Speeches by Jones.

“I totally recognise that council tax is something we all pay in our local communities, on top of our PAYE tax to national Government. In terms of the spending review, we assumed that councils will continue to behave in the way they have behaved, based on the rules that exist: you have 3% for core and, if you are a soci…”

“We are doing that, yes. As I say, we—”

“There are a couple of differences that I would point out. They might have been told by the last Government, but the last Government were not helping them reform SEND, adult social care and children’s social care. They did not give them multi-year settlements and lots of the other things we are trying to do to make it e…”

“We have assumed that councils will behave in the same way they have behaved recently, so the rules have not changed.”

“Yes, it comes from local tax that people—”

“On children’s social care—there are other examples—we expect to see improvements in the course of this Parliament, and that is how it has been costed in the multi-year spending settlement. Children’s social care is a good example of where there had been lots of work done, but the officials came to us in the spending re…”

“Well, it will always be guided by the fiscal rules. Also, Dame Harriett pointed out the fact that Government debt is expensive and we have to be mindful of that, so borrowing decisions are taken very seriously. We think that we got the right approach in the spending review—the right balance between growth-enhancing inv…”

“Yes, which I am quite positive about.”

“We have put more money in, but we have to reform SEND, children’s social care and—”

“This is the first time in a long time that we as a country have gone back to multi-year spending settlements. We were able to work with Departments in looking at their plans to deliver over a multi-year period, and then try to model what we thought the savings would be from reform and how we could reallocate that money…”

“The other side of the local government settlement is that, in 2025-26, we have increased the local government grant by £2 billion—that has been baselined into future years—and I think we put another £1.5 billion by 2028-29 on top of that. That means that by the end of the scorecard period, you get just shy of, I think,…”

“Again, there are lots of different priorities in that Department, so I think it is worth unpacking it a bit. Obviously, housing is a big priority for MHCLG, and there is significant capital investment and some innovation around financial transactions that will allow it to deliver on that side.”

“That depends on your view of inflation in the years ahead, but we are working on the basis that inflation is around 2%.”

“That is right. Policing is a priority for the Government. In the spending review tables, we talk specifically about spending power for the police, because of their source of income through the precept on the council tax at a local government level, as well as the money that is given to them directly, centrally, from th…”

“Yes, it is definitely a challenge for Government. There is no denying that. You are also trying to deal with the challenge of the new input of additional flow of people coming into the asylum system, which is why our funding for the Border Security Command and the Home Office’s work to try to reduce that criminal activ…”

“That is from 2024 to 2025, in March.”

“Exactly right. One practical challenge for the Ministry of Justice is the availability of relevant judicial expertise for the tribunal decisions, so we have given it a budget that allows it to increase sitting days overall in the court system—it is higher this year and next year than it was in previous years—but we are…”

“If you go from one end of the system to the next, the Home Office is holding the group of people who have been waiting for a decision. I was told by the Home Office yesterday that at the end of March 2025, 106,771 individuals were being supported by the Home Office. That number is being taken down; it is 5% lower than …”

“Well, yes, and for the first time in a long time, the Ministry of Justice has got a good outcome from the spending review, whereas traditionally it was often at the bottom of the pile. We are trying to fix some of those issues.”

“You will realise that the Ministry of Justice is trying to deal with not just the asylums challenge, but the prisons crisis—”