Spending review live updates: Rachel Reeves to reveal how Britain will splash the cash with NHS, defence and schools in line for windfalls

Published on: June 11, 2025

By JAMIE BULLEN and LETTICE BROMOVSKY and JAMES TAPSFIELD and DAVID WILCOCK and GREG HEFFER

Updated: 07:38 BST, 11 June 2025

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will today unveil her spending review in Parliament.

The review, which will set out day-to-day spending plans for the next three years and capital spending plans for the next four, is expected to see boosts for the NHS, defence and schools.

But it is also likely to involve squeezes for other departments as the Chancellor seeks to keep within the fiscal rules she has set for herself.

Her room for manoeuvre has also been further constrained by the Government’s U-turn on winter fuel payments, which will see the benefit paid to pensioners receiving up to £35,000 per year at a cost of around £1.25 billion to the Treasury.

Live updates below

Analysis: Tough choices await Reeves amid economic and political pressure

EMBARGOED TO 0001 WEDNESDAY JUNE 11File photo dated 09/06/25 of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a visit to the Castlehaven Horticulture hub in Camden, north-west London. Rachel Reeves will vow to "invest in Britain's renewal" as she reveals her spending plans for the coming years on Wednesday. Issue date: Wednesday June 11, 2025. PA Photo. The Chancellor is expected to announce big increases in spending on the NHS, defence and schools as part of a spending review set to include £113 billion of investment thanks to looser borrowing rules. See PA story POLITICS SpendingReviewReeves. Photo credit should read: James Manning/PA Wire

The generous fiscal envelope set at the Budget last Autumn has been put under massive pressure by the economic slowdown, calls for more defence cash, and Labour revolts on benefits.

While the political backdrop to the proposals this week is the continual surge of Reform, with Labour increasingly panicking about the challenge posed by Nigel Farage and co.

Ms Reeves will have some £113billion to distribute that has been freed up by looser borrowing rules on capital investment.

But she has acknowledged that she has been forced to turn down requests for funding for projects she would have wanted to back in a sign of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over her spending review.

Economists have warned the Chancellor faces unavoidably tough choices in allocating funding for the next three years.

She will need to balance manifesto commitments with more recent pledges, such as a hike in defence spending, as well as her strict fiscal rules which include a promise to match day-to-day spending with revenues.

Rachel Reeves to unveil spending review

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as Rachel Reeves unveils the government’s spending review.

The Chancellor is due to lay out departmental allocations running up to 2029 – the likely timetable for the next general election – later today in the Commons. Among the main announcements is expected to be a £30 billion increase in NHS funding, a rise of around 2.8% in real terms, along with an extra £4.5 billion for schools and a rise in defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.

Reeves has been busy haggling with ministers with some desperately trying to get more cash before all settlements were finally reached on Monday.

Inevitably today there will be winners and losers.

Stick with us for the latest news and analysis throughout the day with reporting from MailOnline’s political team plus expert financial insight from our This Is Money team.