08. > :30:11.social care. Many local authorities are not going to be able to meet the

:30:12. > :30:16.growing social care needs unless they have new sources of funding.

:30:17. > :30:20.That, in the end, comes from the taxpayer. In future, those local

:30:21. > :30:24.authorities who are responsible for social care will be able to levy a

:30:25. > :30:29.new social care precept of up to 2% of council tax. The money raised

:30:30. > :30:34.will have to be spent exclusively on adult social care and if all

:30:35. > :30:39.authorities make full use of it it will bring almost ?2 billion more

:30:40. > :30:43.into the care system. It is part of a major reform we are undertaking to

:30:44. > :30:45.integrate health and social care by the end of this decade,

:30:46. > :30:50.integrate health and social care by achieve that I am today

:30:51. > :30:53.integrate health and social care by the Better Care Fund to support that

:30:54. > :30:57.integration, with local authorities able to access an extra ?1.5 billion

:30:58. > :31:14.by 2019-20. The steps taken able to access an extra ?1.5 billion

:31:15. > :31:18.will have risen in real terms. A civilised and prosperous society

:31:19. > :31:21.like ours should support its vulnerable citizens and that

:31:22. > :31:27.includes a decent income in retirement. Many people have already

:31:28. > :31:36.been auto enrolled into a pension thanks to our reforms in the last

:31:37. > :31:40.Parliament. A booster will align contributions with the tax years.

:31:41. > :31:46.The best way to reform pension benefits is to raise the pension age

:31:47. > :31:49.as we are set to do in the next parliament. That allows us to

:31:50. > :31:56.maintain a triple lock on the value of the state pension, so never again

:31:57. > :32:02.do Britain's pensioners received a derisory increase of 75p. As a

:32:03. > :32:07.result of our commitment to those who have worked hard all their lives

:32:08. > :32:11.and contributed to our six IT, I can confirm that next year the basic

:32:12. > :32:20.state pension will rise to ?119 30 a week. That is the biggest increase

:32:21. > :32:24.to the basic state pension in 15 years. Taking all of our increases

:32:25. > :32:31.together, over the next five years pensioners will be 1000 ?100 better

:32:32. > :32:34.off year than when we came to office. We are also undertaking the

:32:35. > :32:48.biggest change in the state pension for 40 years, to make it simpler and

:32:49. > :32:58.fairer, to introduce a new pension. It will be higher than the current

:32:59. > :33:03.meantime -- means tested benefits and an example of a progressive

:33:04. > :33:07.government in action. Instead of cutting the savings credit, it will

:33:08. > :33:12.be frozen at its current level where income is unchanged. The first

:33:13. > :33:15.objective of this Spending Review is to give unprecedented support to

:33:16. > :33:20.health, social care and to our pensioners. The second is to spread

:33:21. > :33:24.economic power and wealth across our nation. In recent weeks, great

:33:25. > :33:31.metropolitan areas such as Sheffield, Liverpool, the Tees

:33:32. > :33:38.Valley and the North Midlands has joined Greater Manchester in

:33:39. > :33:42.creating mayors. It's the most determined effort to change the

:33:43. > :33:48.geographical imbalance which has bedevilled the British economy over

:33:49. > :33:53.half a century. We are setting aside ?12 billion for the local growth

:33:54. > :33:57.fund and I am announcing the creation of 26 new or extended

:33:58. > :34:03.enterprise zones including 15 zones in towns and rural areas from

:34:04. > :34:07.Carlisle to Dorset and Ipswich. If we really want to shift power in our

:34:08. > :34:11.country, we have to give all local councils the tools to drive business

:34:12. > :34:15.growth in their area and the rewards that come when you do so. I can

:34:16. > :34:20.confirm today, that as we set out last month, we will abolish the

:34:21. > :34:22.uniform business rate. By the end of the parliament, local government

:34:23. > :34:26.will keep all of the revenues from business rates, will give councils

:34:27. > :34:48.the power to cut rates and make their area more attractive to

:34:49. > :34:50.business and elected mayors will be able to raise rates provided they

:34:51. > :34:52.are used to fund specific infrastructure projects, supported

:34:53. > :34:55.by the local business community. Because the amount we raise in

:34:56. > :34:57.business rates is in total much greater than the rates we give to

:34:58. > :34:59.councils through the local government grants, we will phase

:35:00. > :35:01.that grant out entirely over this Parliament. We will also devolve

:35:02. > :35:03.additional responsibilities. The temporary management fee will no

:35:04. > :35:05.longer be paid through the benefit system. Instead, councils will

:35:06. > :35:07.receive ?10 billion a year up front to provide more help for homeless

:35:08. > :35:11.people, alongside savings in the public health grant, we will consult

:35:12. > :35:15.on transferring new powers and the responsibility for its funding and

:35:16. > :35:24.elements of the administration of housing benefit. Local government is

:35:25. > :35:27.sitting on property worth a quarter of a quarter of ?1 trillion. We will

:35:28. > :35:29.let councils spend 100% of the receipts of the assets they sell to

:35:30. > :35:33.improve local services. Councils increase their reserves by nearly

:35:34. > :35:38.?10 billion over the last Parliament. We will encourage them

:35:39. > :35:43.to draw on their reserves as they undertake reforms. Mr Speaker, this

:35:44. > :35:47.amounts to a big package of new powers, but also new

:35:48. > :35:51.responsibilities for local councils. It is a revolution in the way we

:35:52. > :35:55.govern this country, and if you take into account both the falling grant

:35:56. > :35:59.and rising counselling comes, it means by the end of this Parliament,

:36:00. > :36:06.local government will be spending the same in cash terms as it does

:36:07. > :36:10.today. Mr Speaker, the devolved administrations of the United

:36:11. > :36:13.Kingdom will also have available to them unprecedented new powers to

:36:14. > :36:17.drive their economies. The conclusion last week of the

:36:18. > :36:23.political talks in Northern Ireland means additional spending power for

:36:24. > :36:28.the executive to ensure the full implementation of the Stormont House

:36:29. > :36:31.agreement. But opens the door to the devolution of corporation tax which

:36:32. > :36:36.the parties confirmed have said they wished to set at 12.5%. That is huge

:36:37. > :36:39.prize for business in Northern Ireland and the onus is on the

:36:40. > :36:44.Northern Ireland Executive to play their part and deliver sustainable

:36:45. > :36:50.budget so we can move forward on that. Northern Ireland's block grant

:36:51. > :36:54.will be over ?11 billion and funding for new capital in will rise over

:36:55. > :36:59.five years, ensuring Northern Ireland can invest in its long-term

:37:00. > :37:08.future. For years, Wales has asked for a slender in -- funding floor to

:37:09. > :37:12.protect spending. Now this Conservative government is answering

:37:13. > :37:15.that call and providing that historic funding guarantee for

:37:16. > :37:21.Wales. I can announce today we will introduce the new funding floor and

:37:22. > :37:25.set it for this Parliament at the Welsh Secretary and I have also

:37:26. > :37:29.confirmed that we will legislate so the devolution on income tax can

:37:30. > :37:34.take place without a referendum. We will also help fund a new Cardiff

:37:35. > :37:41.City deal. The Welsh block grant will reach ?15 million by 2019-20

:37:42. > :37:44.while the capital spending will rise over ?900 million over five years.

:37:45. > :37:57.As Lord Smith confirmed, the Scotland Bill meets the vow made by

:37:58. > :38:02.the parties... Mr Speaker, it must be underpinned by a fiscal framework

:38:03. > :38:06.that is fair to all taxpayers and we are ready now to reach an

:38:07. > :38:10.agreement. The ball is in the Court of the Scottish government. Let's

:38:11. > :38:14.have a deal that is fair to Scotland, said the UK and is built

:38:15. > :38:18.to last. We are and entering the city deal for Glasgow and

:38:19. > :38:23.negotiating deals with Aberdeen and Inverness as well. If Scotland had

:38:24. > :38:28.voted for independence, they would have had their own Spending Review

:38:29. > :38:33.this autumn. With world oil prices falling, and revenues from the North

:38:34. > :38:40.Sea forecast by the OBR today to be down 94%, we would have seen

:38:41. > :38:45.catastrophic cuts in Scottish public services. Thankfully, Scotland

:38:46. > :38:57.remains a strong part of a stronger United Kingdom. So the Scottish

:38:58. > :39:03.block grant will be over ?30 million and 2019-20, while capital spending

:39:04. > :39:08.available will rise by ?1.9 billion through to 2021. UK government

:39:09. > :39:14.giving Scotland the resources to invest in its long-term future. For

:39:15. > :39:18.the UK government, the funding of the Scotland, Wales and Northern

:39:19. > :39:22.Ireland offices, we'll all be protected in real terms. Mr Speaker,

:39:23. > :39:25.we are devolving power across our country and will also spending on

:39:26. > :39:29.economic infrastructure that connects our nation. That is

:39:30. > :39:32.something Britain has not done enough for a generation. Now by

:39:33. > :39:37.making the difficult decisions to save on day-to-day costs, we can

:39:38. > :39:45.invest in new roads, roadways, signs and flood defences that Britain

:39:46. > :39:49.needs. We made a start in the last and in the last year, Britain topped

:39:50. > :39:54.a league table of the best places in the world to invest in

:39:55. > :39:59.infrastructure. The Department for transport's operational budget will

:40:00. > :40:06.fall by 37%. Transport capital spending will increase by 50% to a

:40:07. > :40:11.total of ?61 billion, the biggest increase for a generation. That

:40:12. > :40:21.funds the largest road investment programme since the 1970s, for we

:40:22. > :40:26.are the builders. It means the construction of High Speed Two, to

:40:27. > :40:29.link the Northern Powerhouse to the south can begin. The electrification

:40:30. > :40:34.of lines like the trans-Pennine, the Midland mainline and the great

:40:35. > :40:40.Western can go ahead. We will fund our new transport for the North to

:40:41. > :40:44.get it up and running. London will get an ?11 billion investment in its

:40:45. > :40:48.transport infrastructure, and having met with my honourable member for

:40:49. > :40:52.Folkestone and other Kent MPs, I will relieve the roads in

:40:53. > :40:55.Folkestone and other Kent MPs, I operation Stack with the new quarter

:40:56. > :40:59.of the billion pound investment in new facilities there. We are making

:41:00. > :41:03.a new ?300 million commitment to cycling that we promised, and we

:41:04. > :41:07.will be spending over ?5 million on roads maintenance in this

:41:08. > :41:14.Parliament. Thanks to the incessant lobbying from my Honourable friend

:41:15. > :41:24.from Northampton North, Britain now has a permanent pothole fund.

:41:25. > :41:33.Mr Speaker, we are investigating in the transport we need and the flood

:41:34. > :41:39.defences as well. DEFRA's day-to-day budget. 15% in this Spending Review,

:41:40. > :41:43.but we are committing ?2 billion to protect 300,000 homes from flooding.

:41:44. > :41:47.Our commitment to farming and the countryside is reflected in the

:41:48. > :41:49.protection of funding for our national parks and our forests. We

:41:50. > :41:55.will not national parks and our forests. We

:41:56. > :42:02.again! I can tell the House that in recognition of the higher cost they

:42:03. > :42:08.face, we will continue to provide ?50 of the water bills of Southwest

:42:09. > :42:14.water customers for the rest of this Parliament, a Conservative promise

:42:15. > :42:18.made to the south-west and a promise kept. Mr Speaker, investing in the

:42:19. > :42:22.long-term economic infrastructure of this country is a goal of our

:42:23. > :42:26.spending reviewed and there is no more important infrastructure than

:42:27. > :42:29.energy. We are doubling our spending on energy research with a commitment

:42:30. > :42:35.to Smallman modular nuclear reactors. Also supporting the shale

:42:36. > :42:39.gas industry to assure that communities benefit from a shell

:42:40. > :42:42.wealth fund which could be worth up to ?1 billion. Support for low

:42:43. > :42:46.carbon energy and renewables will more than double. The sale of

:42:47. > :42:56.ultralow emission vehicles will continue to be supported. In light

:42:57. > :43:05.of the slower than expected and the introduction of emissions testing,

:43:06. > :43:07.we will remove the testing of diesel vehicles until 2021. We are

:43:08. > :43:12.increasing our support for vehicles until 2021. We are

:43:13. > :43:18.finance. Day-to-day resource urge it will fall I20 2%. We will reform the

:43:19. > :43:36.renewable heat incentive to will fall I20 2%. We will reform the

:43:37. > :43:43.our energy industries such as steel to keep them here. We will introduce

:43:44. > :43:48.a cheaper energy efficiency scheme. This will save ?30 a year from the

:43:49. > :43:53.energy bills of 24 million households. This government believes

:43:54. > :44:00.going green should not cost the earth. We are putting other builders

:44:01. > :44:05.of. We will bring reforms to the compensation culture around minor

:44:06. > :44:10.motor accident injuries. We expect the industry to pass on the savings

:44:11. > :44:15.are most see an average saving of 40 to ?50 every year of their insurance

:44:16. > :44:19.bills. Mr Speaker, this is a government that backs all our

:44:20. > :44:23.businesses, large and small, and we on this side of

:44:24. > :44:28.businesses, large and small, and we that there is no growth, no jobs

:44:29. > :44:31.without a vibrant private sector and successful entrepreneurs. This

:44:32. > :44:36.Spending Review delivers what business needs. Business needs

:44:37. > :44:44.competitive taxes. I have already announced a reduction in our

:44:45. > :44:46.corporation tax rate to 18%. Our overall view of business rates will

:44:47. > :44:50.report in the Budget but I am helping 600,000 of our smallest is

:44:51. > :44:56.Mrs by extending our rate relief scheme for another year. Businesses

:44:57. > :44:59.also need an active and sustained industrial strategy and that

:45:00. > :45:05.strategy launched in the last Parliament continues in this one. We

:45:06. > :45:08.commit to the same level of support for our aerospace and automotive

:45:09. > :45:13.industries, not just for the next five years, but for the next decade.

:45:14. > :45:18.Spending on our new catapult centres will increase. We will support the

:45:19. > :45:24.cash support we give through Innovate UK, something we can afford

:45:25. > :45:27.to do by offering ?165 million of new loans to companies, instead of

:45:28. > :45:35.grants, as France has successfully done for many years. It is one of

:45:36. > :45:39.the figures that has helped us reduce the Budget by 17%. In the

:45:40. > :45:43.modern world, one of the best ways you can back business is by backing

:45:44. > :45:48.science. That is why in the last Parliament hide protected the

:45:49. > :45:52.resource Project for science in cash terms. In this Parliament I am

:45:53. > :45:58.protecting it in real terms, so it rises to ?4.7 billion. That is ?500

:45:59. > :46:02.billion more by the end of the decade, alongside the capital

:46:03. > :46:07.Budget. We are funding the new Institute in Manchester and the new

:46:08. > :46:10.centres in Shropshire, York, Bedfordshire and Edinburgh and we

:46:11. > :46:16.are going to commit ?75 billion to a transformation of the famous

:46:17. > :46:19.Cavendish laboratories in Cambridge, where our knowledge of the universe

:46:20. > :46:25.was expanded, to make sure we get the most from our investment in

:46:26. > :46:27.science. I asked another Nobel laureate, Paul nurse, to conduct a

:46:28. > :46:31.review of the research councils. I want to thank him for the excellent

:46:32. > :46:35.report he has published and we will complement his recommendations.

