The Financial Times and Daily Mail quote Emma Humphreys on the impact of the UK Government's Spending Review on housebuilding targets
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week delivered her first ever Spending Review (on 11 June 2025), setting out the UK Government’s financial plans through to 2029. Of note, the government announced:
- The UK government will invest an extra £120bn in capital spending over the period, taking capital spending to £151.9bn by 2029–30.
- Day-to-day public spending is much tighter, with the rise of 1.7% per year much smaller than that of the capital expenditure.
- Some departments like the FCDO have been hit hard, while defence and the NHS are clear winners, with increases of 3.6% and 3.0% per year respectively.
- Total departmental budgets will grow by 2.3%-a-year in real terms.
- The Government’s AI Action Plan will be backed with £2 billion.
- A £30 billion in investment in nuclear power, of which about half will go to the Sizewell C reactor.
- A new £39 billion 10-year affordable homes programme was confirmed, which will have a focus on new homes for social rent.
- A new Treasury Green Book will support “place-based business cases, and make sure no region has Treasury guidance wielded against them”.
- A further £3.5 billion was confirmed for the Trans-Pennine route upgrade and £2.5 billion for the continued delivery of East-West Rail.
- Increase day-to-day spending by 3% every year of this Spending Review and an extra £29 billion a year for the day-to-day running of the NHS.
- £9.4 billion has been allocated to Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) over the Spending Review period.
- The Government will be launching a Growth Mission fund for local community and business programmes.
Reeves's announcement that the government will nearly double government spending on affordable housing in England on Wednesday has led to some commentators suggesting the move could provide a significant boost to the housebuilding sector.
Emma Humphreys, Partner in our Real Estate Disputes team, comments on this theme in publications including the Financial Times and Daily Mail. She argues:
Serious change is needed, but it is unclear whether the proposed additional government spending will achieve that - given the continuing obstacles to development and absence of any government support for first-time buyers [...] There is also the consistent issue of what 'affordable housing' means and whether it will really give families the homes they need.
Read the full spending Spending Review document here and supporting documents here.
Read more in the Financial Times here (subscirption required) and Daily Mail here.
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