Chancellor Rachel Reeves has mapped out the next three years of Whitehall funding, promising a 3 per cent annual rise for the NHS - about £29 billion extra overall - and a renewed push to anchor services in local communities. Money will train thousands more GPs and create millions of additional appointments, a move health leaders say is vital as rising numbers of people live with complex physical and mental conditions.

Social care wins some help, chiefly for children: £555 million from a Transformation Fund to keep more families together and £560 million to modernise children’s homes and foster places. Adult provision is less clear-cut. Up to £4 billion could flow into councils via the Better Care Fund by 2028-29, but ministers are waiting for Baroness Casey’s commission to recommend deeper reform. Critics warn that, without urgent cash, services will continue to buckle.

Education fares better. Core school funding climbs by £4.7 billion in cash terms, with a chunk reserved for expanding free meals and covering next year’s teacher-pay deal. Reeves is also pledging £2.3 billion a year for repairs plus £2.4 billion to rebuild more than 500 schools, while a forthcoming White Paper will overhaul the special educational needs and disabilities system. A further £1.2 billion will widen apprenticeships and training.

Housing gets the largest single headline: a £39 billion decade-long commitment to social and affordable homes - the biggest pledge in half a century. Disability groups welcomed investment in children, SEND and the NHS but condemned the absence of stand-alone adult-care funding, arguing that without a solid settlement the government’s growth ambitions risk faltering.