:46:36. > :46:38.Britain is not just brilliant at science, it is brilliant at culture

:46:39. > :46:44.as well. One of the best investments we can make as a nation is in our

:46:45. > :46:51.extraordinary arts, museums, heritage and sport. ?100 million per

:46:52. > :46:59.year in grants and a quarter of a billion pounds into our economy. The

:47:00. > :47:03.core administration Budget will fall by 20%, but I am increasing the cash

:47:04. > :47:09.that will go to the Arts Council, our national museums and galleries.

:47:10. > :47:14.We will keep free museum entry and look at a new tax credit to support

:47:15. > :47:18.that exhibitions. I will help UK Sport, which has been living on

:47:19. > :47:28.diminishing reserves, with a 29% increase in their Budget, so we go

:47:29. > :47:31.for gold in Rio and Tokyo. Mr Speaker, the right honourable

:47:32. > :47:37.member, the former Home Secretary, the Member for whole west and

:47:38. > :47:42.hassle, has personally asked me to support his city's year of culture.

:47:43. > :47:47.I'm happy to do so with a grunt. His city has contributed to the arts,

:47:48. > :48:00.while his front bench contributes to comedy. The money for Hull is part

:48:01. > :48:06.of a package for the Northern Powerhouse which includes funding

:48:07. > :48:09.the iconic new Factory Manchester. In Scotland we will support the

:48:10. > :48:14.world famous Burrell collection, in London we will help the British

:48:15. > :48:20.Museum, science Museum and the Victoria and Albert move their

:48:21. > :48:24.collections into display. We are increasing the funding for the BBC

:48:25. > :48:30.World Service so British values of freedom and free expression I heard

:48:31. > :48:36.around the world. All of this can be achieved without raiding, as the

:48:37. > :48:38.Prime Minister said, the big lottery fund, some had feared. It will

:48:39. > :48:43.continue to support the work of hundreds of small charities across

:48:44. > :48:47.Britain. So will the ?20 million per year of new support for social

:48:48. > :48:51.impact bonds. There are many great charities that work to support

:48:52. > :48:56.vulnerable women. A point that was raised in Prime Minister's

:48:57. > :48:59.Questions, indeed. The Member for Colchester has proposed a brilliant

:49:00. > :49:03.way to give them more help. 300,000 people have signed a petition

:49:04. > :49:08.arguing that no VAT should be charged on sanitary products. We

:49:09. > :49:11.already charge the lowest 5% rate allowable under European law and we

:49:12. > :49:15.are committed to cutting the EU to change its rules. Until that

:49:16. > :49:21.happens, I am going to use the ?15 million per year raised to fund

:49:22. > :49:34.women's health charities and support charities. The first ?5 million, Mr

:49:35. > :49:47.Speaker... The first ?5 million will be distributed to the Eve Appeal,

:49:48. > :49:53.Safe Lives, and I invite bids from other worthy causes. We will support

:49:54. > :50:04.a host of military charities, from guide dogs for military veterans, to

:50:05. > :50:09.Karanka Combat. From the museums of Portsmouth, to the National Museum,

:50:10. > :50:13.to the aerodrome and the former HQ of fighter command at Bentley. In

:50:14. > :50:18.the Budget, I funded one of these bunkers, more have emerged since

:50:19. > :50:21.then. At the suggestion of my right honourable friend for Mid Sussex, we

:50:22. > :50:24.will support the fellowships awarded in the name of his grandfather by

:50:25. > :50:34.funding the Winston Churchill Memorial trust. We will fund the

:50:35. > :50:38.Commonwealth War Graves Commission, so it can tend to the graves of

:50:39. > :50:42.those that died fighting for our country, and we will contribute to a

:50:43. > :50:45.memorial for the victims of terrorism who died on the bus at

:50:46. > :50:49.Tavistock Square ten years ago. It is a reminder that we have always

:50:50. > :50:54.faced threats to our way of life and we have never allowed them to defeat

:50:55. > :50:58.us. We deliver security so we can spread opportunity. That is the

:50:59. > :51:02.third objective that drives the Spending Review. We showed in the

:51:03. > :51:07.last five years that sound public finances and bold public service

:51:08. > :51:10.reform can help the most disadvantaged in our society. That

:51:11. > :51:18.is why inequality is down, child poverty is down, the gender pay gap

:51:19. > :51:23.is at a record low and the richest fifth now pay more in taxes than the

:51:24. > :51:29.rest of the country put together. The other side talks of social

:51:30. > :51:37.justice. This side delivers it. We are all in this together. In the

:51:38. > :51:43.next five years, we will be even bolder in social reform. It starts

:51:44. > :51:50.with education. That is the door to opportunity in our society. This

:51:51. > :51:52.permits us to reform and the weight is provided from childcare to

:51:53. > :51:55.college. We start with the largest ever investment in free childcare so

:51:56. > :51:59.working families get the help they need. From 2017 we will fund 30

:52:00. > :52:04.hours of free childcare for working families with three and four year

:52:05. > :52:08.olds. We will support ?10,000 of childcare costs tax free. To make it

:52:09. > :52:11.affordable, the extra support will only be available to parents working

:52:12. > :52:22.more than 16 hours a week and with incomes of less than ?100,000. We

:52:23. > :52:26.will maintain the free places to parents, we will increase the

:52:27. > :52:29.funding to the sector by ?300 million. Taken together, it is a ?6

:52:30. > :52:35.billion childcare commitment to the working families of Britain. Next,

:52:36. > :52:38.schools. We build our far-reaching reforms of the last Parliament that

:52:39. > :52:43.have seen school standards rise, even as exams become more rigorous.

:52:44. > :52:45.We will maintain funding for free infant school meals, protect rates

:52:46. > :52:51.for the Pupil Premium and increase the cash in the dedicated school

:52:52. > :52:55.grant. We will maintain the current national base rate of funding for

:52:56. > :53:00.our 16-19 year-old students for the whole Parliament. We are going to

:53:01. > :53:04.open 500 new free schools and university technical colleges,

:53:05. > :53:08.invest ?23 billion in school building and 600,000 new school

:53:09. > :53:12.places. To help all of our children make the transition to adulthood and

:53:13. > :53:15.learn not just about their rights but their responsibilities to, we

:53:16. > :53:30.will expand the national citizen service. Today, 80,000 students go

:53:31. > :53:37.on National Citizen Service. Five years ago, 200 schools were

:53:38. > :53:41.academies. Today, 5000 schools are. Our goal is to complete this school

:53:42. > :53:44.revolution and help every secondary school become an academy. We will

:53:45. > :53:48.announce that we will allow sixth form colleges to become academies as

:53:49. > :53:52.well, so they no longer have to pay VAT. We will make local authorities

:53:53. > :53:56.running schools a thing of the past and this will help us save around

:53:57. > :54:00.?600 million from the education services ground. Mr Speaker, I can

:54:01. > :54:04.tell the House that, as a result of the Spending Review, not only is the

:54:05. > :54:09.schools Budget protected in real terms, but the total financial

:54:10. > :54:13.support for education, including childcare and our extended further

:54:14. > :54:19.and higher education loans will increase by ?10 billion. That is a

:54:20. > :54:24.real terms increase for education as well. We are going to phase out the

:54:25. > :54:30.arbitrary and unfair school funding system that has systematically

:54:31. > :54:33.underfunded schools in whole swathes of the country. The current

:54:34. > :54:36.arrangements, a child from a disadvantaged background in one

:54:37. > :54:40.school can receive half as much funding as a child an identical

:54:41. > :54:44.circumstances in another school. In its place, we will introduce a new

:54:45. > :54:48.national funding formula. I commend to the many MPs from all parties who

:54:49. > :54:54.have campaigned for many years to see this day come. It will start to

:54:55. > :54:56.be introduced from 2017. My right honourable friend the Education

:54:57. > :55:00.Secretary will consult in the New Year. Education continues in our

:55:01. > :55:04.further education colleges and universities, and so do our reforms.

:55:05. > :55:10.We will not come as many predicted, cut for adult skills funding for

:55:11. > :55:14.colleges. Instead, we will protected in cash terms. In the Budget, I

:55:15. > :55:17.announce we will replace an affordable student maintenance

:55:18. > :55:21.grants with larger student loans that saves us over ?2 billion each

:55:22. > :55:24.year in the Spending Review. It means we can extend support to

:55:25. > :55:28.students who have never before had government help. Today I can

:55:29. > :55:31.announce that part-time students will be able to receive maintenance

:55:32. > :55:38.loans helping some of our poorest students which, will for the first

:55:39. > :55:42.time, provide tuition fee loans for those pursuing higher skills in

:55:43. > :55:45.further education. Almost 250,000 extra students will benefit from all

:55:46. > :55:53.this new support I am announcing today. Mr Speaker, there is then the

:55:54. > :55:56.apprenticeship programme, the flagship of our commitment to

:55:57. > :56:00.skills. In the last Parliament we more than doubled the number of

:56:01. > :56:02.apprenticeships to 2 million. By 2020, we want to see 3 million

:56:03. > :56:08.apprentices. To make sure they 2020, we want to see 3 million

:56:09. > :56:10.will increase the funding per place. My right honourable friend the

:56:11. > :56:14.Business Secretary will create a new business led body to set the

:56:15. > :56:17.standards. As a result will be spending twice as much on

:56:18. > :56:22.apprenticeships by 2020 compared to when we to office. To ensure large

:56:23. > :56:26.businesses share the cost of training and workforce, I announced

:56:27. > :56:31.in the Budget we will introduce a new apprenticeship levy from April

:56:32. > :56:36.2017. Today I am setting the rate at 0.5% of an employer's pay bill.

:56:37. > :56:40.Every employer will receive a ?15,000 allowance to offset against

:56:41. > :56:44.the levy, which means 98% of all employers and all businesses who pay

:56:45. > :56:49.bills of less than ?3 billion will pay no levy at all. It means the

:56:50. > :56:52.apprentice ships levy will raise ?3 billion per year, and will fund 3

:56:53. > :56:57.million apprentice ships. With those paying is able to get more than they

:56:58. > :57:00.put in, it is a huge reform to raise the skills of the nation and address

:57:01. > :57:07.one of the enduring weaknesses of the British economy. Mr Speaker,

:57:08. > :57:10.education and skills are the foundation of opportunity in our

:57:11. > :57:15.country. Next we need to help people into work. The number claiming

:57:16. > :57:21.unemployment benefits has fallen to just 2.3%, the lowest rate since

:57:22. > :57:26.1975. But we are not satisfied that the job is done. We want to see full

:57:27. > :57:30.employment. Today, we confirm we will extend the same support and

:57:31. > :57:34.conditionality we currently expect of those on JSA 2/1 million more

:57:35. > :57:37.benefit claimants. Those signing on will have to attend a Jobcentre

:57:38. > :57:42.every week for the first three months and will increase, in real

:57:43. > :57:45.terms, they help we provide for those with disabilities to get them

:57:46. > :57:50.into words. This will all be delivered within the 14% savings we

:57:51. > :57:52.make to the resource Budget for the Department for Work and Pensions,

:57:53. > :57:56.including by reducing the side of their estate and co-locating job

:57:57. > :58:00.centres with local authority buildings. It is the way to save

:58:01. > :58:03.money while improving the front-line service we offer people and

:58:04. > :58:11.providing more support for those that are the most vulnerable and

:58:12. > :58:13.most in need of our help. You cannot say you are fearlessly tackling the

:58:14. > :58:17.most difficult social problems if you turn a blind eye to what goes on

:58:18. > :58:21.in our prisons and criminal justice system. My right honourable friend

:58:22. > :58:24.the Lord Chancellor has worked with the Lord Chief Justice and others to

:58:25. > :58:29.put forward a typically bold and radical plan to transform our courts

:58:30. > :58:32.so they are fit for the modern age. Underused courts will be closed. I

:58:33. > :58:38.can announce today the money saved will be used to fund a ?700 million

:58:39. > :58:41.investment in new technology that will bring further and permanent

:58:42. > :58:48.long-term savings and speed up the process of justice. Old Victorian

:58:49. > :58:52.prisons in our cities that are not suitable for rehabilitating

:58:53. > :58:55.prisoners will be sold. This will also bring long-term savings and

:58:56. > :59:00.means we can spend over ?1 billion in this Parliament building nine

:59:01. > :59:02.modern new prisons. Today, the transformation gets under way, with

:59:03. > :59:07.the announcement that the Justice Secretary has just made. I can tell

:59:08. > :59:11.the House that Holloway prison, the biggest women's jail in Western

:59:12. > :59:15.Europe, will close. In the future, women prisoners will serve sentences

:59:16. > :59:21.in more humane additions, better designed to keep them away from

:59:22. > :59:24.crime. -- conditions. By selling these old prisons, we will create

:59:25. > :59:28.more space for housing in inner cities, for another of the great

:59:29. > :59:32.social failures of our age has been the failure to build enough houses.

:59:33. > :59:37.In the end, spending reviews like this come down to choices about what

:59:38. > :59:42.your priorities are. I am clear in the Spending Review that we choose

:59:43. > :59:46.to build. Above all, we choose to build the homes that people can buy,

:59:47. > :59:52.for there is a growing crisis of home ownership in our country. 15

:59:53. > :00:01.years ago around 60% of people under 35 own their own home. Next year it

:00:02. > :00:02.is said to be half that. We made a start on tackling this in the last

:00:03. > :00:06.Parliament. With schemes like help to buy, the number of first-time

:00:07. > :00:10.buyers rose by nearly 60%. But we haven't done nearly enough yet, so

:00:11. > :00:14.it is time to do much more. Today we set out our bold plan to back

:00:15. > :00:17.families that aspire to buy their own home. First, I am doubling the

:00:18. > :00:23.housing Budget. Doubling the housing Budget. Dublin yet to ?2 billion a

:00:24. > :00:26.year. -- doubling it. We will deliver, with government help,

:00:27. > :00:30.400,000 affordable new homes by the end of the decade. Affordable means

:00:31. > :00:41.not just affordable to rent, but affordable to buy as well. That is

:00:42. > :00:42.the biggest house-building programme by any government since the 1970s.

