As the UK prepares for the budget announcement, familiar debates are taking shape. Should Chancellor Rachel Reeves cut welfare spending? Or reform the “triple lock” on state pensions?

Other debates focus on revenue: how should she raise money without breaking Labour’s manifesto promise not to increase taxes on working people? But these discussions are being held in a strange vacuum, where the three enormous expenditures that led the UK to this point are not mentioned.

What does the September jobs report, delayed by six weeks because of the government shutdown, say about the economy? Lydia DePillis, our economics reporter, describes how the report, which was better than expected, comes at a moment of deep uncertainty.

David Fowler/ShutterstockHousing and high rental costs have been a major issue for the UK in the past decade. While other countries have moved towards protections for renters, rent control has not been a widespread feature of the British rental market for over a generation.

As fewer people carry cash, vendors, street performers and people experiencing homelessness and unemployment are at a disadvantage.