A one-year Spending Review to be implemented for 2021-22
22 October 2020
In order to prioritise the response to coronavirus, and to ensure that the Government’s main focus is on supporting jobs, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced that he will be conducting a one-year Spending Review for 2021-22.
Ordinarily, the Government would conduct a three-year Spending Review, but it is felt that this is just not possible at present, although the Government would have ideally liked to discuss plans for the rest of the Parliament. The one-year Spending Review will set out resource and capital budgets, alongside the Devolved Administration’s block grants for 2021-22.
The Spending Review will centre on three key areas:
- Providing departments with the certainty required to tackle coronavirus, and to deliver the Government’s Plan for Jobs, to support employment
- Providing vital public services with the support they need to continue to fight the virus whilst still delivering first class frontline services
- Investing in infrastructure to deliver on plans made to level up the country, drive economic recovery and Build Back Better
It has been confirmed that the Spending Review will take place in the last weeks of November, and speaking on the topic, Rishi Sunak said:
“In the current environment its essential that we provide certainty. So we’ll be doing that for departments and all of the nations of the United Kingdom by setting budgets for next year, with a total focus on tackling Covid and delivering our Plan for Jobs.
Long term investment in our country’s future is the right thing to do, especially in areas which are the cornerstone of our society like the NHS, schools and infrastructure. We’ll make sure these areas crucial to our economic recovery have their budgets set for further years so they can plan and help us Build Back Better.”
The information in this article is accurate at the time of publication. For all the latest information, news and resources on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting payroll professions, visit our Coronavirus hub.