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Spring Statement 2025 - techUK Roundup and Response
After a larger than expected Budget in October 2024, which included £40 billion in tax rises, many across industry were waiting to see the particulars of the “hard choices” that the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have referenced in recent weeks.
The first of these choices have now been made, with the Chancellor yesterday delivering the Spring Statement.
Alongside the statement made to parliament, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) also published their economic and fiscal outlook. The publication detailed higher than expected interest payments on the national debt and weaker-than-expected receipts – taking the Chancellor from a predicted surplus of £9.9 billion to a deficit of £4.1 billion in 2029-30. Against such a backdrop, it became clear in recent weeks that the Government would be forced into greater action ahead of this fiscal update than it had initially expected.
In addition to widely trailed cuts to welfare payments and the scrapping of NHS England, the Chancellor announced further targets to reduce civil service headcount and large cuts to foreign aid, reducing the budget to just 0.3% of GDP and transferring the majority of the savings into the defence budget to meet her fiscal rules.
Original article link: https://www.techuk.org/resource/spring-statement-2025-techuk-roundup-and-response.html
