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Rachel Reeves has promised £1.4bn to rebuild crumbling schools and triple funding for free breakfast clubs, as she gears up for her first budget.

The chancellor said children “should not suffer” due to the UK’s depleted public purse, despite the Labour government needing to plug what it calls a £22bn “black hole”.

However, economists said the funding would generally ensure existing plans keep going, rather than pay for many new initiatives, and teachers said much more cash was needed.

The Treasury said the £1.4bn would “ensure the delivery” of the school rebuilding programme, which was announced in 2020 under then prime minister Boris Johnson.

It aims to rebuild or refurbish about 500 schools in a decade, but progress has been slow.

The £1.4bn is understood to be a £550m increase on last year to support the programme.

Last year more than 100 schools, nurseries and colleges in England were forced to shut down days before the autumn term due to safety concerns over reinforced autoclaved concrete (Raac).

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Concrete crisis: ‘It wrecked our lives’

Budget funding for nurseries, breakfast clubs childcare

The Treasury also confirmed £1.8bn would be allocated for the expansion of government-funded childcare, with a further £15m of capital funding for school-based nurseries.

The Treasury said the first stage of the plan would pay for 300 new or expanded nurseries across England.

Ms Reeves also said she would “triple” investment in free breakfast clubs to £30m in 2025-26, after she announced at Labour’s party conference in September a £7m trial across up to 750 schools starting in April.

Labour made a manifesto commitment to spend £315m on breakfast clubs by 2028-29.

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‘I was in tears every night’: Over 320 teachers tell Sky News they have been bullied within their schools

Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) researcher Christine Farquharson said the new £30m figure appears to be a “boost on the previously-announced £7m”.

“But this is still only a tenth of what the Labour manifesto plans to spend by 2028-29, so the bulk of the rollout lies ahead,” she added.

The chancellor said: “This government’s first budget will set out how we will fix the foundations of the country. It will mean tough decisions, but also the start of a new chapter for Britain.

“Protecting funding for education was one of the things I wanted to do first because our children are the future of this country. We might have inherited a mess, but they should not suffer for it.”

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Analysis: Labour’s muddle with messaging
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New pilot seeks to support more ‘stable and loving homes’

Another £44m will help kinship and foster carers, including piloting a new kinship allowance to test whether it can increase the number of children taken in by family and friends.

The government hopes it will “keep more children in stable and loving homes”.

Ms Farquharson said that “in a tight fiscal context” the commitments “largely reflect decisions to continue programmes”.

She said: “Putting £1.4bn into the school rebuilding programme next year will be enough to keep what was always intended as a 10-year programme going in its sixth year.

“£1.8bn for the rollout of new childcare entitlements similarly confirms plans set out under the previous government.”

The Budget - a special programme on Sky News
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The Budget – a special programme on Sky News

School leaders outline what else is needed

School leaders warned that the funding announcement left a “significant shortfall in terms of what is needed to restore the school estate to a satisfactory condition”.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers union, said: “It is reassuring to hear that school funding will be protected next year and that education will continue to be prioritised as schools face continuing financial pressures.

“It is now important that the government is very clear about what it means by ‘protected’.

“We urge the government to use the reduction in pupil numbers some schools are facing to increase per pupil funding both in the short and longer term.”

He said the £1.4bn was “helpful” but urged the Treasury to use the spending review next spring to commit to a “major school rebuilding programme”.

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A Conservative Party spokesman said: “In government, the Conservatives had a relentless focus on giving every child the best start in life.

“We launched the largest-ever expansion of childcare, recruited 27,000 teachers and drove up school standards.

“On the other hand, Labour are breaking their promises to the public.

“Just like their broken promises on hiking taxes and fiddling the fiscal rules, they’ve broken their promises to students – introducing a new tax on education and plotting the cancellation of dozens of new schools projects.”

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Who will the tax rise hit?

What else can we expect from the budget?

Ms Reeves will also use her first budget on Wednesday to announce a change to the UK’s debt rule.

It is designed to pave the way for the government to spend billions more on long-term infrastructure projects.

She is also expected to hike employer national insurance by up to two percentage points and lower the threshold at which employers pay in – measures that would together raise around £20bn.

Capital gains tax, inheritance tax and fuel duty are other options to raise revenue Ms Reeves has on the table, as she seeks to put the economy on a firmer footing.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, deputy leader of Reform UK Richard Tice, former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King, and director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson will be on the Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show on Sky News from 8.30am this morning.

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Police search for missing sisters last seen three days ago near Aberdeen river

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Police search for missing sisters last seen three days ago near Aberdeen river

Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.

Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.

The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.

Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland

Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland

Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.

Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”

Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.

The Huszti sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland

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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.

Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.

The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.

Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.

CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”

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Britain’s gas storage levels ‘concerningly low’ after cold snap, says owner of British Gas

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Britain's gas storage levels 'concerningly low' after cold snap, says owner of British Gas

Britain’s gas storage levels are “concerningly low” with less than a week of demand in store, the operator of the country’s largest gas storage site said on Friday.

Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said.

The UK is heavily reliant on gas for its home heating and also uses a significant amount for electricity generation.

As of the 9th of January 2025, UK storage sites are 26% lower than last year’s inventory at the same time, leaving them around half full,” Centrica said.

“This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store.”

The firm’s Rough gas storage site, a depleted field off England’s east coast, makes up around half of the country’s gas storage capacity.

Gas storage was already lower than usual heading into December as a result of the early onset of winter.

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Combined with stubbornly high gas prices, this has meant it has been more difficult to top up storage over Christmas.

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UK’s first taxpayer-funded injection room to open in radical move to tackle drugs epidemic

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UK's first taxpayer-funded injection room to open in radical move to tackle drugs epidemic

Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics. 

We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.

“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.

It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.

Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.

But there is a new concept in town.

From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.

A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
Image:
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre

It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.

Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.

One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.

Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
Image:
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility

It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.

The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.

There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.

Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
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Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment

One of the eight bays users can inject in
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There are eight bays users can inject in

We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.

The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.

The aftercare area
Image:
The aftercare area

Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’

Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.

The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.

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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.

One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.

The question is what does success look like?

The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.

It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.

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