Living standards· Budgets & fiscal events· Welfare Unsung Britain bears the brunt Putting the 2025 Spring Statement in context 27 March 2025 Camron Aref-Adib Mike Brewer Molly Broome Alex Clegg Nye Cominetti Adam Corlett Ruth Curtice Emily Fry Zachary Leather Jonathan Marshall Cara Pacitti Simon Pittaway Hannah Slaughter James Smith Imogen Stone Greg Thwaites Lalitha Try This briefing note analyses the choices the Government has made in the context of an awkward backdrop to the 2025 Spring Statement. It argues that the Chancellor had difficult work to do in bringing the books in line with her fiscal rules, against the backdrop of deteriorating public finances. It concludes that she was right to take action, but wrong to concentrate the pain so heavily on a relatively small number of disability benefit claimants. A judgement by the OBR that planning reform will have material growth benefits also helped the Chancellor get through this fiscal event. But many of the effects of a changing world, including changes to global trade, are yet to be fully felt or reflected in these forecasts. The decision to duck fresh tax rises this spring will only make them harder to avoid in the autumn.
