Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman,

and this is the Sunday Roundup. A report by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation has found that living

standards in the UK are set to fall by 2030,

news which increases pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of her spring statement next week.

Appearing on Sky News this morning, Reeves rejected the JRF's analysis.

Very different from what we saw under the previous government.

But just to be clear, you're saying that you simply don't think the living standards are going to fall.

In fact, you're suggesting that they're rising now and they'll continue to rise.

Is that what you're saying?

I'm confident that we will see living standards increase during the course of this Parliament.

What we've already seen in these last few months of the Labour

Government is a sustained increase in living standards. Next month, at the beginning of April,

people on the national living wage will see a 6.7% increase in their wages. 1,400 pounds more

a year. That's only possible because of the stability that we have returned

to the economy. And of course, those three cuts in interest rates from the Bank of England

mean that mortgage rates are lower than they otherwise would have been. We've got to do more,

absolutely, in terms of raising living standards. But this government have already got started in delivering

our plan for change. It is expected that the Chancellor will not announce tax increases in her

spring statement and will use administrative cuts to fund increases in spending on the NHS

and defence. On the BBC, Rachel Reeves told Laura Coonsberg that she wanted to spend

more money on the most

important government work whilst cutting waste. We're going to invest in the areas that are our

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