DAVY VIEW

Today’s UK Spending Review will announce additional spending on infrastructure, health and unemployment supports, with no tax rises but a public sector pay freeze and a cut in overseas aid. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) new dour forecasts will spell out the enormous challenge of balancing the books and financing Boris Johnson’s levelling-up agenda. However, difficult questions will be left unanswered today, with the Conservatives instead pointing to the COVID-19 vaccines helping a V-shaped recovery in 2021.