:00:43. > :00:53.Almost half of them will be our starter homes sold

:00:54. > :00:59.at 20% of the market value from new buyers. We will remove many of the

:01:00. > :01:04.restrictions on shared ownership, who can buy them and who they can be

:01:05. > :01:10.sold on to. The second part of our housing plan delivers on the

:01:11. > :01:15.manifesto commitment. I can tell the House this starts with the new pilot

:01:16. > :01:20.and from midnight tonight, tenants of five housing associations will be

:01:21. > :01:24.able to start the process of buying their own home. The third element of

:01:25. > :01:29.the plan involves accelerating housing supply, announcing further

:01:30. > :01:32.reforms to our planning system so that it delivers more homes more

:01:33. > :01:39.quickly. We are releasing public land suitable for homes and we said

:01:40. > :01:46.-- designating commercial land for homes. We will regenerate more

:01:47. > :01:50.rundown estates and deliver the first new garden city in nearly a

:01:51. > :01:56.century. The Government will help address the housing crisis in our

:01:57. > :02:02.capital city with the new scheme, London helped to buy. Londoners with

:02:03. > :02:09.a 5% deposit will be able to get an interest-free loan. My honourable

:02:10. > :02:12.friend for Richmond Park has been campaigning on affordable home

:02:13. > :02:18.ownership for London. Today we back him all the way. And the fifth part

:02:19. > :02:23.of our housing plan addresses the fact that more and more homes are

:02:24. > :02:33.being bought as buy to lets or second homes. Many are cash purses

:02:34. > :02:37.his -- purchases which are not restricted by the Budget when many

:02:38. > :02:40.are bought by people not in this country. People buying at home to

:02:41. > :02:47.let should not be squeezing out families who cannot afford a home to

:02:48. > :02:52.buy. I am introducing a new Stamp Duty which will be 3% higher on

:02:53. > :02:56.additional homes. It will be introduced from April next year and

:02:57. > :03:02.will consult on the details so that corporate property development is

:03:03. > :03:06.not affected. This will raise nearly ?1 billion by 2021 and we will

:03:07. > :03:09.reinvest some of that money in local communities in London and places

:03:10. > :03:15.like Cornwall which are being priced out of home ownership. The funds we

:03:16. > :03:20.will rose will help build these new homes. This Spending Review delivers

:03:21. > :03:25.a doubling of the House and budget, 400,000 new homes with extra support

:03:26. > :03:31.for London, estates regenerated, Right to Buy rolled out, paid for by

:03:32. > :03:34.attacks on buy to lets and second homes, delivered by a Conservative

:03:35. > :03:40.government committed to helping working people who want to buy their

:03:41. > :03:48.own home, for we are the builders. Mr Speaker, the fourth and final

:03:49. > :03:52.objective of this Spending Review is national security. On Monday, the

:03:53. > :03:56.Prime Minister set out to the House the strategic defence and Security

:03:57. > :04:00.review. It commits Britain to spending 2% of our income on defence

:04:01. > :04:07.and it details how these resources will be used to provide new

:04:08. > :04:14.equipment from war fighting military, new defences for our

:04:15. > :04:16.cyberspace and you just meant -- investment in our intelligence

:04:17. > :04:20.agencies. The single intelligence account will reach 2.8 billion and

:04:21. > :04:31.the defence budget will rise from ?34 billion a day. Britain also

:04:32. > :04:41.commits to spend zero x seven centre of a -- 0.7% of our commitment to

:04:42. > :04:49.the overseas budget. It is overwhelmingly in our national

:04:50. > :04:52.interest that we recommit our borders. Britain is unique in the

:04:53. > :04:57.world to making these twin commitments to funding both the hard

:04:58. > :05:01.power of military might and the soft power of international development.

:05:02. > :05:11.It enables us to project our -- protect ourselves, project our

:05:12. > :05:17.prosperity. We are supported by our outstanding diplomatic service. I'm

:05:18. > :05:23.protecting in real terms the Budget of the Foreign and Commonwealth

:05:24. > :05:28.Office. Security starts at home. Our police are on the front line of the

:05:29. > :05:33.fight to keep us safe. In the last Parliament we made savings in police

:05:34. > :05:35.budgets but thanks to the reforms of my right honourable friend the Home

:05:36. > :05:39.Secretary and the hard work of police officers, crime fell and the

:05:40. > :05:45.number of neighbourhood offices increased. That reform must continue

:05:46. > :05:49.in this Parliament. We must invest in new state-of-the-art mobile

:05:50. > :05:52.communications for our emergency services, it increased new

:05:53. > :05:57.technology at the border and increase the counterterrorism budget

:05:58. > :06:03.by 13%. We should allow policing crime commission is greater

:06:04. > :06:08.flexibility and further savings can be made in the police as different

:06:09. > :06:11.forces merge their back-office and share their expertise and we will

:06:12. > :06:16.provide a new fund to help with this reform. Mr Speaker, I have had

:06:17. > :06:22.representations from the Shadow Home Secretary that the police budget

:06:23. > :06:27.should be cut by 10%. But now is not the time for further police cuts.

:06:28. > :06:31.Now is the time to back our police and give them the tools to do the

:06:32. > :06:40.job. I am today announcing that there will be no cuts in the police

:06:41. > :06:50.budget at all. It will mean real terms protection for police funding.

:06:51. > :07:01.Mr Speaker, the police protect us and we are going to protect the

:07:02. > :07:03.police. Five years ago, when I presented my first Spending Review,

:07:04. > :07:08.the country was on the presented my first Spending Review,

:07:09. > :07:12.bankruptcy and our economy was in crisis. We took the

:07:13. > :07:15.bankruptcy and our economy was in decisions back them and five years

:07:16. > :07:18.later I report on an economy growing faster than its competitors and we

:07:19. > :07:23.are set to reach a faster than its competitors and we

:07:24. > :07:28.billion. Today we have set out the further decisions necessary to build

:07:29. > :07:36.this country's future. Some science difficult, yes. -- sometimes

:07:37. > :07:39.difficult, yes. To build the homes people need, stronger defences

:07:40. > :07:44.against those who threaten our life and build the strong public finances

:07:45. > :07:49.on which all these things depend. We were elected as a 1 nation

:07:50. > :07:55.government. Today, we delivered the Spending Review of a 1 nation

:07:56. > :08:00.government. The guardians of economic security, protectors of

:08:01. > :08:06.national security, the builders of our better future, this government,

:08:07. > :08:23.the mainstream representatives of the working people of Britain.

:08:24. > :08:29.Opposition who responds. Here is Opposition who responds. Here is

:08:30. > :08:33.Mr Speaker, like me, you will Opposition who responds. Here is

:08:34. > :08:38.witnessed many Autumn Statement and statements from the Chancellor of

:08:39. > :08:42.fixed. And you will know that there is such a thing as the iron roar of

:08:43. > :08:47.Chancellor's statements. And the iron law of Chancellor's statements

:08:48. > :08:50.Chancellor's statements. And the is the louder the cheers for the

:08:51. > :08:54.Chancellor's statements. And the the disappointment by the weekend

:08:55. > :08:59.when the analysis goes in. From what we have heard today, we do not need

:09:00. > :09:05.until the weekend for this statement to fall apart. Over the last five

:09:06. > :09:10.until the weekend for this statement years, that has barely been a target

:09:11. > :09:15.the Chancellor has set, hasn't missed or has ignored. Five years

:09:16. > :09:19.ago, the newly elected Chancellor and the Prime Minister came to this

:09:20. > :09:26.House and warned us that because of the dire economic situation our

:09:27. > :09:31.country faced, what was needed was a five-year programme of austerity

:09:32. > :09:39.measures. Job cuts, wage freezes and cuts in public services. But we were

:09:40. > :09:49.promised specifically by this Chancellor, that by today, the

:09:50. > :09:55.deficit would be eliminated. And debts would be under control. And

:09:56. > :10:00.that would be under control and falling dramatically. People put

:10:01. > :10:07.their trust in that commitment. Order. I said earlier, the Prime

:10:08. > :10:14.Minister would be heard. The Shadow Chancellor will be heard, too. If

:10:15. > :10:19.people think they are being clever shouting their heads off, don't

:10:20. > :10:23.bother trying to ask a question. Try at least to have the sense to

:10:24. > :10:28.realise the conflict between the two. Mr John McDonnell.

:10:29. > :10:34.The Prime Minister also assured us, Mr Speaker, that there would be hard

:10:35. > :10:43.earned sacrifices to be made. We were all in it together. Five years

:10:44. > :10:46.on. Can I just say today, this Chancellor has got some front to

:10:47. > :10:56.come to this House and talk about deficit and let -- lecture us about

:10:57. > :11:02.deficit reduction. Today is the day when the Chancellor was supposed to

:11:03. > :11:06.announce austerity was over, the deficit was cleared. From what we

:11:07. > :11:12.have heard today, I think they will feel betrayed. The reality is this,

:11:13. > :11:19.after five years, the deficit has not been eliminated and this year it

:11:20. > :11:21.is predicted to be over ?17 billion. Instead of taking five years to

:11:22. > :11:28.eliminate the deficit as he promised, it will take ten. And debt

:11:29. > :11:37.to GDP will not be the 69% he promised five years ago. As he said

:11:38. > :11:44.today, it would be 82.5%. We are now potentially to be quite to our

:11:45. > :12:01.children a debt of 1.5 trillion. -- to bequeath to our children. Their

:12:02. > :12:06.debt. The Chancellor continues... Both sides are still shouting their

:12:07. > :12:11.heads off. It is very down-market. It is Rory low-grade. It is Bray

:12:12. > :12:15.widely deprecated by the public. How it is that people think it is

:12:16. > :12:20.legitimate to behave in that way and reconnect with the electorate

:12:21. > :12:23.disillusioned with politics is bizarre. If some people are so

:12:24. > :12:29.unintelligent they still cannot grasp the point, I pity them. John

:12:30. > :12:33.McDonnell. After five years as Chancellor with that level of debt,

:12:34. > :12:38.there is nobody else for him to blame. There is only so long you can

:12:39. > :12:44.blame past governments. There is no more excuses for this Chancellor

:12:45. > :12:48.after five years. And we were also promised it sacrifices had to be

:12:49. > :12:54.made to tackle the deficit, not to worry, we were all in this together.

:12:55. > :12:57.No we are not. 85% of the money saved from tax and benefit cuts in

:12:58. > :13:04.the last parliament came directly out of women's pockets. Disabled

:13:05. > :13:15.people were hit 18 times harder than anybody else. 4.1 children now live

:13:16. > :13:24.in absolute poverty, an increase of 500,000 from 2009-10. And the fiasco

:13:25. > :13:30.over tax credits demonstrated once and for all that we were not in this

:13:31. > :13:35.together. At the same time as the Chancellor was planning to cut tax

:13:36. > :13:40.credits to working families, he cut inheritance tax is for some of the

:13:41. > :13:44.wealthiest families in this country. When the Chancellor and the Prime

:13:45. > :13:47.Minister were first elected to their current positions, they were

:13:48. > :13:52.attacked for being posh boys. I disagreed with that strongly. It was

:13:53. > :13:56.unfair. People don't choose what class they are born into all the

:13:57. > :14:01.wealth they inherit. Nevertheless, if you are fortunate enough to have

:14:02. > :14:08.wealth or good incomes, as with all MPs, the onus is upon us to take

:14:09. > :14:11.particular care when taking decisions for people with lives less

:14:12. > :14:16.fortunate than ourselves. What angered many in this House and

:14:17. > :14:20.across the country is the way there was no attempt by the Chancellor to

:14:21. > :14:28.understand the effects of the decision to cut tax credits. For

:14:29. > :14:34.many families it would have been a choice between children being able

:14:35. > :14:40.to go on that school trip like other children or having a decent

:14:41. > :14:46.Christmas or a winter coat. Today, the Chancellor has been forced into

:14:47. > :14:51.a U-turn on his tax credits. And I want to congratulate the members of

:14:52. > :14:56.this House on all sides who make this happen. I want to congratulate

:14:57. > :15:01.the members in the other House as well. I am glad he has listened to

:15:02. > :15:08.Labour and seen sense. But as ever, with this Chancellor, we await

:15:09. > :15:13.further clarification on the details, particularly the limit --

:15:14. > :15:18.if the limit to two children remains, and we are aware of the

:15:19. > :15:22.impact on Universal Credit. It appears the 14,000 families already

:15:23. > :15:27.on Universal Credit will still suffer the full cut. And all

:15:28. > :15:32.families who would newly qualify for tax credits in 2018 will suffer the

:15:33. > :15:37.full cut under Universal Credit. So this is not a full and fair reversal

:15:38. > :15:43.as we pleaded for. And the Chancellor remains committed to ?12

:15:44. > :15:46.billion of welfare cuts over the course of this Parliament. And we

:15:47. > :15:52.know where they will fall, on the most vulnerable, the poorest and

:15:53. > :15:58.those just struggling to survive. Some believe that the Chancellor is

:15:59. > :16:02.using the deficit and austerity to reshape the role of the British

:16:03. > :16:11.state. That this is some well thought through Machiavellian

:16:12. > :16:14.scheme. I don't any more. I am convinced this is sheer economic

:16:15. > :16:24.illiteracy, built upon incompetence and poor judgment. Today, only four

:16:25. > :16:31.weeks ago, only four weeks ago he brought to this House a charter for

:16:32. > :16:37.fiscal responsibility. A central part of that was adherence to his

:16:38. > :16:43.welfare cap, which we supported. Today, he has broken his own welfare

:16:44. > :16:49.cap. Let me say what he said before. He said himself, introducing the cap

:16:50. > :16:55.last year, breaking it would be, and I quote the Chancellor, a failure of

:16:56. > :17:02.public expenditure control. On his own terms, his own language,

:17:03. > :17:06.condemned. The Government is putting today and not invest in the future.

:17:07. > :17:16.-- cutting. He is putting us all that future risk. I want to

:17:17. > :17:25.congratulate the honourable member who campaigned on policing cuts,

:17:26. > :17:32.which has caused a U-turn. We don't forget, though... Mr Speaker, we

:17:33. > :17:37.don't forget that we faced the highest level of risk from terrorist

:17:38. > :17:46.attack in a generation. But we have already lost 17,000 police officers

:17:47. > :17:49.undercuts under this Government. We know the first line of intelligence

:17:50. > :17:54.collection, prevention and response are the local police officers in the

:17:55. > :18:05.community. So we claim today, as another Labour gain and victory. Let

:18:06. > :18:09.me say also, there are concerns now about the impact

:18:10. > :18:12.me say also, there are concerns now council cuts and bruises in

:18:13. > :18:21.expenditure on other emergency services. -- cuts and freezes. We

:18:22. > :18:24.fear for safety as more firefighters jobs are cut and fire stations

:18:25. > :18:29.closed as a result of the settlement today. In health, the Chancellor has

:18:30. > :18:33.announced he is frontloading part of the additional ?8 billion worth of

:18:34. > :18:37.funding. In reality, this will only plug some of the gap in the huge

:18:38. > :18:41.deficits health trusts are reporting. But the Government is

:18:42. > :18:49.also relying upon ?22 billion worth of unrealistic savings to be found.

:18:50. > :18:55.The extra money seems to be coming from nurse training, the public

:18:56. > :18:58.health Budget and other aspects of Local Authority Support around care.

