ICAEW.com works better with JavaScript enabled.

Spending Review 2020

On 25 November 2020 Rishi Sunak will deliver the UK Spending Review. The primary purpose is to set out the government’s departmental spending plans for the 2021-22 financial year that starts on 1 April 2021, but there is a lot more to it than that. Read insights and analysis from ICAEW's experts.

Contents
Back to top

ICAEW analysis of key annoucements

Spending Review 2020: National Infrastructure Bank – a role for private investment in the recovery
  • Article
  • 26 Nov 2020
26 November 2020: The Spending Review highlighted the crucial role private infrastructure investment must play in the COVID-19 economic recovery, with the confirmation of plans for a National Infrastructure Bank.
Spending Review 2020: government aims to ‘level up’ greener UK
  • Article
  • 26 Nov 2020
26 November 2020: The government’s plans for levelling up the UK are welcome, but more detail is needed on how funds will be spent and what that means for businesses.
Spending Review 2020: public finances dominated by COVID aftermath
  • Article
  • 26 Nov 2020
26 November 2020: The Office for Budget Responsibility presented its latest economic and fiscal forecasts to accompany yesterday’s Spending Review. As expected, the forecasts were far from pretty.
Spending Review 2020: news in brief
  • Article
  • 26 Nov 2020
26 November: Smaller Announcements from the UK government’s spending review including, confirmation of a freeze in the business rates multiplier, funds for Companies House reform, a pledge that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will match EU receipts and more apprenticeship funding for SMEs.
Income tax personal allowance and national insurance limits for 2021-22
  • Article
  • 26 Nov 2020
26 November 2020: Hidden in the spending review was a statement that some income tax allowances and thresholds and national insurance limits would increase in line with the September CPI figure. ICAEW’s Tax Faculty explains what this means.

More ICAEW analysis on public spending

Public sector cash burn slows in October, but a difficult winter lies ahead
  • Article
  • 23 Nov 2020
23 November 2020: ICAEW’s public sector director Alison Ring has called for the focus of Wednesday’s Spending Review to be on how the government can put in place building blocks for economic recovery.
Where is our National Infrastructure Strategy?
  • Article
  • 05 Nov 2020
6 November 2020: Will the Spending Review on 25 November be accompanied by the long-awaited National Infrastructure Strategy that will set out a framework for public and private investment in the UK for the coming quarter of a century?

Need to know

Spending Review 2020: UK faces ‘economic emergency’
  • Article
  • 26 Nov 2020
26 November 2020: Against a gloomy backdrop of the largest annual GDP fall in 300 years, the Chancellor announced unparalleled levels of spending and borrowing to meet the challenges of COVID-19 in 2021 and beyond.
What is tomorrow’s Spending Review all about?
  • Article
  • 24 Nov 2020
Major fiscal events can be confusing for those not familiar with the public finances – this brief explainer may help.
ICAEW writes to Chief Secretary on Spending Review priorities
  • Article
  • 16 Nov 2020
Alison Ring, ICAEW’s director for public sector, has written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury ahead of the Spending Review to stress the importance of investment in infrastructure, data and financial management.