Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’s tax, borrow and spend philosophy might grab headlines - but it risks hobbling the entire economy while squeezing hardworking taxpayers for every penny.

Before the chancellor’s recent Spending Review, I said sectors like childcare, SEND, farming and small businesses didn’t need empty slogans; they needed targeted investment and delivery that works.

A week on, the figures are eye-catching: £29 billion more for the NHS, £39 billion for housing, a pledge to expand funded childcare. But as so often with this Ggovernment, big promises mask deeper problems and a widening gap between ambition and delivery.

Childcare providers locally are already under pressure. The Early Education and Childcare Coalition warns that one in ten may close within two years.

Expanding childcare without enough staff or realistic funding risks collapsing the whole system - hitting families hardest, especially those with children with SEND, who already struggle to get the support they need.

Housing faces the same problem. Across our towns and villages, developments lie half-finished while roads, schools and GP surgeries lag behind. Local families don’t just want more houses, they want complete, properly planned communities. A funding boost is pointless if councils don’t have the long-term certainty and resources to deliver.

And it’s the same story for skills and training. Cutting funding for Level 7 apprenticeships for over-22s removes vital upskilling routes for our local workforce.

Scrapping the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme will narrow opportunities even further, in areas like ours, where young people need more routes into skilled work, not fewer.

These aren’t just isolated bad calls - they show a pattern. Labour is launching expensive new policies without putting the systems in place to make them work.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Government both warn that while the chancellor spends more on big projects, everyday budgets are being squeezed, all funded by ever-increasing borrowing and record tax levels at a time when families are already under pressure.

Of course, I welcome extra funding where it’s needed, but not if it means saddling the next generation with unmanageable debt or raiding family budgets through eye-watering tax rises.

The key is growth - and real growth only happens when we back businesses, reward hard work and encourage enterprise.

This Spending Review offers headlines, but without a credible plan to deliver and grow, our communities will pay the price for Labour’s tax, borrow and spend habit.