:18:59. > :19:03.This would be a false economy that would simply cause more burdens to

:19:04. > :19:08.fall on the NHS. All the signs are that we are facing a massive winter

:19:09. > :19:12.crisis in our NHS and, yet again, we will have to rely on our

:19:13. > :19:20.professional dedication of our staff. The Health Secretary,

:19:21. > :19:25.refusing to go to ACAS to settle the junior doctors dispute is no way to

:19:26. > :19:37.maintain the morale amongst our NHS professionals. One of the greatest

:19:38. > :19:43.scandals and list -- under this to cancel has been the attack on social

:19:44. > :19:48.care. 3000 beds have been lost already. According to the

:19:49. > :19:52.Association of directors of adult services, the care preset, the 2%

:19:53. > :19:56.announced by the Chancellor, is not nearly enough to fill the funding

:19:57. > :20:00.gap this Government has created. The result is that some of the most

:20:01. > :20:04.vulnerable people in our society will be at risk and more people will

:20:05. > :20:08.be forced to resort to their local hospital for their care. We also

:20:09. > :20:13.know much more hospital for their care. We also

:20:14. > :20:18.people suffering from mental health problems and we welcome the

:20:19. > :20:23.additional funding today devoted to mental health. But it is no use of

:20:24. > :20:25.funding through the Health Service for mental health support, when

:20:26. > :20:32.Local Authority Support is being cut as a result of this settlement. More

:20:33. > :20:35.people will be left vulnerable. In education, the Government claims

:20:36. > :20:39.that school budgets will be protected. Let me say this, we fear

:20:40. > :20:43.that the Government will use the new funding formula to take away from

:20:44. > :20:53.the pupils who most need it, the most deprived. We will monitor the

:20:54. > :21:05.funding carefully to ensure equity. In today's statement, the Chancellor

:21:06. > :21:08.has announced that for further education, there will be a

:21:09. > :21:12.settlement that restricted to cash. That means that sixth form and

:21:13. > :21:17.education colleges around the country will be at threat of

:21:18. > :21:20.closure. Just at a time when the economy is crying out for a

:21:21. > :21:24.skilled, educated workforce, the Government was denying access to

:21:25. > :21:29.young people for the local courses they need. With regard to childcare,

:21:30. > :21:36.announced today, we noted his yet again, another two years, another

:21:37. > :21:42.delay in a commitment. The Chancellor's much vaunted pledge on

:21:43. > :21:46.house-building is cobbled together from reheated promises from the

:21:47. > :21:51.past, the vast majority have already been announced. The Tories should be

:21:52. > :21:55.judged by their actions, not their words. The Chancellor's first act in

:21:56. > :22:02.office was to slash housing investment by 60%. His plans today

:22:03. > :22:05.could still mean 40% less to build the homes we need, compared to the

:22:06. > :22:13.investment programme he inherited from Labour. House-building now, as

:22:14. > :22:18.a result, remains at the lowest peacetime level since the 1920s. As

:22:19. > :22:23.my honourable member for Wakefield said this morning, if hot-air built

:22:24. > :22:31.homes, Conservative Ministers would have sold our housing crisis. I

:22:32. > :22:36.worry that the vast majority of young people hoping for new homes

:22:37. > :22:40.will be disappointed by the Chancellor's failure to deliver. His

:22:41. > :22:46.record on building anything so far does not inspire confidence at all.

:22:47. > :22:49.Over the last year, the Chancellor has forced himself on to building

:22:50. > :22:54.sites all around the country, to obtain a photo with a high viz

:22:55. > :22:56.jacket. When the Chancellor did his Bob the Builder speech at Tory party

:22:57. > :23:04.Conference, what he didn't tell delegates was that his abysmal

:23:05. > :23:07.investment record, only 9% of the project started and his

:23:08. > :23:13.infrastructure pipeline in two years. In 2012, he announced a ?40

:23:14. > :23:21.billion guarantee scheme. Three years on, only 9% has been signed

:23:22. > :23:24.up. In 2011, he announced a ?20 billion pensions infrastructure

:23:25. > :23:29.platform. Four years on, only ?1 billion of commitment has been

:23:30. > :23:32.secured. The construction industry is actually shrinking and going into

:23:33. > :23:36.recession. He has also failed to invest in schools. The Royal

:23:37. > :23:40.Institute of chartered surveyors has said that the biggest infrastructure

:23:41. > :23:44.programmes could grind to a halt unless the Government adopts new

:23:45. > :23:51.measures to tackle skills and funding. The most ironic cut of all

:23:52. > :23:56.must be the virtual closure of large sections for the Department for

:23:57. > :24:01.Business, Innovation and Skills. There are 46,000 unfilled vacancies

:24:02. > :24:05.due to the lack of a skilled workforce. Naturally, the Government

:24:06. > :24:11.solution is to move to effectively close the one department tasked with

:24:12. > :24:13.improving skill levels. On the environment, the Government has

:24:14. > :24:19.announced today various measures. Let's be very clear. Government

:24:20. > :24:22.Ministers can go to the Paris summit on climate change with the proud

:24:23. > :24:29.record of nearly killing off our once flourishing solar and renewable

:24:30. > :24:34.energy sector. On international aid, let me caution, the Budget is

:24:35. > :24:42.supposedly protected, that is now to be raided for defence spending. In

:24:43. > :24:44.defence, the Government has previously commissioned an aircraft

:24:45. > :24:50.carrier, and have at least woken up to the fact that it needed aircraft

:24:51. > :24:53.as well. The funding of the defence review is to come from ?11 billion

:24:54. > :24:58.worth of cuts, with the inevitable loss of thousands of defence worker

:24:59. > :25:05.jobs, whose specialist skills will be lost for ever. Alongside these

:25:06. > :25:09.cuts, and many more, do help dig himself out of the financial hole he

:25:10. > :25:16.has got himself into, the Chancellor is selling off whatever public

:25:17. > :25:19.assets he can. This is no longer the family silver. . This is the

:25:20. > :25:28.furniture, the fixtures and fittings. We know who is first in

:25:29. > :25:32.line to buy. I never envisaged when it came to nationalising I would be

:25:33. > :25:34.egged on by a Conservative Chancellor. The only difference

:25:35. > :25:38.between us is that I would like to bring services like rail back into

:25:39. > :25:44.the ownership of the British people, the Chancellor wants to sell them to

:25:45. > :25:47.the People's Republic of China. Nationalisation is OK for him, as

:25:48. > :25:54.long as it is by any other state but ours. To assist Conrad Osborn in his

:25:55. > :26:06.dealings with new-found comrades, I have brought him along Mao's Little

:26:07. > :26:14.Red Book. Let me quote, Mr Speaker. Order! I want to hear about the

:26:15. > :26:29.contents of the book! I think you will find this invaluable. Order,

:26:30. > :26:37.you are rather an excitable one! I thought this would help him, Mr

:26:38. > :26:47.Speaker. Let's quote from Mao. The quote is this. Behave! We must learn

:26:48. > :26:51.to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We

:26:52. > :26:56.must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectively and

:26:57. > :27:00.conscientiously. But we must not pretend to know what we do not

:27:01. > :27:09.know. I thought it would come in handy for him in his new

:27:10. > :27:19.relationship. Mr Speaker, I am sure in this debate... I am sure, Mr

:27:20. > :27:23.Speaker that Tory backbenchers will be under instruction to shoehorn

:27:24. > :27:29.into their speeches at every opportunity references to the

:27:30. > :27:34.mythical long-term economic plan. What we have been presented with

:27:35. > :27:39.today is not an economic plan for a political fix, it is not a plan when

:27:40. > :27:43.you ridiculously commit yourself to an achievable policies and leave

:27:44. > :27:48.yourself no room to manoeuvre. It is not a plan when you sell off every

:27:49. > :27:51.long-term asset you have for short-term gain. It is not a plan

:27:52. > :27:55.when you leave important industry is going to the wall, as they have done

:27:56. > :27:59.with steel. It is not a plan when you cut the support for those in

:28:00. > :28:05.work and the working families, leaving them to rely on food banks.

:28:06. > :28:09.It is not a plan when you force councils to close the very services

:28:10. > :28:13.people depend upon. It is not a plan when you invest so little in schools

:28:14. > :28:19.and infrastructure that you put our future at risk. Instead, what we

:28:20. > :28:24.have seen today is the launch of a manifesto for the Conservative

:28:25. > :28:26.leadership election. Our long-term economic security has been

:28:27. > :28:36.sacrificed for the benefit of one man's career. But I say to the

:28:37. > :28:40.honourable member for Maidenhead, and my neighbour, he is gone, the

:28:41. > :28:44.honourable member for Uxbridge, don't worry, the economic reality

:28:45. > :28:51.that is emerging in our economy will mean that this will be seen as the

:28:52. > :29:07.apex of the Chancellor's career. The honourable member for Goddard

:29:08. > :29:13.Inquiry will recognise in the Chancellor Icarus, the boy who flew

:29:14. > :29:17.too close to the sun and burned and cracked. I fear for the Chancellor

:29:18. > :29:21.it is all downhill from here. On this side of the House, we will do

:29:22. > :29:25.all we can to ensure he does not take this economy and country down

:29:26. > :29:33.with him. In the end, this debate is about what sort of society we want

:29:34. > :29:36.to live in. In the end, this debate is about what sort of society we

:29:37. > :29:42.want to live in. The Government is systematically dismantling all those

:29:43. > :29:43.aspects of society that make our community with living in and

:29:44. > :29:57.celebrating. The Chancellor is not community with living in and

:29:58. > :30:05.eliminate the deficit, but we will do it fairly and effectively. We

:30:06. > :30:13.will do it by ensuring that we end the tax cuts to the rich, we tackle

:30:14. > :30:19.tax avoidance, we invest to grow. We will grow our economy and

:30:20. > :30:23.investments in skills and infrastructure. We will become an

:30:24. > :30:27.addition to the financial centre of Europe with a research in science

:30:28. > :30:34.and technology. We will become the technology centre of Europe under a

:30:35. > :30:38.Labour government. That means high skills, high investment, high wages.

:30:39. > :30:39.That is what we are committed to on this side, this is what we will

:30:40. > :30:56.secure when we and Autumn Statement continues

:30:57. > :31:07.in the Chamber - if you want But let's take

:31:08. > :31:10.a moment now to take you through The main headline today, clearly, is

:31:11. > :31:22.Review and Autumn Statement. The main headline today, clearly, is

:31:23. > :31:29.that tax credit cuts are The main headline today, clearly, is

:31:30. > :31:32.have not been ameliorated, have not been changed, not been reformed, not

:31:33. > :31:36.been delayed, they have been avoided been changed, not been reformed, not

:31:37. > :31:40.altogether. They did been changed, not been reformed, not

:31:41. > :31:44.year, even though he only announced them in July. He also announced that

:31:45. > :31:53.education funding would be protected in real terms which takes it beyond

:31:54. > :31:56.the earlier protection he gave it in the March budget. And the other

:31:57. > :32:01.the earlier protection he gave it in headline that we got is there will

:32:02. > :32:07.be no cuts to police budgets in England and Wales. Police

:32:08. > :32:09.be no cuts to police budgets in devolved matter for Scotland, Wales

:32:10. > :32:12.and Northern Ireland. The Chancellor has decided he will not cut the

:32:13. > :32:17.police budget at all has decided he will not cut the

:32:18. > :32:21.talk beforehand. And the NHS budget in England with consequent rises in

:32:22. > :32:32.other parts of the UK will rise from its current ?101 billion a year to

:32:33. > :32:37.?120 billion by the new parliament, 2020 - 21. Housing featured large in

:32:38. > :32:42.the Chancellor's Autumn Statement as well. He has doubled the housing

:32:43. > :32:47.budget. His aim is to provide 400,000 new homes. That was leaked

:32:48. > :32:50.to the papers this morning. It is an extension of giving people a

:32:51. > :32:56.discount to buy homes provided they are under a certain value, and the

:32:57. > :33:05.share of home ownership as well. Not for rent. The apprenticeship levy is

:33:06. > :33:10.set at 0.5% of an employer's wage bill. It is designed for large

:33:11. > :33:14.employers. It is to encourage them to do their own apprenticeships,

:33:15. > :33:17.because the more people they train and give skills, the less they will

:33:18. > :33:23.have to pay this levy or they will get bits of it back. Capital

:33:24. > :33:29.spending on transport is to increase by a substantial amount to ?61

:33:30. > :33:40.billion. It is a 50% rise by 2019-20. Small business rate relief

:33:41. > :33:45.will be extended for another year. The Chancellor had to give some new

:33:46. > :33:52.economic forecasts. The first one is that public spending will rise to

:33:53. > :33:58.?821 billion by 2019-20. In other words, by the end of the Parliament.

:33:59. > :34:02.Despite what was quite a substantial rise in public spending between now

:34:03. > :34:05.and the end of the decade, the Chancellor is still predicting that

:34:06. > :34:11.as a percentage of our GDP, our national wealth, the country's

:34:12. > :34:15.national debt will start to fall now. He aims to get us into a budget

:34:16. > :34:19.surplus of just over ?10 billion by 2020. There had been a lot of

:34:20. > :34:24.speculation that he might not be able to meet that figure given the

:34:25. > :34:34.demands on extra spending, but he has added ?100 billion to show he

:34:35. > :34:40.has done a little bit better. Growth forecast for 2016 and 2017 are

:34:41. > :34:43.revised up, but only by a smidgen. Then they are down little bit

:34:44. > :34:49.later. Essentially, the OBR thinks this economy is going to grow at

:34:50. > :34:54.about 2.5% for the rest of the decade. So, what does all this mean

:34:55. > :35:00.for borrowing? He has still got quite a lot to borrow. But he aims

:35:01. > :35:05.to get it down, as he did promising in the first parliament in 2010.

:35:06. > :35:10.This year he is expecting to borrow ?73.5 billion, a little bit up on

:35:11. > :35:15.what was planned before. Next year, he hopes to get that down to ?50

:35:16. > :35:19.billion. Then another big cut, he wants to get it down to 25 billion

:35:20. > :35:28.and then he hopes to see an enormous cut down to 4 billion. By the final

:35:29. > :35:33.year of this Parliament he produces his promised ?10 billion surplus.

:35:34. > :35:37.Now, to do that, he has had to make a number of cuts but he also plans

:35:38. > :35:43.to spend a lot of money in this budget. We will have to look at how

:35:44. > :35:46.these figures work. There will be a lot of number crunching to test what

:35:47. > :35:51.the Chancellor has been saying today. On the face of it, some of it

:35:52. > :35:57.does not add up. The business department takes a cut of 17% by the

:35:58. > :36:05.end of the decade. Environment is down by 15%, energy by 22%, and the

:36:06. > :36:10.Cabinet Office by 26%. A number of departments have taken cuts, often

:36:11. > :36:14.in the administration rather than their capital investment. In

:36:15. > :36:19.transport, there is a big increase in capital investment but admin

:36:20. > :36:24.costs are slashed. On welfare, the tax credit, the police cuts will no

:36:25. > :36:29.longer go ahead. But there will be ?12 billion of welfare savings to be

:36:30. > :36:33.delivered. As this Parliament goes on, other welfare cuts will have to

:36:34. > :36:38.click into meat that 12 billion figure. The welfare cap, which the

:36:39. > :36:42.Chancellor introduced himself as a result of him deciding not to

:36:43. > :36:47.proceed with his tax credit cuts and reforms, he will breach that cap in

:36:48. > :36:52.the first year of this Parliament. He said he will fall in the cap,

:36:53. > :36:56.after that, we will see. New social housing tenants are to have their

:36:57. > :37:02.housing benefit capped, to make up for the loss in savings from not

:37:03. > :37:13.proceeding with the tax credit reforms. The NHS budget in England

:37:14. > :37:18.will rise ?101 billion to ?120 billion by 2021. The Department of

:37:19. > :37:23.health's Administration budget will see a 25% cut. They will expect the

:37:24. > :37:27.department to get a lot more efficient. Loans will replace grants

:37:28. > :37:31.for student nurses. That is something that will have to be

:37:32. > :37:34.looked at carefully as well. And local authorities which have

:37:35. > :37:38.suffered massive cuts from central funding and central government, yet

:37:39. > :37:44.have not been allowed to increase their council tax, they will now be

:37:45. > :37:49.able to raise their council tax by 2%, provided all the money they

:37:50. > :37:54.raise for that is dedicated for social care, to caring the

:37:55. > :37:58.community. And then another big government spending area, education.

