Share this post:
Rachel Reeves has finally broken with the Treasury’s so-called “Green Book” — the technical manual that decides whether public investment delivers value for money — but not to lift children out of poverty, end food insecurity, or rebuild our hollowed-out welfare state.
Instead, she’s funnelling £15.6 billion into transport projects that won’t start rolling out until 2027, and that, far from addressing the desperate needs of families struggling to eat, will mostly serve to enrich private contractors, property developers, and well-connected consultants.
The Treasury’s Green Book has long been criticised — rightly — for skewing investment toward London and the South East, where higher population density and wages produce faster financial “returns” on government projects.
That bias has meant places like Greater Manchester, the North East, and West Yorkshire have languished with outdated transport networks and underfunded infrastructure for decades.
Reeves says she’s rewriting the rules to fix that imbalance.
But in practice, her version of rebalancing the economy looks suspiciously like Thatcherite trickle-down economics, just applied further north.
Just click on the image, make your donation,
and provide your details!
Same game, new postcode
Under Reeves’ plan,more than £15 billion will be spent on tram lines, metro extensions, and new bus stations.
Some of these ideas were reheated from Rishi Sunak’s Network North plans, that were cobbled together after HS2 was scrapped north of Birmingham. So they’re not even original.
There’s no question that these regions need investment.
But what’s being sold as a bold step toward fairness is, in truth, a massive long-term subsidy for the construction industry, all while Reeves clings to rigid fiscal rules and refuses to spend on people who need help today.
What good is a tram to Stockport in 2030 when families there are skipping meals tonight?
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Children can’t eat tramlines
This is the key betrayal: Reeves has chosen commercial enrichment over human need.
While Labour MPs urge her to undo Tory-era benefit cuts and confront the growing crisis in disability support, Reeves is sticking to austerity-lite.
The poor must wait — again — while billions are earmarked for future infrastructure that may or may not materialise.
And let’s be clear: this investment is not even targeted at the poorest.
It’s focused on “metro mayor” areas — the regions where Labour wants to fend off challenges from Reform UK.
This is less economic strategy and more electoral calculus.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Who profits?
Reeves’ investment will certainly benefit some — but they won’t be the ones queuing at food banks. They’ll be:
-
Private construction firms, with lucrative government contracts
-
Landowners and developers, who will see property prices soar near new lines
-
Consultants and corporate lobbyists, paid to navigate the new investment landscape
In other words: the same people who always profit.
Unless these transport schemes are publicly owned, fare-capped, and tied to a programme of local job creation and affordable housing, they will do little to close the gaping inequality that has defined Britain since 2010.
Just click on the image, make your donation,
and provide your details!
The illusion of action
Labour supporters may feel a glimmer of hope seeing Reeves break with Treasury orthodoxy.
But this is not the bold economic transformation many expected from a post-Tory government.
It’s not a Green New Deal.
It’s not redistribution.
It’s state-funded enrichment for the already comfortable, in the hope that their wealth will somehow trickle down to those left behind.
It won’t. Trickle-down economics is a “piss-take” – as Reeves’s own prime minister, Keir Starmer, once said himself.
If she can tear up the Green Book to lay tramlines, she can tear it up to feed hungry children.
She can rewrite it to fund universal free school meals.
She can rip it up for social housing, disability rights, and rebuilding the NHS.
She just chooses not to.
Share this post:
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Rachel Reeves finally breaks her budget rules – but only to make the rich richer
Share this post:
Rachel Reeves has finally broken with the Treasury’s so-called “Green Book” — the technical manual that decides whether public investment delivers value for money — but not to lift children out of poverty, end food insecurity, or rebuild our hollowed-out welfare state.
Instead, she’s funnelling £15.6 billion into transport projects that won’t start rolling out until 2027, and that, far from addressing the desperate needs of families struggling to eat, will mostly serve to enrich private contractors, property developers, and well-connected consultants.
The Treasury’s Green Book has long been criticised — rightly — for skewing investment toward London and the South East, where higher population density and wages produce faster financial “returns” on government projects.
That bias has meant places like Greater Manchester, the North East, and West Yorkshire have languished with outdated transport networks and underfunded infrastructure for decades.
Reeves says she’s rewriting the rules to fix that imbalance.
But in practice, her version of rebalancing the economy looks suspiciously like Thatcherite trickle-down economics, just applied further north.
Just click on the image, make your donation,
and provide your details!
Same game, new postcode
Under Reeves’ plan,more than £15 billion will be spent on tram lines, metro extensions, and new bus stations.
Some of these ideas were reheated from Rishi Sunak’s Network North plans, that were cobbled together after HS2 was scrapped north of Birmingham. So they’re not even original.
There’s no question that these regions need investment.
But what’s being sold as a bold step toward fairness is, in truth, a massive long-term subsidy for the construction industry, all while Reeves clings to rigid fiscal rules and refuses to spend on people who need help today.
What good is a tram to Stockport in 2030 when families there are skipping meals tonight?
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Children can’t eat tramlines
This is the key betrayal: Reeves has chosen commercial enrichment over human need.
While Labour MPs urge her to undo Tory-era benefit cuts and confront the growing crisis in disability support, Reeves is sticking to austerity-lite.
The poor must wait — again — while billions are earmarked for future infrastructure that may or may not materialise.
And let’s be clear: this investment is not even targeted at the poorest.
It’s focused on “metro mayor” areas — the regions where Labour wants to fend off challenges from Reform UK.
This is less economic strategy and more electoral calculus.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Who profits?
Reeves’ investment will certainly benefit some — but they won’t be the ones queuing at food banks. They’ll be:
Private construction firms, with lucrative government contracts
Landowners and developers, who will see property prices soar near new lines
Consultants and corporate lobbyists, paid to navigate the new investment landscape
In other words: the same people who always profit.
Unless these transport schemes are publicly owned, fare-capped, and tied to a programme of local job creation and affordable housing, they will do little to close the gaping inequality that has defined Britain since 2010.
Just click on the image, make your donation,
and provide your details!
The illusion of action
Labour supporters may feel a glimmer of hope seeing Reeves break with Treasury orthodoxy.
But this is not the bold economic transformation many expected from a post-Tory government.
It’s not a Green New Deal.
It’s not redistribution.
It’s state-funded enrichment for the already comfortable, in the hope that their wealth will somehow trickle down to those left behind.
It won’t. Trickle-down economics is a “piss-take” – as Reeves’s own prime minister, Keir Starmer, once said himself.
If she can tear up the Green Book to lay tramlines, she can tear it up to feed hungry children.
She can rewrite it to fund universal free school meals.
She can rip it up for social housing, disability rights, and rebuilding the NHS.
She just chooses not to.
Share this post:
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
you might also like
‘The Budget that confirms Britain is worse-off under the Tories’
Unhelpful things lefties shouldn’t say part 1 – alittleecon
Rachel Reeves’ weak speech has little to offer but social insecurity