Spending Review: Colossal £25bn for HS2 eclipses other transport pledges June 11, 2025 HS2’s colossal funding package eclipses all other railway investment pledges that Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her Spending Review. Reeves pledged £3.5bn investment into the Transpennine route upgrade and £2.5bn for East-West rail as part of the Spending Review. The Chancellor also set out plans to “take forward” the UK’s ambitions for Northern Powerhouse Rail, [...]
Spending Review: Whitehall faces axe to fund Reeves’ spending spree June 11, 2025 Dramatic real terms cuts to departments such as the Home Office and the Department for Transport are to fund Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ multi-billion pound spending packages on the NHS and AI technology. Reeves told MPs on Wednesday afternoon that the government would spend taxpayers’ money with “care” as she said the government had been “relentless” [...]
Spending Review: Reeves promises UK will become defence ‘superpower’ June 11, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged the UK will become a “defence industrial superpower” as she confirmed military spending would rise to 2.6 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) by April 2027. Unveiling the government’s much-anticipated Spending Review, Reeves told the House of Commons: “A new era in the threats we face demands a new [...]
Voters reject Reeves’ plans for state power on pension investments June 10, 2025 A majority of British voters oppose the government having powers to dictate pension fund investments, fresh polling has revealed, in a blow to Rachel Reeves’ attempts to use pension pot funds to boost growth. Three in five voters disagree with government influence over pension fund investments, according to a Morning Wire and Freshwater Strategies poll [...]
Government’s pension pot raid risks leaving millions underfunded June 8, 2025 Government plans to allow companies to extract cash from final salary pension schemes have come under fire after fresh analysis found the policy could put millions of retirees’ savings at risk. The Pension Schemes Bill, introduced last week, creates new rules allowing employers to remove “surplus” cash from defined benefits (DB) pension schemes, which are [...]
Cut net zero and welfare spending instead of police budget, Tory MP blasts June 8, 2025 The shadow home secretary has slammed the Labour government amid mounting speculation police budgets are on the chopping block in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending review. Chris Philp told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he believes police funding should be protected from cuts following concerns of a shrinking workforce. “I think I’m very concerned that [...]
Reeves mulls taxpayer-funded subsidy to cut manufacturers’ energy costs June 8, 2025 Rachel Reeves is looking at plans for a £1bn taxpayer-funded annual subsidy to bring down the energy costs for manufacturers after warnings the UK faced “rapid deindustrialisation” without intervention. The Chancellor is facing mounting pressure to lower energy costs for industry with fears high prices are holding back investment opportunities and stifling the country’s competitiveness. [...]
Spending review: Rachel Reeves pledges £15.6bn for regional transport June 4, 2025 The government has made its biggest spending announcement since Labour’s drubbing at the local elections in May, with a pledge from Chancellor Rachel Reeves to double investment in local transport over the next five years. A £15.6bn cash injection will form a major pillar of the 11 June spending review, which the Treasury says would [...]
Nato to pressure UK to spend 3.5 per cent on defence June 3, 2025 The UK will have to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035 as part of a new Nato demand, according to reports, stretching government expenditure far beyond the current 2.5 per cent commitment made by Keir Starmer. The Labour government has agreed to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent from 2027, [...]
Cash ISAs: Record £14bn piled in after rumoured cut from Reeves June 2, 2025 A record £14bn was put into cash ISAs in April as the new tax year kicked off, fresh figures from the Bank of England show, marking the highest amount since April 1999. The ballooning savings follow speculation over the fate of cash ISAs amid rumours of a cut to the allowance. In the Spring Statement [...]