Working to make government more effective

Report

How to run the next multi-year spending review

Labour's missions need a reformed spending review process.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves holds a press conference in Downing Street.
Rachel Reeves' has announced plans for spending reviews to have at least a two-year time horizon.

The approach taken in recent spending reviews is not up to the job of achieving Labour’s missions.

This report shows how the existing process fails to align government spending with strategic priorities and long-term value for money.

The process has been undermined by the variability in its frequency and timing, the poor use of evidence to guide decisions, and a failure to reflect government priorities in Whitehall department budgets – for example, with the inadequately defined ‘levelling up’ aim going into the 2020 and 2021 spending reviews.

To give the government a better chance of delivering its missions and tackling the complex challenges it has inherited, it recommends that Rachel Reeves resets the approach to spending reviews and introduces more effective ways of managing public spending.   

The IfG welcomes Reeves' plan to establish a regular cycle of spending reviews and set out the process in the Charter for Budget Responsibility. The report calls on the chancellor to go further, running a more in-depth spending review that sets cross-departmental spending plans for each government mission, as well as each department. 

How to run the next multi-year spending review

The approach taken in recent spending reviews is not up to the job of achieving Labour’s missions. Rachel Reeves should reset the approach to spending reviews and introduce more effective ways of managing public spending.

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The IfG report cover for 'How to run the next multi-year spending review'
Political party
Labour
Administration
Starmer government
Department
HM Treasury
Public figures
Rachel Reeves
Publisher
Institute for Government

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