Treasury technicalities plus party politics bring more attention for the North East
The Chancellor's big ticket items for the North East came early - which is somewhere between encouraging and disconcerting when we're talking about public transport projects.
Around £2.8 billion from the Spending Review was announced last Wednesday for infrastructure in our region, including extending the Tyne and Wear Metro to Washington.
By comparison, Rachel Reeves' big speech today was a bit of an anticlimax.
In the small print afterwards, we found that areas of Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Stockton that 'have been too easily left behind' are to receive up to £20m over the next decade for things like improving parks and tackling graffiti.
The government are calling them 'trailblazer neighbourhoods', which sounds a bit like a spoof initiative from The Thick Of It, and a lot like the Conservative governments' various funding pots for local regeneration schemes.
The Tories talked a lot about what they called 'levelling up', with mixed results.
Labour have talked less about tackling regional inequalities, but have made a technical tweak that might make a big difference.
They've revised the Treasury's 'Green Book', used to judge value-for-money for investment.
London and the South East normally deliver bigger bang for your buck, so have often been prioritised for new infrastructure.
The government says: no more, wider impacts will be considered, so regions like ours will be able to compete.
Despite some government departments having their budgets squeezed when it comes to day-to-day spending, there is money around for investment due to another tweak to government rules, around borrowing.
Rachel Reeves made a passing promise today to set out the government's plans for 'Northern Powerhouse Rail' in the coming weeks.
Campaigners say it should mean a high speed rail line from Liverpool to Hull, and up to the North East.
It's hard not to be sceptical, given it's been talked about in many forms over many years.
The Chancellor spoke quite a bit today about the government being focused on ensuring there's economic growth, and people have opportunity, in every part of the country.
She also dedicated a fair amount of time to attacking Reform UK, reflecting the threat they pose to Labour, after their local election successes in places like County Durham.
The Chancellor has been accused of doom and gloom in her first 11 months in office, focusing on what she claims has been a horrible inheritance from the Conservatives.
With this Spending Review she tried to change gear and set out a more positive plan for the years ahead.
The North East will hope to play a big part.
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