A brave investment? Rachel Reeves's first budget is a radical departure after years of constraint

Labour's first UK budget in almost 15 years marked a radical departure with past constraints on investment spending.

- Phillip Inman

New rules allow longterm planning and introduce safeguards governing how the extra cash is spent. But what are the more immediate implications?

Will the budget kickstart growth?

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which provides the government with independent economic forecasts, said extra spending in the first two years would expand the economy more than Jeremy Hunt's March budget, but act as a modest drag on the former Conservative chancellor's plans stretching to 2029.

The end result, according to the OBR, is no economic benefit from £70bn ($90bn) of extra annual spending. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) described the budget as a brave investment, because all the benefit would emerge after the next election.

In a lively debate, the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research said private sector investment would be "crowded in", lifting growth by more than the OBR expects.

Will public services be boosted?

The biggest problem faced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was not so much the discovery of a supposed £22bn hole in the finances left behind by Hunt but the huge underspends in education, health, local government and previously unprotected departments such as transport and culture.