Research into faster drug treatments and longer-lasting batteries will form part of the £86bn science and technology funding due to be unveiled in the government’s spending review next week.

On Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will unveil how much taxpayer money each government department will get.

Each region in England will be handed up to £500m to spend on science and technology projects of their choice, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) says.

In Liverpool, the funding is being earmarked to speed up the development of new drug treatments, while in South Wales, it will fund longer-lasting microchips for smartphones and electric cars.

Overall by 2030, Ms Reeves’s spending package will be worth more than £22.5bn a year, the government says.

“Britain is the home of science and technology,” she said on Sunday. “Through the ‘plan for change’, we are investing in Britain’s renewal to create jobs, protect our security against foreign threats and make working families better off.”

Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle added: “Incredible and ambitious research goes on in every corner of our country, from Liverpool to Inverness, Swansea to Belfast, which is why empowering regions to harness local expertise and skills for all of our benefit is at the heart of this new funding – helping to deliver the economic growth at the centre of our plan for change.”

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How much cash will each department get?

Flat real-terms budget ‘won’t be enough’

Regional leaders such as North East Mayor Kim McGuiness and West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker welcomed the funding promise.

But the announcement was met with caution by industry leaders.

John-Arne Rottingden, chief executive of Wellcome, the UK’s biggest non-governmental research funder, said: “While it’s positive under the financial circumstances, a flat real-terms science budget, along with continuing barriers such as high visa costs for talented scientists and the university funding crisis, won’t be enough for the UK to make the advances it needs to secure its reputation for science in an increasingly competitive world.”

He claimed the UK should be “aiming to lead the G7 in research intensity” to “bring about economic growth” and “advances in health, science, and technology that benefit us all”.

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Director of policy and public affairs at the Institute of Physics Tony McBride expressed similar concerns.

“To fully harness the transformational potential of research and innovation – wherever it takes place – we need a decade-long strategic plan for science,” he said.

Mr McBride said a “plan for a skilled workforce… starting with teachers and addressing every educational stage” is key – something he hopes will feature in Ms Reeve’s spending review.

Among the other announcements expected are a potential scrapping of the two-child benefit cap and a green light to a new nuclear power station in Suffolk – Sizewell C.

The National Guard will be deployed to Los Angeles after “riots” in response to immigration raids extended into a second day.

California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed that the Trump administration is deploying “2,000 soldiers” to Los Angeles after local police used tear gas, stun guns, and riot shields to push back immigration protesters on Saturday.

Demonstrations began outside the Los Angeles Federal Building in the downtown area of LA on Friday after officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out raids in the area.

On Saturday, several dozen protesters were involved in police standoffs in Paramount, a city south of LA.

Mr Newsom warned in a post on X: “The federal government is sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate. That is not the way any civilized country behaves.”

He described the deployment as “purposefully inflammatory” and claimed it will “only escalate tensions”.

President Donald Trump hit back at Mr Newsom in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday.

“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!,” he wrote.

Mr Trump’s defence secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that active duty marines would also be mobilised if “violence continues”.

LA mayor Karen Bass said that amid the recovery from this year’s wildfires, “many in our community are feeling fear” following “recent federal immigration enforcement actions” across LA County.

“We’ve been in direct contact with officials in Washington, D.C., and are working closely with law enforcement to find the best path forward,” she said.

“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable.”

Reports the guard would be deployed to LA came earlier on Saturday, from Mr Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan on Fox News.

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44 arrested in Friday raids

At least 44 people were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations during raids on Friday, with crowds of around “1,000 rioters” forming around the building before some “assaulted law enforcement officers, slashed tires, and defaced taxpayer-funded property”, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The raids saw street vendors and day workers rounded up across Home Depots, a clothing factory, and a warehouse, Salas of Chirla (The Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles) said.

In a statement on Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “violent mobs” had “attacked ICE officers and federal law enforcement agents carrying out basic deportation operations”.

She described such activity as “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States”.

Ms Leavitt said Californian politicians were “feckless” and had “completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens”, prompting Mr Trump’s order to send in the guard.

Protests spread to second city

On Saturday, protests spread to the Paramount area, where there is a significant Latino population, after demonstrators spotted ICE employees in a Home Depot car park they appeared to be using as a base.

Law enforcement officers faced off protesters at a road junction at around 5pm where a car had been set on fire earlier in the day.

The roads were pictured strewn with trolleys and rubbish bins set on fire, as gas canisters and fireworks were also set off.

Commenting on Saturday’s protests, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said: “It appeared that federal law enforcement officers were in the area, and that members of the public were gathering to protest.”

Vice President JD Vance claimed that “insurrectionists” were seen “carrying foreign flags” and “attacking immigration enforcement officers” in Paramount.

“One half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,” he posted on X. “Time to pass President Trump’s beautiful bill and further secure the border.”

The clashes come amid Trump’s nationwide crackdown on illegal migration.

As soon as he was re-elected in January he set a target of arresting 3,000 suspected illegal migrants per day – and promised to lock down the US-Mexico border.

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.