Spring statement 2025 key takeaways
Rachel Reeves has delivered her much anticipated spring statement today.
The chancellor’s statement is not a formal budget – as Labour pledged to only deliver one per year – but rather an update on the economy and any progress since her fiscal statement last October.
Ms Reeves told MPs “the world has changed” since her first budget just under five months ago, and that was to blame for the string of cuts and downgrades she outlined in the Commons.
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But critics have said today’s update is a direct consequence of her decisions since taking office in July.
Here are the key takeaways from the spring statement:
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has halved the UK growth forecast for 2025 from 2% to 1%, Ms Reeves said, adding that she was “not satisfied with these numbers”.
She explained that the government’s budget will move from a deficit of £36.1bn in 2025-26 and £13.4bn in 2026-27, to a surplus of £6bn in 2027-28, £7.1bn in 2028-29 and £9.9bn in 2029-30.
While the short-term growth forecasts appear gloomy, the chancellor said the OBR predicts the economy will be “larger” by the end of the forecast compared with the time of her first budget as a result of her decisions.
The OBR expects output to grow 1% in 2025, by 1.9% next year, 1.8% in 2027, 1.7% in 2028 and by 1.8% in 2029.
On living standards, real household disposable income per person is expected to grow by an average of around 0.5 percentage points a year from 2025-26 to 2029-30, led by stronger wage growth and inflation starting to fall later in the forecast period.
Ms Reeves said disposable income will “grow this year at almost twice the rate expected in the autumn”, adding: “Households will be on average over £500 a year better off under this government.”
The chancellor announced further welfare cuts after being told the reforms announced last week will save less than planned – £3.4bn instead of £5bn.
Among the latest changes to welfare spending, Ms Reeves said the universal credit health element would be cut by 50% and frozen for new claimants rather than rising in line with inflation.
However, the universal credit standard allowance will increase from £92 per week in 2025-26 to £106 per week by 2029-30. The changes will mean a further 150,000 people will not receive carer’s allowance or the carer element of universal credit, according to the government’s own impact assessment.
The OBR has estimated the new welfare savings package will save £4.8bn.
Cuts to welfare will mean 250,000 more people – including 50,000 children – will be pushed into poverty by 2030, the government’s assessment predicts.
Separately, 800,000 people will not receive the daily living component personal independence payment (PIP) – due to tightening eligibility rules.
The chancellor pledged to “boost Britain’s defence industry and to make the UK a defence industrial superpower”.
She confirmed the government’s pledge to spend 2.5% of GDP by 2027.
The Ministry of Defence will get an additional £2.2bn next year, the chancellor said, which will be spent on new high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth, and refurbishing military family homes, among other things.
The commitment is fully funded, with cash coming from Treasury reserves and also from the decision to slash foreign aid funding.
Ms Reeves said the statement does not contain any further tax increases, but highlighted work that needs to be done to tackle tax evasion.
She announced steps to crack down on tax evasion, saying that the government will increase the number of tax fraudsters charged each year by 20%.
She says that reducing tax evasion will raise an extra £1bn for the economy.
On departmental budgets – which dictate how much different parts of government can spend until 2030 – Ms Reeves said she aims to make the state “leaner and more agile”.
The chancellor also confirmed that a voluntary redundancy scheme is set to launch for civil servants, saying this will deliver £3.5bn in “day-to-day savings by 2029-30”.
Government spending will now grow by an average of 1.2% a year above inflation, compared with 1.3% in the autumn.
Planning reforms will see house building reach a more than 40-year high by 2030, the chancellor said.
She said the OBR has forecast that the government’s reforms to cut planning red tape will boost house building by 170,000 over the next five years, to 305,000.
This would put the government on track to add around 1.3 million to Britain’s stock of homes in the UK, a rise of 16%, by the end of Parliament.
However, it will fall short of its initial target of 1.5 million houses, the OBR warned, adding that planning reforms will only increase the overall housing stock by 0.5% by the end of 2030.
How have the markets reacted?
The reaction of financial markets to a fiscal event is important, particularly as a poorly received speech can add to government borrowing costs on the bond markets.
The good news for the chancellor here is that yields – the premium demanded by investors to hold UK government debt – dipped slightly in the wake of her remarks.
The yield for UK 30-year bonds, known as gilts, eased by almost 0.1 percentage points to 5.283%.
Similar, but smaller, declines were seen for their 10 and two year counterparts.
The only other market reaction to speak of was a dip in the value of the pound which lost three tenths of a cent against the dollar and the euro.
The television production company founded by broadcaster Jake Humphrey and former racing driver David Coulthard is in talks with potential buyers about a sale.
Sky News has learnt that Whisper Group, which was established in 2010 and won a BAFTA for its coverage of the Women’s Euros in 2022, is working with advisers on a deal.
The company is said to be open to a range of options, including the sale of a majority or minority stake to either financial investors or a strategic buyer.
Corporate financiers at KPMG are orchestrating talks with potential bidders.
Whisper is already 30%-owned by Sony Pictures Television, which acquired the stake in 2020.