:37:59. > :38:03.There will be a ?10 million increase in total education funding during

:38:04. > :38:07.this Parliament. The free 30 hours of childcare is to be limited to

:38:08. > :38:14.parents who work more than 16 hours a week, part of the Government's

:38:15. > :38:17.attempt to get part-time people to work more hours. Funding for further

:38:18. > :38:22.education colleges will be protected in cash terms, not in real terms,

:38:23. > :38:29.but when inflation is very low cash is close to real anyway. Sixth form

:38:30. > :38:34.colleges will be allowed to become academies and as a result, they will

:38:35. > :38:40.therefore no longer pay VAT and that will be quite a saving. This is a

:38:41. > :38:45.massive Autumn Statement and Spending Review. A huge amount of

:38:46. > :38:50.detail. The paperwork is only now coming into this studio. We are

:38:51. > :38:54.getting some of it online. There is a lot to pore over. The devil will

:38:55. > :38:58.be in the detail and things the Chancellor has put into the

:38:59. > :39:00.paperwork but did not bother to tell us in his announcement. He would not

:39:01. > :39:03.be the first Chancellor to do that. Now we've been joined

:39:04. > :39:06.in the studio by a man who has variously been described

:39:07. > :39:08.the "real Chancellor", "the most important man in government you've

:39:09. > :39:11.never heard of", or even "one half of George

:39:12. > :39:18.Osborne's brain". He's Rupert Harrison, and he used to

:39:19. > :39:25.be George Osborne's chief of staff. He now works for

:39:26. > :39:27.the massive fund managers Blackrock, and he's joined us for what I

:39:28. > :39:35.believe is his first TV interview. It is. Come out from behind the

:39:36. > :39:39.curtain! But first let's get some reaction

:39:40. > :39:52.to the speech from our editors. George Osborne wants to see this as

:39:53. > :39:55.after the rescue of the economy to the rebuilding of the economy. We

:39:56. > :40:01.should not lose sight of something he said at the beginning of the

:40:02. > :40:06.speech, by 2020 the state will make up nearly 30% of national income,

:40:07. > :40:11.compared to 50% when he took office as Chancellor. That is a very

:40:12. > :40:15.significant reshaping of the balancing of the economy. The huge

:40:16. > :40:20.cheers from the Conservative benches today don't hide that there were big

:40:21. > :40:25.climb downs in their, that were not about his political ideology and

:40:26. > :40:30.rhetoric but reality. Most importantly on tax credits. Not

:40:31. > :40:33.tinkering, not tweaking but dropping those cuts altogether. There will be

:40:34. > :40:38.cuts to Universal Credit, the replacement. That is a big victory

:40:39. > :40:43.for the House of Lords, the Labour Party, some Tory backbenchers

:40:44. > :40:49.including Boris Johnson. The second big climb down was not cutting the

:40:50. > :40:53.police budget at all. Many people believe in the last few days in

:40:54. > :40:56.Westminster, after what happened in Paris, it was just not politically

:40:57. > :41:04.possible to go ahead with the kind of cuts that had been expected.

:41:05. > :41:09.Interestingly, two very big changes. Labour will claim them as

:41:10. > :41:14.victories. Rather conveniently from George Osborne, that kills off

:41:15. > :41:18.Labour's two strongest attacks on the Government at a time when they

:41:19. > :41:22.have not been very effective of putting him under pressure. I want

:41:23. > :41:31.to come to Robert Peston in a minute. Before I do, Kamal Ahmed,

:41:32. > :41:36.what is the takeaway for business? How George Osborne can balance those

:41:37. > :41:42.books is a huge movement of costs in pretty significant ways. Firstly,

:41:43. > :41:45.there is the social care issue. A new tax-raising power will be given

:41:46. > :41:49.to local authorities to pay for social care. Private care providers

:41:50. > :41:52.who complain about the cost of social care will

:41:53. > :41:55.who complain about the cost of raised from that will not

:41:56. > :41:56.who complain about the cost of enough. There will still be a ?1

:41:57. > :42:04.billion shortfall. enough. There will still be a ?1

:42:05. > :42:12.billion to be raised on the enough. There will still be a ?1

:42:13. > :42:15.million apprentices he says by 2020. Again, putting the duty on the

:42:16. > :42:20.private sector to deliver on things like skills, so vital to our

:42:21. > :42:26.economy, and of course on housing. Direct funding support for housing

:42:27. > :42:32.businesses, building companies, to build houses themselves, again

:42:33. > :42:38.saying private sector, it is up to you to solve the supply-side problem

:42:39. > :42:42.in housing. As I said before, there are lots of questions about whether

:42:43. > :42:44.the housing industry can deliver and actually want to deliver and has the

:42:45. > :42:50.skills to deliver. actually want to deliver and has the

:42:51. > :42:54.this will be a monotonous repetition over the next few weeks, the whole

:42:55. > :42:58.issue of announcing big numbers on capital investment, on transport.

:42:59. > :42:59.issue of announcing big numbers on They are only announcements, they

:43:00. > :43:05.are not delivery. The Government has They are only announcements, they

:43:06. > :43:07.big scheme is the Chancellor says we need to make sure our economy is

:43:08. > :43:13.thriving in the future. I need to make sure our economy is

:43:14. > :43:17.the Autumn Statement was delivered, is there was a big move from

:43:18. > :43:21.responsibility on local is there was a big move from

:43:22. > :43:31.devolved powers and the private sector to deliver. Robert,

:43:32. > :43:32.the Budget, that he is not increasing any

:43:33. > :43:35.the Budget, that he is not there are tax rises built

:43:36. > :43:37.the Budget, that he is not he is spreading money around all

:43:38. > :43:43.over the place, yet he still says he will reach the surplus. Is there

:43:44. > :43:47.something going on here that we don't yet

:43:48. > :43:54.something going on here that we out by the Office for Budget

:43:55. > :43:56.Responsibility, the agency he created,

:43:57. > :44:02.Responsibility, the agency he higher tax revenues than it was

:44:03. > :44:04.expecting only in July, and a significant reduction in interest

:44:05. > :44:10.payments on the significant reduction in interest

:44:11. > :44:17.debt. And so just to be clear, that is not to do with new taxes imposed

:44:18. > :44:21.today, that is just the OBR being more optimistic and it says the

:44:22. > :44:23.reason it is more optimistic is because it has new data on the rate

:44:24. > :44:29.at which taxes are because it has new data on the rate

:44:30. > :44:36.which has allowed it to make what it thinks is a rational judgment. Let's

:44:37. > :44:38.be clear, these are judgments. They are not unbelievably

:44:39. > :44:42.be clear, these are judgments. They scientific forecasts. The OBR might

:44:43. > :44:49.get it wrong. But George Osborne is banking that windfall. You can see

:44:50. > :44:54.that in perhaps the most important statement in the OBR's enormous book

:44:55. > :44:57.it publishes, when it says the direct effect of

:44:58. > :45:04.it publishes, when it says the policy decisions, has been to push

:45:05. > :45:09.borrowing higher between 2016-17 and 2019-20. What that means is the

:45:10. > :45:15.things he has done today, reversing, for example, the cuts in tax

:45:16. > :45:22.credits, for example, freezing the Budget for the police, and actually

:45:23. > :45:27.limiting cuts in individual departments, cuts in departments are

:45:28. > :45:32.significantly less than we expected or that he outlined. They will be 12

:45:33. > :45:36.billion versus the 20 billion he was talking about only a few weeks ago.

:45:37. > :45:42.So the direct effect of all of that is to push are being higher, but

:45:43. > :45:48.borrowing actually comes down, because the OBR things that the

:45:49. > :45:58.economy's ability to generate taxes is better than it was. Just to

:45:59. > :46:05.reinforce the point that Kamal Ahmed makes, it is a big shift. It's

:46:06. > :46:11.terribly important, in terms of shifting costs, from doing quite a

:46:12. > :46:15.lot of the stuff that we expect the state to do, to the private sector.

:46:16. > :46:21.Let me get to Rupert Harrison. How is it credible to suddenly produced

:46:22. > :46:27.a ?27 billion underlying improvement in the nation's finances between

:46:28. > :46:31.July and November? Well, it is an interesting pattern. If you think

:46:32. > :46:35.about George Osborne's period being Chancellor, in a sense, the first

:46:36. > :46:38.few years were a period where we saw downgrades to the growth forecast,

:46:39. > :46:42.we had the eurozone crisis. The second half of the last Parliament

:46:43. > :46:45.was the period when the economy looked to be picking up, but tax

:46:46. > :46:49.receipts were not picky about the same rates. It looks like we are

:46:50. > :46:54.possibly into a third phase where, finally, the tax receipts have

:46:55. > :46:57.started to come through. Think the OBR are moving from what was quite a

:46:58. > :47:00.cautious view on that, perhaps because the economy is growing, they

:47:01. > :47:06.are a bit more confident about earnings. The OBR is saying during

:47:07. > :47:10.this Parliament there will be ?47 billion in extra tax, without

:47:11. > :47:15.putting tax up, because of tax buoyancy. Where is the evidence for

:47:16. > :47:19.that? If you look at the October borrowing figures, the October

:47:20. > :47:24.borrowing figures were the worst since October 2009 and that was

:47:25. > :47:30.partly because tax receipts underperformed, in every major

:47:31. > :47:35.category. Corporation tax, income tax, national insurance. How does it

:47:36. > :47:41.suddenly produce an extra ?47 billion? There are for that, we

:47:42. > :47:46.always told to not put too much onto one month's data. For the whole of

:47:47. > :47:50.the financial year it is still bad. The OBR have seen those figures last

:47:51. > :47:52.week, but they will not have had a chance to radically change their

:47:53. > :47:58.forecast because of them, and probably nor should they. You should

:47:59. > :48:02.always evaluate these big events by the hand the Chancellor was dealt

:48:03. > :48:07.and how he chose to play at. He was dealt, by a growing economy and more

:48:08. > :48:11.tax receipts, a better hand than he expected. Interestingly, he chose to

:48:12. > :48:16.play that hand by essentially taking risks off the table. Instead of

:48:17. > :48:20.snazzy, new tax cuts or giveaways, he has essentially taken the tax

:48:21. > :48:25.credit issue of the table completely, he's taken police cuts

:48:26. > :48:28.off the table. That is a sign that first of all we are early in the

:48:29. > :48:31.Parliament, it is a phase where any money you have, you are about

:48:32. > :48:37.reducing risks, and a reflection of the fact that we have a government

:48:38. > :48:41.now that does not have a majority in the House of Lords and a very small

:48:42. > :48:46.majority in House of Commons. But he is taking risks, he is spending the

:48:47. > :48:51.tax buoyancy the are predicting. The OBR is assuming that the extra

:48:52. > :48:58.growth is going to produce more tax receipts. But the increase in the

:48:59. > :49:02.OBR forecasts are infinitesimal, 0.1 of a percentage. You were in the

:49:03. > :49:11.Treasury. The OBR has no idea if the economy is going to go and grow by

:49:12. > :49:17.2.2%, or 2.4%, but the Chancellor has banked it? They are not his

:49:18. > :49:20.numbers, they are independent numbers he gets given. I think the

:49:21. > :49:24.OBR has been at the gorgeous end of the spectrum. Their growth forecast

:49:25. > :49:32.is still relatively cautious compared to other forecasters like

:49:33. > :49:39.the anchoring them. Not for 18-19, 17-18. Well, if you look at

:49:40. > :49:44.independent forecasters... Well, the city... Well, they have been at the

:49:45. > :49:47.more cautious end. The main criticism from the Chancellor's

:49:48. > :49:52.opponents has always been, you are cutting too much, there is no need

:49:53. > :50:00.to run a surplus. The main accusation is that he is too

:50:01. > :50:03.cautious and you don't need a ?10 billion surplus. So it's hard to

:50:04. > :50:07.believe he's taking risks on that front. I want to ask you one

:50:08. > :50:17.question, why did he make such a complete Horlicks of tax credits?

:50:18. > :50:22.Well, we mustn't lose side of the party still making ?12 million of

:50:23. > :50:27.savings... Why did he allow the Tory party to be branded as the workers

:50:28. > :50:31.party, the next thing he does is smash the working poor? It's

:50:32. > :50:35.difficult to save money. You've got to see this in the context of a

:50:36. > :50:39.consolidation that is over ?100 billion. That has not been done in

:50:40. > :50:43.this country in living memory. You're not going to get everything

:50:44. > :50:47.right. In the last Parliament, probably lost in the midst of

:50:48. > :50:53.political history now, we proposed after being on jobseeker's allowance

:50:54. > :50:56.for a year it will be cut by 10%. It didn't go down well, we dropped it.

:50:57. > :51:00.We dropped it. Would take child benefit away from higher rate

:51:01. > :51:05.taxpayers, it didn't go down well, we changed the threshold from

:51:06. > :51:09.42,000, to between 50,000 and 60,000. When you are making 100

:51:10. > :51:12.billion plus savings, you're not go to get everything right. He's

:51:13. > :51:16.decided, when you have a problem, fix it properly so you don't have to

:51:17. > :51:25.come back to down the line. He has to Dennis -- listened to Dennis

:51:26. > :51:28.Healey. But one of the things that wasn't answered is why it took the

:51:29. > :51:32.Chancellor so long to recognise the size of the problem. For weeks and

:51:33. > :51:35.weeks, the Treasury were digging themselves further in. They were

:51:36. > :51:39.determined there would be no mitigation. When he finally

:51:40. > :51:42.realised, or perhaps it was pointed out to him by Number 10, just how

:51:43. > :51:46.bad this might have been around the time just before the Lords defeat,

:51:47. > :51:50.in the end he saw he would have to change course. But what someone

:51:51. > :51:54.described to me as that moment, when he really decided he wanted to be

:51:55. > :51:58.Prime Minister, rather than a successful Chancellor, and that is

:51:59. > :52:02.when he doubled down. I think that is a little unfair. The thing about

:52:03. > :52:07.Government, the policy is the policy until the policy changes. You can't

:52:08. > :52:10.go hinting you might be changing. After today, what people are going

:52:11. > :52:15.to remember is that he ditched the tax credit cuts. They are not going

:52:16. > :52:21.to remember that he spent months with people speculate on. We will!

