Rachel Reeves' spending review - housing / planning

11 June 2025

Nick Jones, the mortgage sales and marketing director for Access FS, said:

“It’s tempting to focus on the big-ticket announcements around housing – and there was certainly some good stuff in there on Homes England and social housing. But while everyone’s dazzled by the sexy stuff, Angela Rayner’s been very publicly battling to protect day-to-day funding settlement for her department, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She has been right to. While that funding is not in the spotlight, cuts there could have a major knock-on effect for levels of resourcing in local government planning support. So, while it might not grab the headlines, I’m worried reductions in local government budgets could hobble planning functions. Planning delays and under-resourced local authorities have been holding back the UK’s property market for too long – and this could make the situation worse.”