While  this government should be lauded for its understanding of the need for broad-based prosperity as a driver of growth, the big numbers in Rishi Sunak’s budget need to be put in perspective.

Public net investment might be its highest since 1955, but much of this will be mopping up the damage of ten years of public sector cuts. Many local authorities have lost 40% of their budgets, have had to wipe out non-statutory services, and shift resources away from productive, preventative investment and early intervention into reactive spend. We are no further on social care, and NHS capital spending on 40 new hospitals is not going to tackle the stalling of improvement in life expectancy that the Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP) and Marmot 10 Years On reports have identified.