“It’s a big deal for this government,” says Simon Case.

“It’s the clearest indication yet of what they plan to do between now and the general election, a translation of their manifesto.

“This is where you should expect the chancellor to say, on behalf of the government: ‘This is what we’re about’.”

As the former cabinet secretary, Mr Case was the man in charge of the civil service during the last spending review, in 2021.

On Wednesday, Rachel Reeves will unveil the Labour government’s priorities for the next three years. But it’s unclear whether it will provide all that much of an answer about what it’s really about.

Unlike the Autumn budget, when the chancellor announced her plans on where to tax and borrow to fund overall levels of spending, the spending review will set out exactly how that money is divided up between the different government departments.

Since the start of the process in December those departments have been bidding for their share of the cash – setting out their proposed budgets in a negotiation which looks set to continue right up to the wire.

This review is being conducted in an usual level of detail, with every single line of spending assessed, according to the chancellor, on whether it represents value for money and meets the government’s priorities. Budget proposals have been scrutinised by so called “challenge panels” of independent experts.

It’s clear that health and defence will be winners in this process given pre-existing commitments to prioritise the NHS – with a boost of up to £30bn expected – and to increase defence spending.

On Sunday morning, the government press release trumpeted an impressive-sounding “£86bn boost” to research and development (R&D), with the Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle sent out on the morning media round to celebrate as record levels of investment.

We’re told this increased spending on the life sciences, advanced manufacturing and defence will lead to jobs and growth across the country, with every £1 in investment set to lead to a £7 economic return.

But the headline figure is misleading. It’s not £86bn in new funding. That £86bn has been calculated by adding together all R&D investment across government for the next three years, which will reach an annual figure of £22.5bn by 2029-30. The figure for this year was already set to be £20.4bn; so while it’s a definite uplift, much of that money was already allocated.

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Peter Kyle also highlighted plans for “the most we’ve ever spent per pupil in our school system”.

I understand the schools budget is to be boosted by £4.5bn. Again, this is clearly an uplift – but over a three-year period, that equates to just £1.5bn a year (compared with an existing budget of £63.7bn). It also has to cover the cost of extending free school meals, and the promised uplift in teachers’ pay.

In any process of prioritisation there are losers as well as winners.

We already know about planned cuts to the Department of Work and Pensions – but other unprotected departments like the Home Office and the Department of Communities and Local Government are braced for a real spending squeeze.

We’ve heard dire warnings about austerity 2.0, and the impact that would have on the government’s crime and policing priorities, its promises around housing and immigration, and on the budgets for cash-strapped local councils.

The chancellor wants to make it clear to the markets she’s sticking to her fiscal rules on balancing the books for day-to-day spending.

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But the decision to loosen the rules around borrowing to fund capital investment have given her greater room to manoeuvre in funding long-term infrastructure projects.

That’s why we’ve seen her travelling around the country this week to promote the £15.6bn she’s spending on regional transport projects.

The Treasury team clearly wants to focus on promoting the generosity of these kind of investments, and we’ll hear more in the coming days.

But there’s a real risk the story of this spending review will be about the departments which have lost out – and the promises which could slip as a result.

Water cremation and human composting could soon be offered as an alternative to traditional funerals.

A Law Commission consultation is proposing legal approval of new methods beyond burial, cremation, and the rarely used burial at sea.

The paper published earlier this week highlights two methods used in other countries – alkaline hydrolysis and human composting.

Alkaline hydrolysis – also known as water cremation or resomation – involves placing a person’s body into woollen shroud or other organic pouch, using water, alkaline chemicals, heat and pressure to break down the tissue.

The resulting liquid is checked and treated if necessary to enter the wastewater system, while remaining pieces of bone and teeth are dried and can be ground to a powder and scattered like ashes.

Water cremation, which mimics the process of natural decomposition when someone is buried, takes between four and 14 hours.

The method, which has been suggested as a greener alternative to traditional cremation, was used for the bodies of five dead people in 2019, as part of a study facilitated by Middlesex and Sheffield universities.

Anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died in 2021, chose resomation for his own funeral in South Africa.

Read more: What is water cremation?

Co-op Funeralcare said it hoped to offer the service in the UK in 2023 but backed out because of the current regulations.

The firm welcomed the Law Commission review, which will run until spring next year, ending in a final report and draft Bill.

New funerary methods are not currently regulated, other than by more general legislation such as environmental and planning laws.

Provisional proposals suggest a legal framework to enable new methods to be regulated in the future.

A Co-op Funeralcare spokesperson said: “At Co-op Funeralcare, we are committed to serving the needs of our member-owners and clients and offering the most sustainable and affordable services.

