How was the spring statement? Three experts give their verdicts on key policy areas

Sky News

27-03-2025

Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her spring statement this week.
Now we've heard the detail we've picked out three key policy areas from Labour's plan for change - health, growth and housing - and asked three experts to give their verdict.
Here's their view on how the government is doing so far:
Health
The pledge: Ending hospital backlogs to meet the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment.
The verdict:
I think the critical thing was the financially challenging environment we find ourselves in is going to be even more challenging next year and the year after.
So, we're talking about an unprecedented squeeze on the overall amount of money available to the health service.
The NHS leaders I represent are having to make cuts of 6%, 7%, 8% in their overall budgets, but they know now that the year after and the year after that are going to be even tougher.
5:04
How about NHS modernisation?
If we don't do things differently, I fear what we'll see is what we've seen in the past, which is more money going into acute hospitals. This is the most expensive, least effective way of providing healthcare. Rather, more money should be going into primary, into community.
So we really have to accelerate the reform process if we're going to be able to get more with less.
The score: 7/10
…but we're waiting for a 10-year plan, and until we really know what the plan is, it's very difficult to judge.
Growth
The pledge: Raising living standards in every part of the United Kingdom, so working people have more money in their pocket as we aim to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7.
The expert: Praful Nargund, director and founder of the Good Growth Foundation
The verdict:
In the short term, it's still very hard for the economy.
I mean, you're looking at the OBR downgrading growth, halving their growth estimate for this year. You have a better picture longer term. You see the housing and planning reforms, meaning gains in productivity and growth.
You're seeing household disposable income potentially rise at the end of the parliament by £500 per household.
What about the cost of living?
People want to see change more quickly. They want to see benefits more quickly from an economy changing.
Also, we're far too exposed to volatility and instability in the world, especially with Trump tariffs coming down the line.
The score: 7/10
Long term some really good reforms are coming. Short term we want to see a whole government approach to getting growth happening very soon.
10:47
Housing
The pledge: Building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects - more than the last 14 years combined.
The expert: Clare Miller, chief executive at Clarion Housing Group
The verdict:
There was the announcement from the chancellor that she's putting an extra £2bn of capital investment into the affordable homes programme.
Investment in that area will enable us to be able to build more homes.
However, it's not a silver bullet. And clearly what we need is a long-term solution in order to enable charitable housing associations like my own, and to be able to work with the government to deliver over the longer term.
What do you think about leasehold properties?
What the government would like to do is to move to a common hold form of tenure, which potentially gives the residents living in those blocks more control and more say over the services that are delivered to those residents.
I think that that is a positive step. But we will have to see how it is rolled out.
The score:???