Introduction

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, held the Spring Statement on Wednesday 26 March 2025. In the run up to the event, the Chancellor stated that she 'remains committed to one major fiscal event a year to give families and businesses stability and certainty on upcoming tax and spending changes and, in turn, to support the government's growth mission'.

The Chancellor did meet her commitment that there would be no major tax announcements but tax is only one side of the equation. The other is spending and the Spring Statement confirmed a number of the measures recently announced, namely:

• cuts to the welfare state
• cuts to the civil service
• an increase in defence spending.

There were also announcements about the rollout of the Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax project.