“In 2023, we announced our ambition to pilot resomation in the UK, and we subsequently worked closely with government to explore the regulatory requirements to introduce this service across the nation.

“However, we did not proceed with this as, at the time, we were unable to find a path through the current regulatory framework.

“We welcome the Law Commission’s review and encourage exploration into alternative methods that provide consumers with greater choice and deliver environmental benefits.”

The consultation paper also highlights human composting, where a body is placed into a sealed chamber, or vessel, with carbon-rich organic matter, such as straw and wood chips, to enable quicker decomposition.

The process takes around two to three months and resulting soil can be returned to bereaved loved ones.

Other methods involving the freezing of human remains have also been suggested, although none have them are yet viable, according to the paper.

The moment we step into Willow Rise, the smell of damp is overpowering.

There are water stains across the carpet and rotten wood on the doors.

Around the corner, there’s a hole in the wall, barely patched up with a piece of polystyrene sheet.

We’re meeting a resident on the 13th floor of the building in Kirkby, Merseyside – but the lifts are broken and wires hang out of the service panel.

Like everyone living here, we will have to walk.

The disrepair in this block is everywhere you look.

It has now been deemed so unsafe by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service that they are days away from serving a rare prohibition notice on this tower and its neighbour, Beech Rise, meaning residents will have to leave with immediate effect.

In total, 160 households here face instant homelessness.

After climbing 13 flights of stairs, we meet Chris Penfold-Ivany.

‘A catastrophic scandal’

He has terminal cancer, and after chemotherapy and a liver transplant, that climb is now the only way he can get up to his flat.

He tells us it’s making him breathless. He can no longer get his prescriptions delivered, as the drivers won’t come up all the stairs.

“It’s a catastrophic scandal that we have been left like this,” he says.

He has lived in this flat for 15 years and has watched the block slowly begin to fall apart over the last decade.

He tells us that numerous complaints have achieved nothing. “I’m going to say it,” he says, “this is another Grenfell in the making.”

‘Nobody can live like this‘

A few floors down, Arunee Leerasiri opens the door to us, in floods of tears.

The stress of the last few weeks has left her anxious and overwhelmed. There are boxes everywhere, bare hooks on the walls where pictures hung.

She is packing up her life just three years after putting her life savings into buying this flat.

Her elderly mother has come to visit, but she had to hire removal men already to take her mattress into storage as she couldn’t manage without the lifts.

Tonight, and until they are told they must leave, they will sleep on the floor.

“I can’t eat, I can’t sleep,” she tells us, through tears. “Sometimes, if I’m honest, I can’t even think. This used to be my home, and now I look around and I don’t even recognise it.”

“Nobody can live like this,” she adds.

‘Danger, 415 volts’

She shows us a video she filmed just a few weeks ago, of one of the electrical risers on the ground floor.

None of us can quite believe what we are seeing – water is pouring through the ceiling, directly on to fuse boxes and electrical wiring.

Arunee takes us down to show us the cupboard. The water has now stopped but there are damp stains all over the floor and around the electrical equipment.

The water pipes and electric boxes are just inches away from one another within the cupboard.

One of the boxes, marked ‘Danger, 415 volts’, is rusted through.

Next to it, there is a notice stuck to a resident’s door telling them a leak has been identified in their flat – and as a leaseholder, they will be responsible for paying to fix it.

“Tell me, how is this safe?” Arunee says. “Why is this building allowed to be open for the public, as a dwelling, with this kind of set-up?”

Hidden owners and a plea to the government

Merseyside Fire and Rescue tell us they have been serving enforcement notices on the building managers for years, to no avail.

They have now been told there is no money for the millions of pounds worth of repairs that will be needed to bring the blocks up to a safe standard.

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They have mandated a ‘waking watch’, where teams physically patrol the buildings daily to check for fire risks, without which they will serve the prohibition notice and tell residents they must leave straight away.

Knowsley Council has stepped in to pay for this temporarily – at a cost of £3,000 per day.

Their deputy leader tells us, though, that the money will soon run out.

Where to go?

With a complex management structure and several owners, managers and agents over the years, the council says it doesn’t even know who is to blame for the disrepair – or who even has the legal responsibility for maintaining the buildings.

It says discussions are ongoing with central government about whether any extra help – or money – can be provided to try to fix the mess.

Right now though, all the residents can do is wait.

With no date to leave and no idea if anything can be done to keep the buildings open, they are spending every day fearing the call to tell them they have to go.

They can only hope there will be somewhere for them if they do.