:52:22. > :52:28.You will, Andrew... I suspect you are not representative of most

:52:29. > :52:34.voters. That's an outrageous suggestion to make! What people will

:52:35. > :52:39.get is that he ditched it and listened. There are some

:52:40. > :52:49.counterintuitive issues here, raised by the OBR. One is that you have

:52:50. > :52:53.growth remaining pretty robust, in a global economy, which is quite a lot

:52:54. > :52:58.weaker than we thought it was going to be a few months ago. You are also

:52:59. > :53:04.increasing the costs that are being imposed on the private sector and

:53:05. > :53:10.yet expecting the private sector to increase its investment, not to lay

:53:11. > :53:15.people off. Just intuitively, one wonders whether actually this is

:53:16. > :53:19.going to work out quite as the OBR and the Chancellor assumes. I think

:53:20. > :53:22.you've got to put what are relatively small tweaks today in the

:53:23. > :53:28.context of the big picture. He still public spending, as a share of GDP,

:53:29. > :53:34.down towards 36%. That is merely historical lows in recent history. A

:53:35. > :53:38.quick question from you? Rupert, has the housing supply issue, which has

:53:39. > :53:43.been a big boots in 2010, how much has that been an issue around the

:53:44. > :53:51.house-building companies simply not having the energy or the desire to

:53:52. > :53:54.deliver on housing? If you speak to executives in the house-building

:53:55. > :53:58.sector, their profits are already up 40%. They feel full stretch to, they

:53:59. > :54:02.have a massive skills shortage and they don't seem to be convinced,

:54:03. > :54:04.although they will make warm noises about the announcement is the

:54:05. > :54:09.Chancellor made, how much of a problem was that for you and how can

:54:10. > :54:12.it be solved? It's a good question, it is one of the biggest economic

:54:13. > :54:15.issues we face as a country. House-building rates are beginning

:54:16. > :54:20.to pick up. There are two big factors, one is the one you're

:54:21. > :54:23.talking about. One is planning, and I think it is a bit better and

:54:24. > :54:27.planning is easier to get. There was an issue that if we go back to the

:54:28. > :54:30.boom years, when more houses were being built, about half of the

:54:31. > :54:34.houses were being built by the big guys that people are talking about.

:54:35. > :54:38.There was a whole other sector in the market, the small builder that

:54:39. > :54:41.would build three or four, sell them, and move on and build another

:54:42. > :54:52.one, a lot of them got wiped out or they are still in debt and the banks

:54:53. > :54:55.won't lend to them. Skills shortage is a huge issue. It has been since I

:54:56. > :55:01.was in short trousers. Do getting into politics after this?

:55:02. > :55:04.I'm very happy doing what I am doing.

:55:05. > :55:06.I'm very happy doing what I am learned not to answer questions, you

:55:07. > :55:12.should try learned not to answer questions, you

:55:13. > :55:15.doing. Thank you for being with us. Enough comment from Westminster,

:55:16. > :55:18.let's go back to Birmingham and Jo Coburn.

:55:19. > :55:25.So much to chew over and digest after the Autumn Statement on

:55:26. > :55:28.Spending Review. The improved state of public finances has given George

:55:29. > :55:30.Osborne a little more wriggle room, hence he announced he would not go

:55:31. > :55:35.ahead with some big planned hence he announced he would not go

:55:36. > :55:38.be known as the building Chancellor, not just the cutting

:55:39. > :55:41.Chancellor. With that in mind, my guest here, the Conservative leader

:55:42. > :55:46.of Solihull Council, Bobsleigh. guest here, the Conservative leader

:55:47. > :55:51.now we have the Midlands Engine, is it as good as it sounds? The new

:55:52. > :55:59.unlocks it as good as it sounds? The new

:56:00. > :56:08.investment. He is devolving the skills Budget, and there are other

:56:09. > :56:09.funds available for the future. It will transfer into real growth in

:56:10. > :56:19.this region? ?36.5 million a will transfer into real growth in

:56:20. > :56:30.utilise to create The big headline, the thing he faced

:56:31. > :56:34.most opposition to was the cuts to tax credits. He says they are not

:56:35. > :56:39.going to go ahead, but Labour have already said it is not a fool of

:56:40. > :56:45.their reversal of the planned cuts. Is that how you see it as well? Many

:56:46. > :56:50.working families would have struggled to cope with a cut to tax

:56:51. > :56:58.credits, it is welcome news that is to be avoided. Working families will

:56:59. > :57:08.be relieved to hear that. It is important that people prepare for

:57:09. > :57:12.the future. We already see people struggling with debt, balancing

:57:13. > :57:16.bells and childcare. If you have worries about your finances or

:57:17. > :57:19.questions, come to court to citizens advice, get advice and we will help

:57:20. > :57:28.you think things through. Was your first impression that these families

:57:29. > :57:33.will now have more time for transition in the hope that they

:57:34. > :57:36.will get higher wages? Absolutely, it is important that people have

:57:37. > :57:42.time to prepare and come to citizens advice to help them do that. One of

:57:43. > :57:46.the other big announcements is the councils councils will be allowed to

:57:47. > :57:49.put on council tax, up to 2%, as long as it is hypothecated

:57:50. > :57:56.specifically for social care. At higher council tax bills, what will

:57:57. > :58:00.that mean for your customers? Council tax issues is one of the

:58:01. > :58:03.biggest issues we help people with at citizens advice. It's so people

:58:04. > :58:09.can have advice to manage those changes. For shoppers, just weeks

:58:10. > :58:12.before Christmas, they will be thinking about the money in their

:58:13. > :58:17.back pocket and how it is going to affect their personal finances. One

:58:18. > :58:20.of the big announcements was also about the state pension. With us is

:58:21. > :58:28.our personal finance expert, Danny Shaw. Pensions are going to go up?

:58:29. > :58:32.We knew this, there wasn't a lot in the Autumn Statement, something we

:58:33. > :58:37.didn't know, we had already worked out how much the state pension was

:58:38. > :58:40.going to be, because of the triple lock. We knew, as soon as the

:58:41. > :58:46.inflation and earning figures came out, how much that was going to be.

:58:47. > :58:56.It is going up by ?3.35, up to ?119.30. That is what they call the

:58:57. > :58:59.old state pension, the one before the April 2016 changes. The key

:59:00. > :59:03.thing that is new, which we know because George Osborne announced it

:59:04. > :59:08.for the first time, this new state pension, the flat rate pension, not

:59:09. > :59:13.flat rate when you look at the nitty-gritty of it, it will be

:59:14. > :59:18.?135.65. George Osborne has always said it would be above the level of

:59:19. > :59:24.pension credit, under the old system. It is a measly 5p. He has

:59:25. > :59:30.kept his promise, but not by a great deal. We will leave it there, keep

:59:31. > :59:35.your questions coming in and we will try to get some of those the next

:59:36. > :59:38.time we come on. Thanks, as they were saying in

:59:39. > :59:44.Birmingham, the state pension is going up to over ?119. If you were

:59:45. > :59:54.worried about losing tax credits as a result of the July Budget, that

:59:55. > :59:58.will now not happen. You will not see a reduction in welfare until

:59:59. > :00:01.Universal Credit comes in. If you are worried that the Government come

:00:02. > :00:05.at a time of heightened security threat, was going to cut police

:00:06. > :00:09.numbers further than the Chancellor said, he is not going to do so.

:00:10. > :00:12.Those are some of the issues that affect everybody in the country,

:00:13. > :00:17.rather than just a great number crunching. The number crunching is

:00:18. > :00:37.important, because it tells us whether or not the Chancellor's

:00:38. > :00:39.predictions are credible. We are puzzled by how the Chancellor,

:00:40. > :00:43.determined to get a surplus by the end of the Parliament, has so much

:00:44. > :00:55.money to do so many things. Is it credible? He has got a bit lucky

:00:56. > :01:00.because he will be spending less on debt increase. He has increased

:01:01. > :01:03.taxes reasonably significantly. There is a 3 billion impost on

:01:04. > :01:09.business to pay for the new apprentice ship. Was it in the

:01:10. > :01:15.Labour manifesto? I do know. I think it might have been! Carry on. It was

:01:16. > :01:23.not in the figures in July. There are increases council tax as well.

:01:24. > :01:29.He has increased taxes a bit and he is going to use most of that money

:01:30. > :01:36.to damp down the cuts in spending. Because those cuts and spending were

:01:37. > :01:41.on a relatively limited part of government, the effect of a bit of

:01:42. > :01:47.extra money is to significantly reduce the overall level of cuts.

:01:48. > :01:52.But we knew, everyone is assuming the economy will grow by roughly

:01:53. > :01:56.2.5% a year until the end of the decade, that is the assumption the

:01:57. > :02:01.projections are based on, we knew that interest rates were staying low

:02:02. > :02:05.for another while yet and that would affect the debt interest, the

:02:06. > :02:09.service on the national debt that he had to pay. We know that if an

:02:10. > :02:14.economy is growing there is a certain buoyancy at some stage in

:02:15. > :02:20.tax revenues. So if we knew all that, why does all this come as a

:02:21. > :02:25.surprise? Therein lies the risk. The changes in the OBR's forecast are

:02:26. > :02:32.pretty small. They are five years out in terms of tax revenue. They

:02:33. > :02:37.are genuinely small changes. The Chancellor has used most of those

:02:38. > :02:42.changes essentially to add a bit to the spending, to reduce the spending

:02:43. > :02:45.cuts he otherwise would have done. The risk for him, if that turns a

:02:46. > :02:50.little bit again as they may well do, he will either have to do more

:02:51. > :02:54.in terms of tax increases or go back to those departments and cut them

:02:55. > :02:58.further. Remember in the last Parliament, when things looked

:02:59. > :03:02.worse, he did not increase spending cuts to meet his target. This time,

:03:03. > :03:06.when things are looking a bit better, he is not using that to have

:03:07. > :03:17.a bigger surplus or have tax cuts, he is using it to protect public

:03:18. > :03:20.services. This is the Chancellor's third Budget this year. We had the

:03:21. > :03:26.March budget, the July Budget and now the autumn Spending Review. If

:03:27. > :03:30.it is a 27 billion difference in the underlying improvement in revenues

:03:31. > :03:36.in July of this year and mid-November when this was put

:03:37. > :03:43.together, he probably should have a Budget of every three months now if

:03:44. > :03:46.the figures are so wrong! Please, don't wish for such a thing! 27

:03:47. > :03:51.billion is one of the silly numbers. It has accumulated over three or

:03:52. > :03:57.four years will stop it only comes up to four or 5 billion at the end,

:03:58. > :04:02.plus the has about 6 billion of tax increases at the end. The reason it

:04:03. > :04:07.makes such a big difference is that he is actually only playing with

:04:08. > :04:13.quite a small bit of public spending. The whole of welfare is

:04:14. > :04:19.separate. Health, MOD and so on. Why did you not see this coming? We

:04:20. > :04:25.don't do anything unless you tell us. We have always said there is a

:04:26. > :04:30.lot of risk around. There is gearing between the small amount of spending

:04:31. > :04:34.and small changes on borrowing and interest rates which may result. If

:04:35. > :04:40.you look at the numbers, there are still big cuts in departments. There

:04:41. > :04:46.is a 15% cut for justice. There are big cuts day-to-day spending for

:04:47. > :04:49.transport. There is 12 billion of cuts for the unprotected

:04:50. > :04:52.departments, which is still a big number. It is a big and substantial

:04:53. > :04:57.additional cut. It is not quite as big as it would have been on the

:04:58. > :05:01.July budget numbers, because the Chancellor has decided to use the

:05:02. > :05:05.extra money he has, not to cut taxes or to increase the surplus at the

:05:06. > :05:14.end, but to protect public services. To that extent, in a way,

:05:15. > :05:17.given the political strategy was to move the Conservatives on to the

:05:18. > :05:20.centre ground, as they saw Labour moving to the left, and there were a

:05:21. > :05:24.lot of things in the July budget which had been in the Labour

:05:25. > :05:29.manifesto, this budget, including the U-turns on tax credits and

:05:30. > :05:34.police numbers, is a kind of continuation of that strategy? It

:05:35. > :05:38.certainly using the money not to do the very conservative things like

:05:39. > :05:43.cut taxes and increased spending. He has used it to increase spending. On

:05:44. > :06:08.the tax credit point, it is terribly important to be clear that he has

:06:09. > :06:11.changed nothing in the long run. In the long run, the cuts to Universal

:06:12. > :06:14.Credit that were announced in the July budget, which are of a similar

:06:15. > :06:17.scale to the cuts in the tax credits will come in. In the long run, he is

:06:18. > :06:20.saving just as much and politically, he has got through that and that is

:06:21. > :06:22.through... It is a matter of time and phasing. To summarise, the kind

:06:23. > :06:24.of cuts that were envisaged in the July tax credit statement, do

:06:25. > :06:27.eventually come down in a different way by the time Universal Credit

:06:28. > :06:30.comes in? People on tax credits should realise that? No one will

:06:31. > :06:32.face the tax losses they will face. Even as you go on to Universal

:06:33. > :06:36.Credit, you are protected relative to what you are on. In the long run,

:06:37. > :06:39.every new claimant will get the new lower amount. Mr Osborne is

:06:40. > :06:46.achieving what he wants to achieve on the welfare state which is in the

:06:47. > :06:53.long run... He has postponed it. What point would you like to make,

:06:54. > :06:58.Robert? I think if you look at all the managed government spending, it

:06:59. > :07:04.is now flat in real terms adjusted for inflation throughout Parliament,

:07:05. > :07:08.in other words, actually, this is not a government which is any longer

:07:09. > :07:14.cutting. This is probably the moment when one can say austerity, in the

:07:15. > :07:18.extreme form certainly, is over. Within that, because there are a

:07:19. > :07:25.number of departments which get useful increases, so defence up 2.3%

:07:26. > :07:30.adjusting for inflation, that is reasonable increase. Health, up a

:07:31. > :07:35.little bit more 3.3% adjusting for inflation, because of these

:07:36. > :07:38.protected departments, there are reasonably big cuts elsewhere. And

:07:39. > :07:45.one should not underestimate it, this will be painful for those who

:07:46. > :07:47.depend on the services provided by those departments, but this is not

:07:48. > :07:50.the kind of Armageddon those departments, but this is not

:07:51. > :07:56.were talking about before those departments, but this is not

:07:57. > :08:04.shift. Laura, do we see this budget, now that Paul

:08:05. > :08:08.shift. Laura, do we see this budget, cut taxes, to increase public

:08:09. > :08:12.spending, not to cut the police, is it a continuation of the

:08:13. > :08:16.Chancellor's strategy to put his tanks on the centre ground?

