Slido

You know, it's funny.

Last night I had a question at Barry St Edmunds when someone said, well, how are you different from a content creator? And this was a question that came on Slido so I could choose which questions to answer.

And I didn't answer that question because I just didn't really know what to say.

But there are differences between working, between being a content creator and being, you know, working in the more kind of established structures.

I'm going to start by asking my colleagues a few questions, but we want to answer your questions as well.

So please do start putting those in Slido and do upvote anything that's already there that you would like us to answer.

Dan, let me start with you.

There was lots of discussion in the run-up to this budget about how the outlook had changed since the spring when the OBR last made their forecast, how the Iran war and rising interest rates were causing problems for the government.

I guess the other thing that's really encouraging and builds slightly on what we've just been talking about is that there are big commitments in there for mayors to have lots of flexibility about how they then spend that money, which I think is something that we've called for in the past.

The more ring fences, the more little rules, the more... oversight you try and have of like specifically what each spending each bit of spending is spent on the the less easy it is for for mayors and other layers of government to be able to prioritize effectively across their responsibilities so yeah i think there's there's some really exciting stuff in there um the devil is in the detail as we would always say but this feels like a really uh a really sensible next step um so yeah lots to lots to lots to like there

And just to pick up on a question that's coming on Slido, what's your take on what we know so far about how the government's planning to deal with equalisation across areas versus the incentives to grow and keep tax?

So I think they've slightly pushed this one.

So inshallah ta'ala, we will end it there and open it up for Q&A.

And as well on the Slido, if you want to put your question there, I'll take from the audience first and then I'll go on to Slido inshallah.

So it is interactive.

You're going to see, should see, coming up a Slido.

that you guys can, there we go, okay.

Everyone take out your phones.

This is again, interactive panel.

Take out your phones, scan the Slido, put the number in.

We're gonna be asking a series of questions.

We're gonna give you guys a few seconds to agree or disagree before our panel members lift up and tell you what they think and then we're gonna discuss it.

And you upvote it and downvote it.

Maybe use Slido or something like that.

And then they have to create something for the next 25 minutes to talk around that.

But what they're doing is they're showing their expertise and they're showing their expertise applied to an audience rather than just delivering a keynote, which, to be honest, they could have done as a PDF.