London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Rishi Sunak confirms autumn budget to take place on 27 October

Rishi Sunak confirms autumn budget to take place on 27 October

Ministers lobby chancellor for their departments before announcement of £140bn in extra spending
Rishi Sunak has given the date of 27 October for his autumn budget, announcing plans to support public services and revive the economy with £140bn of extra spending.

Setting the scene for more expansive and interventionist policies than seen under recent Conservative administrations, the chancellor said he wanted to balance extra cash for public services with “keeping the public finances on a sustainable path”.

Paul Johnson, the head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said he welcomed “a return to multi-year budgeting”. However, it was unlikely the autumn budget would match the impact of announcements on Tuesday to reform social care and boost health spending with tax rises to raise £14bn, he said.

Cabinet ministers have already spent several weeks preparing to battle with Sunak over their future budgets, ahead of his official announcement of a three-year spending review, which will also fall on 27 October.

Some departments have seen their budgets cut by up to 40% over the past decade, and the fear inside Whitehall is that previously “ringfenced” areas of health, schools and defence will take the lion’s share of any extra cash – leaving little for justice, transport and international aid.

Public service spending will now increase at an average real rate of 3.2% a year over the next three years, compared with a 2.1% rise under previous plans.

“That will fund a substantial increase in health and social care funding, but will still leave overall public service spending £2bn to £3bn lower each year than what the government was planning to spend pre-pandemic,” Johnson said.

The chancellor said core departmental spending, covering welfare and services, would increase from 3% to 4% from next April. “By 2024-25 that means that core departmental spending will be £140bn more per year in cash terms than at the start of the parliament,” he added.

Sunak is understood to be confident that a £20-a-week cut to universal credit payments next month and the ending of the furlough scheme on 30 September will have little impact on the economic outlook.

Some economic forecasters have warned that unemployment could rise from 4.7% to above 5% later this year as furloughed workers find themselves out of work.

There had been speculation that the budget would be delayed until next year, allowing the economy to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity before setting tax and spending targets each year until 2024.

Some Treasury officials were concerned that the government’s economic forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), was unlikely to agree with a forecast by the Bank of England that the pandemic had made only a modest dent in the long-term outlook for the economy, forcing Sunak to limit his spending plans.

It is understood that the OBR is preparing to admit it was overly gloomy in its forecasts in March when it said the hit to the economy was the equivalent of 3% of annual GDP. Later assessments by officials at the BoE have reduced the pandemic’s negative effect to just 1% of GDP.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×