Localis response to Spring Statement 2025
Localis chief executive, Jonathan Werran, said: “The news that day-to-day spending will be protected in the forthcoming Spending Review means that there will be no chainsaw wielding or DOGE like activity in Whitehall.
“While this is a relief, when it comes to local government’s financial stability, it’s not merely the direct results for unprotected areas of spending from MHCLG that matter. We also have to factor in the knock-on effects of other departmental restrictions, such as environment and criminal justice, that can also cause sever upstream pressure on council budgets when they impact at the level of place. The devils in the detail of June’s Spending Review may well be legion.
“Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, which come at no apparent fiscal cost to help deliver 1.3 million new homes in the next five years will face the stubborn reality that you can’t house a family of four in a planning consent. We must hope the requisite labour, material and skills and other infrastructure elements, whether energy, transport or water, can also materialise in line with regional strategic planning ambitions and the onward march of English devolution.
“With this in mind, and modest though it may be against total government expenditure, the £2bn increase in capital spending to help crowd in private investment is a positive sign that we won’t repeat the ‘death slide’ of investment under George Osborne’s 2010 spending review.
“The emerging role of the National Wealth Fund and other institutional sources must help accelerate investment at scale and pace to deliver the infrastructure we need – whether that be affordable housing, energy or fixing an immense backlog crumbling public infrastructure in the health and educational estate.
“Cuts to welfare spending were always going to prove traumatic to the Labour Government, but beyond the immediate headline measures outlined by the chancellor today to cut inexorable bills by £5bn, our longer-term focus should be on the moves to decentralise and devolve employment support services and integrate employment, health and skills as a whole place agenda for reform that helps unlock human potential across our cities and regions.”