At the start of her Spending Review statement, Ms Reeves announced that “total departmental budgets will grow by 2.3% a year in real terms”. This headline figure doesn’t tell the full story, however.
This average includes increases from previous years, so the real rise from now until 2028/29 is actually just 1.5% a year.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, most departments will see bigger budgets by the end of the parliament, but a lot of this cash has already been handed to them.
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P.S - We’re politically neutral, so we fact check everyone. We fact checked both Labour and the Conservatives most recent autumn budgets.
During an appearance on LBC last month, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan claimed a skilled migrant will contribute on average £16,000 a year towards our economy, whereas a British skilled worker contributes £800 a year.
A study did find that in 2022/23 a migrant skilled worker made an average net fiscal contribution of £16,300, higher than the £14,400 of a UK-born working adult. The £800 figure refers to the contribution of an average UK-born person which includes people who have retired or are students.
The law, section 87 of the Local Government Act 2000, gives the secretary of state the power to make an order to change the year in which the ordinary election to a local authority takes place. And we could find no evidence of legal challenges being brought against the government over the postponing of the local elections.
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