Treasury scraps plans for spending review

The UK Government has confirmed it is scrapping a planned multi- year spending review, and instead holding a one-year review at the end of November.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the decision was taken to prioritise the response to Covid-19 and focus on supporting jobs, setting departmental resources and capital budgets for 2021-22 , and t h e d e v o l v e d administrations’ block grants for the same period.

The government had kept an open mind on scrapping the multiyear spending review but has come under p r e s su r e f r om economists in recent months, who pointed out that the uncertainty of the pandemic meant s e tt i n g longer-term spending targets would prove difficult.

In a statement, the Treasury said: “While the government would have liked to outline plans for the rest of this Parliament, the right thing is to focus entirely on the response to Covid-19 and supporting jobs – that’s what the public would expect.”

It outlined three areas of support including supporting employment, funding public services in the fight against the virus and investment to unite the country, it said.

The chance l lor added: “In the current env ironment it ’s essential that we provide certainty.

“So we’ ll be doing that for departments and all of the nations of the UK by s e tt i n g budgets for next year, with a focus on tackling Covid and delivering our Plan for Jobs.

“L o n g - t e r m investment in our country’s future is the right thing to do, especially in areas wh i ch a re the cornerstone of our society, like the NHS, s c h o o l s a n d infrastructure.”