:08:17. > :08:20.Chancellor's strategy to put his no question about it. Dick Lee after

:08:21. > :08:27.George Osborne's speech at the conference, that was an attempt to

:08:28. > :08:33.roll his tanks onto the lawn -- particularly after George Osborne's

:08:34. > :08:36.speech. We four years away from a general election with the Labour

:08:37. > :08:44.opposition who have not found a groove yet. I think that may well

:08:45. > :08:50.all be part of the story today. We have so much to pack in, even in

:08:51. > :08:56.four hours, I have to be ruthless. Paul Johnson, we look forward to

:08:57. > :09:11.seeing you. The press conference tomorrow? Of course. Excellent. One

:09:12. > :09:15.of the tomorrow? Of course. Excellent. One

:09:16. > :09:19.announcement was he decided there would be no further cuts to police

:09:20. > :09:26.budgets in England and Wales. There has been a meeting of chief

:09:27. > :09:27.constables and an elected police and crime commission is taking place in

:09:28. > :09:47.Manchester Town Hall today. This was a very unexpected

:09:48. > :09:51.announcement. We were all expecting cuts of 2225% in England and Wales.

:09:52. > :09:59.At the Chancellor would pull a rabbit out of the hat to soften the

:10:00. > :10:04.blow. Instead, he said no cuts to policing until 2020. To join me,

:10:05. > :10:07.first of all Kevin Hurley, the police and crime commission for

:10:08. > :10:14.Surrey. You were in the hall watching the announcement. What was

:10:15. > :10:20.the response? It was almost euphoria if your team had scored a goal. We

:10:21. > :10:26.should remember we were already in the process of implementing cuts. So

:10:27. > :10:29.all is not well in the world. We will see further reductions in

:10:30. > :10:33.policing on the earlier cuts, but this is good news. Fair play on the

:10:34. > :10:39.Chancellor. He has listened and we are happy with what has happened so

:10:40. > :10:48.far. Can you explain why you have to make further cuts? Should it not

:10:49. > :10:52.stop in 2016? No, because the budgets are decided upstream. Some

:10:53. > :10:56.forces will be significant. In Surrey, it is not so bad. The good

:10:57. > :11:00.news we are hearing is the Chancellor will also allow us to

:11:01. > :11:06.take some extra money on the council tax precept for police, which means

:11:07. > :11:11.some forces like mine in view wealthier south can be completely

:11:12. > :11:17.cosseted from all of this. It will not be quite as good in the North.

:11:18. > :11:22.Professor Steve Davis, what do you think has brought about this shift

:11:23. > :11:25.in George Osborne's thinking? I think he has got better than

:11:26. > :11:31.expected figures for the annual growth rates. He thinks the higher

:11:32. > :11:35.tax receipts will save him the political pain of having to make

:11:36. > :11:45.such large cuts. Just to add something to what Kevin said, there

:11:46. > :11:50.was a 31% real increase in spending between 2001 and 2010, the cuts we

:11:51. > :11:56.have now have taken us back to where we were in 2003 and 2004. I do not

:11:57. > :12:01.remember there being a collapse in policing at that time. If the

:12:02. > :12:14.expected cuts had taken place it would take us back to where wearing

:12:15. > :12:18.2001. They will be changing a lot of plans but there are some things

:12:19. > :12:22.which have already been put through. They should think about how they

:12:23. > :12:26.might reorganise the way they work, provide policing perhaps in

:12:27. > :12:31.different ways. Do we really need 43 police forces, for example? Why do

:12:32. > :12:34.we have each police force buying its own equipment and own kit? It makes

:12:35. > :12:40.a lot of sense to do that nationally. You should always be

:12:41. > :12:45.thinking about that. Private-sector businesses typically look to reduce

:12:46. > :12:50.their costs by 4% every year. There is no why people in the public

:12:51. > :12:55.sector should not also look to spend money more effectively. A final word

:12:56. > :13:04.for Kevin. News about extra funding for firearms capabilities? That is

:13:05. > :13:09.good news. But I share the point, 43 police forces is a silly business

:13:10. > :13:13.model. I would like to be the first police and crime commission to be

:13:14. > :13:19.redundant. I don't patrol the beat, other people do. If George Osborne

:13:20. > :13:23.and Theresa May are listening, I'm sure they will take note for the

:13:24. > :13:27.next round of budget cuts and budget plans. That is the view from

:13:28. > :13:35.Manchester. Thank you, Danny, that is the first

:13:36. > :13:44.voluntary redundancy offer we have had! Let's go to Jane Hill.

:13:45. > :13:49.Thank you. Baroness Susan Kramer is with me and Douglas Carswell,

:13:50. > :13:53.Ukip's MP. We were just listening to that interesting segment and you

:13:54. > :13:59.made some strident point about what is going on here. On the face of it,

:14:00. > :14:03.positive of course, no cuts to the police in England and Wales. George

:14:04. > :14:08.has said no cuts to the police budget, but in the small print we

:14:09. > :14:12.will see a massive increase in the police precept. The Government in

:14:13. > :14:15.Whitehall will not get blamed for that but local Police and Crime

:14:16. > :14:21.Commissioners will get it in the net. George has been clever in

:14:22. > :14:26.shifting responsibility to find finance for the police. Clever

:14:27. > :14:30.politics? It is good politics. I am not sure it is great for the

:14:31. > :14:34.country. We need a Chancellor who understands what we need at this

:14:35. > :14:38.time. This is the first year that the Home Office budget will be less

:14:39. > :14:44.than the overseas aid budget. I do not think it is clever policy at

:14:45. > :14:48.all. This will be really tough on deprived communities. There will be

:14:49. > :14:53.a charge turning up to pay for the police, a charge turning up to pay

:14:54. > :14:59.for old people, that is the social care budget, and it will fall

:15:00. > :15:02.hardest on the deprived communities. At the same time, they

:15:03. > :15:06.will get less money on their business rates if they are deprived

:15:07. > :15:11.communities. If you are Kensington and Chelsea you can go home laughing

:15:12. > :15:16.but if you are deprived community you got whacked today. There is more

:15:17. > :15:21.pressure and responsibility put on local councils? I worry about the

:15:22. > :15:24.bus network as well. We just heard the central Department for transport

:15:25. > :15:29.will have its operational budget slashed. Does that mean paying for

:15:30. > :15:33.buses outside the big cities, that that will all fall on councils as

:15:34. > :15:38.well? I think there are a lot of issues we need to be worried about.

:15:39. > :15:46.I think she is basically right. If I could sum it up, this is a Blairite

:15:47. > :15:51.Budget. The Labour Party has lurched so to the extreme left, it has

:15:52. > :15:55.created the space for a Blairite Budget. Like the Blairite budgets of

:15:56. > :15:59.the past, it sounds a lot better than it turns out to be. There is a

:16:00. > :16:03.lot in the small print I think we are going to find quite unpalatable.

:16:04. > :16:08.Susan, do you understand how he has done it? Still talking about welfare

:16:09. > :16:11.cuts, and yet a U-turn on tax credits, which I assume, as a

:16:12. > :16:20.Liberal Democrat, makes you very happy? We still have ?12 billion in

:16:21. > :16:23.welfare cuts, so it is coming. There has been some nudging about what is

:16:24. > :16:25.going to come in in terms of tax receipts and borrowing to offset

:16:26. > :16:30.some of the changes. We still have ?12 billion in cuts to welfare. I'm

:16:31. > :16:34.delighted he stop the cuts to tax credits forwarding families. One of

:16:35. > :16:38.the ironies is, had George Osborne been a House of Lords, he would have

:16:39. > :16:41.voted for the Democrat motion to absolutely kill those cuts in tax

:16:42. > :16:46.credits stone dead. He would not have voted with the Labour Party or

:16:47. > :16:47.the Conservatives. Interesting. Susan Kramer and Douglas Carswell,

:16:48. > :16:58.thank you for your reactions. It looks like the sun has come out

:16:59. > :17:00.there. We are always kept in the dark, we never know what is

:17:01. > :17:07.happening. We were grateful for that feature. A moment ago, we went

:17:08. > :17:11.through a number of issues that came up in the Budget. Let's go through

:17:12. > :17:16.them again. Here are the main measures announced in the Autumn

:17:17. > :17:23.Statement and Spending Review. Tax credits, announced only in the July

:17:24. > :17:29.post-election Budget, they have been cancelled in their entirety. There

:17:30. > :17:32.will still be Universal Credit coming in which will embody some of

:17:33. > :17:37.what the tax credit cuts had involved. We will talk about that in

:17:38. > :17:43.a moment. There will be no cuts to the police Budget in England and

:17:44. > :17:47.Wales. It was thought the Chancellor was under pressure to reduce the

:17:48. > :17:50.cuts he was planning. The result is that there are no cuts at all. I

:17:51. > :18:03.think the word Paris comes to mind when you look at that. NHS Budget in

:18:04. > :18:10.England will rise, and the consequent rises for the help

:18:11. > :18:14.budgets in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well. As local

:18:15. > :18:17.authorities are squeezed, in one of their main roles in the community,

:18:18. > :18:22.to provide social care, as that money gets squeezed there will be

:18:23. > :18:31.allowed to increase council tax by 2% to pay for social care. And only

:18:32. > :18:34.social care, too. We have a ?10 billion increase for education and

:18:35. > :18:39.childcare. That is through the life of the Parliament, over a 4-5 year

:18:40. > :18:47.period. There is an apprenticeship levy set at 0.5% of the employer's

:18:48. > :18:50.wage bill. This is mainly designed for major employers, to encourage

:18:51. > :18:53.them to do more to give people apprenticeship some skills. If they

:18:54. > :18:59.do that, they get some of that levy back. It's not a new idea, it was

:19:00. > :19:05.introduced by the Wilson government in the 1960s. There it is, round

:19:06. > :19:14.again. 400,000 new homes, the story that was leaked overnight to the

:19:15. > :19:17.broadcasters, 400,000 new homes. The Government getting into the property

:19:18. > :19:27.development business. It seems to have a pot of money of about ?7

:19:28. > :19:32.billion to be able to do it. Capital spending on transport is to rise by

:19:33. > :19:36.50%, by the end of this decade, even as the administrative bill for the

:19:37. > :19:42.transport Department is cut. We spoke a little while ago to the

:19:43. > :19:45.former advisor for George Osborne, giving his first interview on

:19:46. > :19:51.television. We are joined by another former adviser, Matt Hancock,

:19:52. > :19:53.television. We are joined by another definitely not his first TV

:19:54. > :19:56.interview and probably will not be his last

:19:57. > :20:01.interview and probably will not be judge of that! A Minister

:20:02. > :20:03.interview and probably will not be Department of honesty and admit that

:20:04. > :20:09.if it hadn't been for the attacks in Paris, we would not be seeing a

:20:10. > :20:14.freeze in any further cuts to the police Budget? The Spending Review

:20:15. > :20:16.has been in the planning for several months, I don't know exactly when

:20:17. > :20:23.the decision was taken. Crucially, the whole purpose of the Spending

:20:24. > :20:27.the decision was taken. Crucially, Review is centred around national

:20:28. > :20:30.the decision was taken. Crucially, goes back to the manifesto. We

:20:31. > :20:30.the decision was taken. Crucially, out the manifesto, it was about

:20:31. > :20:33.national and out the manifesto, it was about

:20:34. > :20:35.National Security includes all of the defence items we outlined

:20:36. > :20:41.earlier this week. It is the defence items we outlined

:20:42. > :20:44.safety closer to home. Before the defence items we outlined

:20:45. > :20:49.Paris, the Home Secretary was digging in his heels to try to avoid

:20:50. > :20:54.cuts to police budgets. The Treasury was pushing them to come up with

:20:55. > :20:59.more for the departmental cuts. Now there are to be no cuts. What

:21:00. > :21:01.happened in between? It is Paris. It would seem crazy,

:21:02. > :21:05.happened in between? It is Paris. It think, for a Conservative

:21:06. > :21:08.government, or any government, to proceed with cuts to the police

:21:09. > :21:13.Budget beyond what you have introduced? That is the truth of the

:21:14. > :21:17.situation? I don't know exactly when the decision was taken. The question

:21:18. > :21:23.is, what do you do over a four year Spending Review? How do you spend

:21:24. > :21:30.the ?4 trillion worth of taxpayer money? As national security and

:21:31. > :21:33.economic security are the bedrock of what we feel that we were elected

:21:34. > :21:37.on, I think it is perfectly reasonable to make sure the police

:21:38. > :21:42.are protected. At a time when this country faces the greatest terrorist

:21:43. > :21:46.threat in its history, terrorist threat, not the greatest threat, the

:21:47. > :21:51.Nazis beat that one, but the greatest terrorist threat, bigger

:21:52. > :21:54.even than the 30 year terrorist threat from the IRA, in what way

:21:55. > :21:57.does it make sense for the overseas aid Budget to be bigger than the

:21:58. > :22:01.Home Office Budget, as Douglas Carswell just said? Well, hold on,

:22:02. > :22:04.look at what we are going to be doing with the aid Budget. Of

:22:05. > :22:11.course, you have to be working right around the world. We have a moral

:22:12. > :22:21.obligation to the world's poor. We also redirecting the aid Budget to

:22:22. > :22:25.support those on Europe's borders. It might work down the road, but you

:22:26. > :22:28.have been following the news in Paris and Belgium, you will be aware

:22:29. > :22:36.that a lot of bad guys are already here. Overseas aid is for future

:22:37. > :22:39.years, they are here or heading here now, and yet you are spending more

:22:40. > :22:44.on overseas aid and you are on the Home Office, does that make sense?

