The biggest surprise of the Spending Review? The fact there were any.

Despite significant cash injections for specific initiatives and projects, from new transport hubs to affordable housing programmes, day-to-day spending was down across some headline hitting departments, with even the Department for Transport’s budget due to be five percent lower per year over the next three years.

Sticking to the plan

Given the recent Winter Fuel Allowance U-turn, one may have expected similar backtracking in other areas, but if anything the Spending Review was a reassertion that Labour is comfortable with the path it has chosen.

The Chancellor was keen to highlight that she had stayed true to her commitment to eliminating wasteful spending and pointed to savings that had been found that may explain why everyday expenditure can afford to be lower.

Meanwhile, in line with manifesto pledges, the big spending is being reserved for capital investment with the government prioritising funding for sectors that it hopes will deliver the tangible results it needs before the next election.

Much will be made of who the winners and losers of the Spending Review are but one of the more interesting injections of cash is into research and development. £22.5 billion a year is a significant pot – the biggest single spending pledge of the review – but it also represents a continued focus by the government on long-term thinking and investment likely to benefit a wide variety of UK sectors.

This investment in the future was also reflected in announcements specifically for the built environment. The sector has watched closely since the election to see whether the government would follow up its commitments on housing and infrastructure with cold hard cash. It has – with £39bn for affordable homes, and tens of billions for regional transport projects. The announcements in the Spending Review signal a financial commitment to driving development that build on wider planning reforms – signalling a joining up of objectives that will likely be welcomed.

With Labour performing poorly in the polls, and a two-term administration far from certain, the government have made a brave gamble by continuing to look to the future – setting up foundations for long-term growth that Reeves may not reap the rewards of.

A commitment to devolution

A blink and you’ll miss it reference to our capital city explains the rumours of Sadiq Khan’s unhappiness with the Chancellor, but this shift in focus from the South-East is a significant step towards ensuring devolution really delivers.

It played out like a bingo of Northern cities with the Chancellor pointedly referencing the locations of the projects that would receive some sizeable chunks of capital investment – £2.5bn for infrastructure in Greater Manchester, another £2.5bn for nuclear fusion plants in the midlands and £3.5bn for upgrades to the TransPennine route that traverses the North of England to pull out just a few.

Connecting the dots between jobs, infrastructure and growth across our devolved cities may well bring the government closer to its ambition of bridging the North-South divide. The investment spelled out today is firmly framed for the long-term and cements the devolved regions place as key players in the government’s push for growth.

Will it work?

The government seems stuck in a tug of war between reactive economic decisions made from sheer necessity and its determination to be the interventionist and visionary party for the future that its voters hoped it would be. Britain’s armed forces have faced structural and resourcing challenges for years and the country’s nuclear network has arguably been neglected as successive treasury officials baulked at the price tag attached.

The investment promised today is something many will suggest should have been made a decade ago – and the Chancellor’s hand has been forced by her inheritance as much as by the ‘changing world’ that shaped the direction of the Spending Review. Yet again – these are decisions that will likely only bear fruit long after Reeves’ time with the Red Box has ended – not immediate vote-winners.

So what next for the party itself? The run up to the Spending Review has made existing cracks in the Labour Party look like gaping chasms at times – with reports of senior cabinet members storming out of meetings and negotiations going down to the wire as departments fought for the scraps left behind by the NHS and Ministry of Defence.

The cheers that soundtracked parts of Reeves’ statement should be scrutinised – some commentators had even put ministers on resignation watch in the days leading up to the Spending Review. But the party will be hoping that the country (and its own backbenchers) see these decisions as focused on working people, on future growth, and on long-term security.

The economy has long been the political Achilles’ heel of the Labour Party in the eyes of the public but the message today from Rachel Reeves was that after short-term pain, the gains are on the horizon. The British public will have to see it to believe it. Can Labour afford to wait that long?