It replaced Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund as an investor in the business.
A majority of the shares in Whisper are owned by its founders and management team.
Lioness Millie Bright celebrates England’s win at the Women’s Euros 2022, the coverage of which was produced by Whisper. File pic: Reuters
The company is best-known for its sports productions, and is responsible for Channel 4’s Formula One coverage as well as international cricket, boxing and the Paralympics.
Whisper employs about 300 people, and has operations in London, Cardiff, Manchester and Riyadh.
Its chief executive, Sunil Patel, co-founded the producer alongside Mr Coulthard and Mr Humphrey.
It is said to be plotting further expansion in sport in the form of bigger events and rightsholders, as well as in events, where its clients include Red Bull.
Whisper is also focused on growing its presence in the US, where it currently works with Tom Brady’s Religion of Sport, and the Middle East, where it is partnered with Neom and Saudi Pro League teams.
Outside of sports rights, it has produced documentaries about Ben Stokes, the England Test cricket captain, and Sven-Goran Eriksson, the late England football manager.
It has also diversified into entertainment programming, producing the Wheel of Fortune gameshow hosted by Graham Norton.
Its most recent accounts disclosed a £4.3m pre-tax profit for the year to March 31, 2024.
“Whisper has successful diversified into factual, entertainment and events to complement the wider blend of work across its sports broadcast contracts,” it said in a statement accompanying the accounts.
“It has been another successful year for contract wins, with a series of renewals with key clients and a new range of significant projects which will help ensure visibility over the next few years.”
The sale process comes as ITV holds talks about a merger of its Studios arm with RedBird IMI-owned All3Media, one of Britain’s biggest production companies.
A combination of the two businesses could be announced during the spring, according to banking sources.
This weekend, a spokesman for Whisper declined to comment.
Business
Port giant DP World ‘discredited’ by former minister despite £1bn investment in London Gateway
The chairman of P&O Ferries’ parent company DP World has told Sky News he went ahead with a £1bn investment in the UK despite feeling “discredited” by criticism from a cabinet minister.
P&O was widely criticised in 2022 when more than 700 seafarers were summarily fired and replaced by largely overseas workers without consultation.
Last October, the issue threatened DP World’s planned expansion of London Gateway, its deepwater port on the Thames Estuary, when the then transport secretary, Louise Haigh, described P&O as a “rogue operator”.
Her comments came as DP World was in the final stages of negotiating a £1bn investment in the port, due to be announced at the government’s investment summit.
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In response, DP World pulled the announcement and only relented following a personal intervention by the prime minister to keep his showpiece event on course.
DP World chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem
Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said the criticism was unexpected given the scale of his planned investment in the UK.
‘Water under the bridge’
“There was a misunderstanding. Someone, unfortunately, said something that was not what we expected.
“We were going to invest in infrastructure, a huge investment, and then we get the person in charge to basically discredit us. But it’s water under the bridge.”
Bin Sulayem confirmed that he had spoken with the prime minister and received “reassurances” that Ms Haigh was expressing a personal view. She subsequently resigned after admitting a fraud offence.
The chairman also defended P&O’s conduct, saying that having received no state support during the pandemic, the cuts were necessary to save the company.
“We had a choice. We either close down the company and 3,000 people or more lose their jobs, or we try to survive by letting 700 or so go. And we felt that was right,” he said.
“Maybe we didn’t follow the procedures, but most importantly, we compensated every employee with more than what the law said.”
Read more from Sky News:
Thousands of British Steel jobs at risk
‘Disgraceful’ amount of sewage dumped in rivers
Rebuilding relations
DP World’s London Gateway container port in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. File pic: PA
Bin Sulayem was speaking on a flying visit to the UK intended to rebuild relations with the government, meeting investment minister Poppy Gustaffsen at London Gateway to discuss an expansion that will make the port Britain’s largest by volume and offering encouraging words about the UK’s attractiveness to investors.
“We believe in the UK economy, in its strength, and we believe the economic fundamentals are strong. That’s why we invested,” he said.
“The UK has the best stock market in the world. You have English law, and you have the best universities in Oxford and Cambridge. If we look to the future, it will be the economy of the brain, not the economy of the hand.
“The world economy doesn’t want labourers, it wants brains. People want engineers. They want free thinkers. They want innovators. That is what’s here, and that’s why we invested in London Gateway.”
Sky’s Paul Kelso with Bin Sulayem
Tariff trade trouble
With ports and logistics operations in more than 70 countries handling around 10% of global trade, DP World’s chairman has a unique insight into global trade and the likely impact of the tariff war sparked by Donald Trump.
While confident that trade will find a way to navigate the disruption, he warned America’s trading partners to take the president seriously.
“I think psychologically it will [have an impact], but in reality it will not, because trade is resilient. I think of it like water coming from the mountain in the rain, nobody can stop it. If you can’t sell a product in one place, you can sell it somewhere else.
“Trump is a deal maker. He is making threats because that’s the way he negotiates. He comes with impossible demands because he wants people to come to the table.
“But he’s serious. He will do what he’s threatening if nobody makes a deal.”
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