BBC News, South West
BBCPeople in Cornwall and Devon have told the BBC they are looking to see more funding for the NHS and education but are divided on the winter fuel payment U-turn.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves was to set budgets for all government departments over the next few years in the Spending Review on Wednesday.
Rail campaigners have battled for £1.5m government cash in the upcoming Spending Review to make a business case for a railway link in Devon.
The Spending Review would confirm how taxpayers’ money will be spent on the NHS, defence, police, education and other public services
Bill Dodson, 74, from Saltash said he was pleased about the U-turn on the winter fuel payment but questioned where the money would come from.
“Everything tells me we haven’t got the growth at the moment, people are being laid off … I don’t see it,” he said.
He added he would like to see more funding in the NHS.
“In all seriousness I can live without it but that makes me fortunate, there are many who can’t,” he said.
“But there is a genuine concern from a personal point of view on how they are going to achieve their aims or what their aims are.”
Andy Metcalf from Plymouth runs a charity called Fullhrh which aims to support the homeless.
He said: “The lower parts of society, the people that have fallen off the edge due to the cost of living crisis … charitable organisations are not being able to cope.”
He added he would like to see more funding for mental health support because “it’s a cause of a lot of the underlying problems that we’re seeing.”
He said he would like to see more “targeted welfare spending”.
Donna Hemmings from Saltash, said because she lives so close to Plymouth her top priority would be defence.
“I personally worked in the dockyard, I think because we’ve got so many quite highly paid jobs in there it would trickle down if there was any input put into the dockyard,” she said.
The 53-year-old owns Eclectic Interiors and said, “from a small business it would be good to have high streets perhaps looked at and money put into try and promote that as well and also the NHS.”
‘Help the local people’
Graham Storer, 66, from Land’s End said: “After 43 years of working I think I was entitled to the fuel allowance and I’m glad they have done the U-turn.”
“I’d like to see the roads get something because the roads in Cornwall are awful and also something to help the local people.”
Silvia Filbey from Landrake is a mum of four and wants to see more funding for education and the NHS.
The 43-year-old said “There’s a lot of struggling children and families out there.”
Rosie Waters, founder of Saltash Scrapstore, said defence, the NHS and education were on her list of priorities.
The 64-year-old said: “Pensioners used to be really really hard up and there still are of course some people that are really hard up but there are also an awful lot of younger people that are also very, very hard up and we see a lot of them in here. “
“Young mums, young families generally that rely on somewhere like this just to get the basics.”
She said she would rather see the winter fuel allowance payments used somewhere else.
“Target it more, means test … and it’s particularly those people who are working but just above that threshold that seem to get clobbered every time and not entitled to all the benefits but they struggle,” she said.