:22:45. > :22:51.The whole package makes sense. We are protecting the police budget,

:22:52. > :22:56.increasingly counterterror element of the budget by 20%. We are

:22:57. > :23:00.increasing conventional defence with the defence review. I'm talking

:23:01. > :23:04.about the terrorist threat. Crucially, we are making sure when

:23:05. > :23:10.we spend aid money we are spending it at source, try to stop the

:23:11. > :23:14.terrorist threat that source. But my point is that these people, that

:23:15. > :23:18.might stop them... My point is that might stop them coming in five

:23:19. > :23:25.years' time, what a couple of hundred million will do in Somalia,

:23:26. > :23:29.Sudan Syria is another matter, I'm talking about the ones that are

:23:30. > :23:35.already here. We need to tackle both, you are absolutely right. We

:23:36. > :23:38.had to support police domestic, we have to support counterterrorism

:23:39. > :23:43.officers and agencies, but we also have to do everything we can to stop

:23:44. > :23:47.failed states and to make sure that, in those refugee camps, people do

:23:48. > :23:52.not come here with the risk attached, especially if foreign

:23:53. > :23:57.fighters come, of bringing terrorism with them. I think an overall

:23:58. > :24:02.package that includes protection at home and trying to support failed

:24:03. > :24:08.states on Europe's borders makes sense. You have to look at the whole

:24:09. > :24:11.thing as a package. What kind of government comes up with a major

:24:12. > :24:16.change to tax credit in July and then abandons it in November? Well,

:24:17. > :24:21.we've got an improved set of forecasts, these forecasts said

:24:22. > :24:27.there was ?27 billion extra, and that allows us to bring the debt

:24:28. > :24:30.down faster than we were planning to in the July Budget, and also to

:24:31. > :24:34.spend more on capital infrastructure, which is important,

:24:35. > :24:38.I think he would probably agree. Where you wrong to introduce them in

:24:39. > :24:43.the first place? I thought they were sensible measures. Why are you not

:24:44. > :24:47.proceeding with them? Obviously we lost in the House of Lords. You

:24:48. > :24:52.could have gone back. The difference between then and now, in the new

:24:53. > :24:56.forecasts, the OBR, who are independent, said they expect ?27

:24:57. > :24:58.billion extra. I think it is a reasonable use of some of that money

:24:59. > :25:05.to mitigate the impact of the change. The key point is this, on

:25:06. > :25:09.benefits, we were elected on a Monday to find ?12 billion worth of

:25:10. > :25:15.benefits savings. -- on a mandate. You never told us what they would

:25:16. > :25:18.be. We didn't specifically say what they would be. We are going to meet

:25:19. > :25:21.the 12 billion, but do it in a different way to how we set out at

:25:22. > :25:26.the previous Budget. But we've got the money to do it. Can we stay in

:25:27. > :25:30.the Department Of Honesty and be clear that although the tax credit

:25:31. > :25:33.cuts are not going to get people now, when Universal Credit comes in,

:25:34. > :25:37.elements of what you were planning to do in tax credits will be

:25:38. > :25:42.introduced, you will limit the child element to two children from April

:25:43. > :25:48.17, you will abolish the family element in tax credits with ?425 per

:25:49. > :25:54.year. This is some pain for the poorest families postponed, not

:25:55. > :25:58.eliminated? That's not quite right, we are still making the ?12 billion

:25:59. > :26:01.worth of savings that we said we would in the manifesto. We are

:26:02. > :26:06.meeting the ?10 billion surplus by the end of the Parliament we set out

:26:07. > :26:11.in July. The difference is, when people move on to Universal Credit,

:26:12. > :26:15.unless their circumstances change they are protected and so they do

:26:16. > :26:22.not lose cash, in cash terms. That means that you can make this

:26:23. > :26:27.transition in a far more sensible way, and make sure that we get the

:26:28. > :26:29.savings, the benefits of the spending by the end of the

:26:30. > :26:34.Parliament that are just as big as we planned. And, crucially, it is

:26:35. > :26:38.delivering on what we promised in the manifesto. We are up against it,

:26:39. > :26:43.not just in terms of time, but we have to deal parts of the great BBC

:26:44. > :26:52.multifarious empire that we are broadcasting to. It's interesting

:26:53. > :26:56.when you go to the detail, an accountancy firm has come up with

:26:57. > :26:59.analysis of what it means, this is actually a tax-raising Autumn

:27:00. > :27:02.Statement, the tax-raising on businesses. You have the

:27:03. > :27:07.apprenticeship levy, you have the Stamp Duty increase that we have

:27:08. > :27:12.spoken about. You also have a lot of transference of grants for research

:27:13. > :27:17.and development support being changed into loans. But they are cut

:27:18. > :27:20.in corporation tax? They are, but when you go to the detail, I'm

:27:21. > :27:25.looking at the business department, the Government will reduce the

:27:26. > :27:29.teaching grant by ?120 million. They are changing student maintenance

:27:30. > :27:33.grants to loans. There are a lot of cuts that are small scale, there

:27:34. > :27:39.will be overwhelmed by the amounts on tax credits, by the announcements

:27:40. > :27:42.on security, but in here is a lot of tax-raising power that actually

:27:43. > :27:45.means that this is not a giveaway Autumn Statement in the slightest,

:27:46. > :27:51.but is raising large amounts of money, as well as all of the

:27:52. > :27:55.issues. What other bits are hidden in the small print? Loads and loads

:27:56. > :27:59.of changes, because we are reforming the way the stage works. You have

:28:00. > :28:03.hidden loads of changes in the small print? No, the Chancellor set out

:28:04. > :28:10.the big things in the statement, then we published the book. On the

:28:11. > :28:14.business changes, the Chancellor said that there is a 17% saving in

:28:15. > :28:18.the business Department. Of course there is. There do have to be

:28:19. > :28:23.savings. They are not as big, about half as big as the last Parliament,

:28:24. > :28:27.but there are savings. You spend most of the last Parliament

:28:28. > :28:30.attacking Labour for being far too optimistic in forecasting rises in

:28:31. > :28:34.tax revenues when it was in power and then spending on the back of

:28:35. > :28:39.that. Some would say there is a shift, some would describe it as a

:28:40. > :28:46.bit of hypocrisy that here we have a Chancellor that always said he is

:28:47. > :28:53.conservative, banking on these huge forecasts in increases in tax

:28:54. > :28:59.revenues, which may be illusory. The last figures, which were terrible

:29:00. > :29:05.for that, were not included in the figures. This is the independent

:29:06. > :29:10.Office for Budget Responsibility, I'm glad that politicians no longer

:29:11. > :29:14.do it themselves and it is done independently by experts. Thank you,

:29:15. > :29:20.Matthew Hancock, probably not your last interview. We are here on BBC

:29:21. > :29:21.Two until 3:30pm. It is time to say goodbye to viewers on the BBC News

:29:22. > :29:24.Channel. Now the Government has promised to

:29:25. > :29:27.continue to protect the English NHS budget, but that doesn't mean there

:29:28. > :29:29.aren't still tough times ahead Our health editor Hugh Pym

:29:30. > :29:49.is outside UCLH in London. Yes, Andrew, we learned a lot about

:29:50. > :29:53.the funding for the NHS in England yesterday, with quite a significant

:29:54. > :29:58.increase for next year, and then going through to 2020. The

:29:59. > :30:01.settlements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will become clearer

:30:02. > :30:04.with the detail of the Spending Review documents. Today we have also

:30:05. > :30:06.learned that there will be cuts in other areas of health. There will be

:30:07. > :30:09.reductions in public health, other areas of health. There will be

:30:10. > :30:15.local authorities, and student nurses and midwives will have to

:30:16. > :30:21.start paying tuition fees and for their own maintenance, and borrow

:30:22. > :30:24.money. That actually could result in more training places. I am joined

:30:25. > :30:28.here at UCLH by Andrew Haldenby from the think-tank Reform, and Rob

:30:29. > :30:39.Webster of the NHS Federation. What do you make the overall picture? I

:30:40. > :30:45.think the Chancellor has taken a gamble. He will try and make the NHS

:30:46. > :30:49.more productive to cope with tighter money later on. I am not confident

:30:50. > :30:54.that the NHS will become more efficient and productive in order to

:30:55. > :30:57.help in the later years of the parliament. Efficiency savings are

:30:58. > :31:03.still needed and we have not heard a lot more detail on that at all, have

:31:04. > :31:07.we? The Chancellor's big pitch today was more money. I think the NHS

:31:08. > :31:19.needs more productivity and more reform. Our work indicates that the

:31:20. > :31:22.progress on that is slow. Rob Webster, what do you make about the

:31:23. > :31:25.specific issue of student nurses and midwives having to pay for their own

:31:26. > :31:26.tuition? Will that deter people? The universities have been lobbying for

:31:27. > :31:34.more time to open this up. universities have been lobbying for

:31:35. > :31:41.workforce which is committed to the NHS as it goes through this change

:31:42. > :31:44.is a fundamental issue for the future. We should welcome the

:31:45. > :31:51.upfront investment to help us do that. It does not make the need for

:31:52. > :31:56.that to go away though. Big change is coming over the next five years.

:31:57. > :32:02.Do you think public health budgets being cut will make it harder for

:32:03. > :32:06.the NHS? Both public health and social care remain a concern for us.

:32:07. > :32:15.A good shiny NHS cog in a broken machine will not work for patients.

:32:16. > :32:16.We need to focus on prevention will stop fundamentally, we need to

:32:17. > :32:19.ensure that social care is stop fundamentally, we need to

:32:20. > :32:23.because older people need joined up services, whether it is their care

:32:24. > :32:28.needs or their health needs. Quick word on the social care issue. What

:32:29. > :32:33.have we learned today? The Government is worried about social

:32:34. > :32:37.care. It will let governments raise taxes to pay more for social care.

:32:38. > :32:43.It is not changing the services. A bit of extra money is not a

:32:44. > :32:48.long-term solution. There were no long-term solutions. Thank you both

:32:49. > :32:52.at UCL eight in central London, thank you for joining us. Back to

:32:53. > :32:57.you, Andrew -- UCLH. thank you for joining us. Back to

:32:58. > :33:00.The health service will be going over all that Frey carefully. It is

:33:01. > :33:04.a lot of money for the health service but it is still under huge

:33:05. > :33:12.pressure. Social care we see as part of our overall health service. Local

:33:13. > :33:17.authorities will have some tax leeway. I guess the problem is, the

:33:18. > :33:19.places where social care is most needed to be provided by the state,

:33:20. > :33:24.the inner cities, are probably the needed to be provided by the state,

:33:25. > :33:29.places where a 2% rise on council tax does not get you very much. This

:33:30. > :33:35.is the sort of thing which puts the fear of God into places like

:33:36. > :33:39.Liverpool where I was recently. It is a very interesting line in here

:33:40. > :33:45.which shows that the transfer from central government to local

:33:46. > :33:53.authorities is shrinking to almost nothing. At the moment, it is more

:33:54. > :33:57.than ?11 billion. It jinxed almost ?5 billion over the course of the

:33:58. > :34:02.parliament, because one of the Chancellor's big ideas is to

:34:03. > :34:07.transfer much more revenue raising to the local authorities themselves,

:34:08. > :34:13.which is brilliant, if you are in a wealthy constituency, or in a

:34:14. > :34:18.wealthy local authority, but it is a disaster if you have got not support

:34:19. > :34:21.people. I think we are at the beginning of a fairly big debate on

:34:22. > :34:26.this. There are lots of people across the political spectrum who

:34:27. > :34:32.think devolution of powers is a good thing in principle, because you want

:34:33. > :34:37.local people to connect much more closely with local politicians and

:34:38. > :34:40.local services, but if it means a massively widening gap between

:34:41. > :34:44.services available in a poor region compared to a rich region, then

:34:45. > :34:49.there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people out there. It is a

:34:50. > :34:53.very interesting big idea, but it could be very painful and parts of

:34:54. > :34:58.the country and there may be parts of the country which the Tories are

:34:59. > :35:02.just writing off as places that could ever win.

:35:03. > :35:07.I have just been told we have to go to College Green. Let's go back to

:35:08. > :35:15.College Green where it is not Jane Hill, it is me, I have to do

:35:16. > :35:21.everything on this programme! Let's go to Leanne Wood, the head of Plaid

:35:22. > :35:26.Cymru. Good to see you. The Welsh block ground is going to go up, the

:35:27. > :35:29.Chancellor has introduced a new funding formula for Wales and you

:35:30. > :35:35.will be able to have your own income tax if you want it, you must be over

:35:36. > :35:39.the moon with this? No, I am not! There are some snippets of good news

:35:40. > :35:44.in the announcement today but overall I think people are Wales

:35:45. > :35:48.will feel worse off as a result. The impact potentially on local

:35:49. > :35:53.government and all of those areas that are not health risks, in some

:35:54. > :35:57.cases, some of our local services collapsing altogether, and of

:35:58. > :36:01.course, household budgets are likely to take a squeeze, despite the

:36:02. > :36:05.announcement on tax credits, because what we don't know is the impact on

:36:06. > :36:12.other benefits like housing benefit and that will hit the same people.

:36:13. > :36:16.So I am not feeling joyful about this announcement today. I would

:36:17. > :36:18.like to have seen a reverse of the cuts and investment in

:36:19. > :36:24.infrastructure and investment in people. Caroline Lucas, I don't

:36:25. > :36:31.think you will be over the moon about anything! That is quite

:36:32. > :36:34.unfair! For me, I think it is a major missed opportunity. We are a

:36:35. > :36:38.few days before the Paris climate talks and I would love to have seen

:36:39. > :36:43.a massive investment in energy efficiency and home insulation, not

:36:44. > :36:47.just because that will get our climate emissions down, but it will

:36:48. > :36:50.tackle fuel poverty and people who cannot afford to keep their houses

:36:51. > :36:56.warms and it would have created thousands of jobs as well. It is a

:36:57. > :37:01.real wasted opportunity that he has not done it. Leanne Wood, you have

:37:02. > :37:05.the Welsh Assembly elections coming up, the Greens could do well and

:37:06. > :37:09.Plaid Cymru, if you had your own income tax powers in Wales, what

:37:10. > :37:14.would you make of the basic interest rate and the top rate. I am not in a

:37:15. > :37:21.point to give you that information at this point in time. We have not

:37:22. > :37:26.got the power yet. You must have thought about it and dreamt of it.

:37:27. > :37:32.And our priority would be to maximise the amount of money in the

:37:33. > :37:36.Budget. Would you increased tax? There are different rates of tax. We

:37:37. > :37:41.would look at what we want to do with each of those. Regardless of

:37:42. > :37:45.even if we kept the tax rates as they are, the fact that you are

:37:46. > :37:52.investing in job creation and then able to realise the benefits from

:37:53. > :37:58.that is the purpose of having income tax powers. Would you like the Welsh

:37:59. > :38:03.Assembly to increase tax, Caroline Lucas? Our Wales Green Party is

:38:04. > :38:06.independent and it is up to them but the Green Party is not shy on saying

:38:07. > :38:12.people on higher incomes should pay more tax. Meanwhile, talking about

:38:13. > :38:19.this Autumn Statement right now, what we are concerned about is the

:38:20. > :38:23.way that it is really falling on the way the vulnerable people are making

:38:24. > :38:27.those cuts. In Brighton and there are more cuts to children's centres

:38:28. > :38:31.and some of the real resources people depend on, and at the same

:38:32. > :38:35.time, we are seeing a really dismissive attitude to nurses in the

:38:36. > :38:38.NHS. On the one hand, George Osborne is trying to pretend this is

:38:39. > :38:43.something positive about ensuring they can have loans, but actually,

:38:44. > :38:50.they are cutting their bursaries. This is bad news for the NHS. Thank

:38:51. > :38:54.you, we thank you for joining us on this BBC News special on the

:38:55. > :39:00.Spending Review. Let's go now to Northern Ireland and

:39:01. > :39:04.our political editor Mark Devenport. What is the view from Belfast on

:39:05. > :39:08.what is happening? I think there is a general welcome on the

:39:09. > :39:13.Chancellor's U-turn on the tax credits. Northern Ireland is one of

:39:14. > :39:17.the places in the UK with the lowest incomes and the estimate that more

:39:18. > :39:22.than 100,000 households would have been very seriously affected by the

:39:23. > :39:28.original tax credit changes. The political deal we had last week at

:39:29. > :39:33.Stormont including ?240 million that the local executive set aside for

:39:34. > :39:37.mitigating the tax credit cuts. They have got a nice headache now. They

:39:38. > :39:42.have to work out what they will spend the money on. Mark, we will

:39:43. > :39:47.leave it there. Thank you. So, as we zoom around the