Spending review: Welsh small businesses 'feel no benefits'
Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: "Small businesses will be wondering when they will feel the benefits of today's Spending Review.
"It was not the business-focused day they had hoped for."
She highlighted the lack of support for small businesses in various spending allocations, including statutory sick pay, housing, defence and energy efficiency funding.
However, she acknowledged the 'significant increase in resources' for the British Business Bank as a 'major bright spot'.
She urged government departments to be strategic with their spending over the next three years.
FSB Wales Chair, John Hurst, said: "Small businesses in Wales continue to face relentless pressure from rising employment costs, ongoing changes to employment legislation, and sustained high energy bills."
He called on the Welsh Government to use the local growth funding from the Spending Review to bolster the business support system and foster a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'I skipped dinner so my parents could eat my food - child poverty must end'
Growing up Georgia Sullivan would force down food she didn't like – in case there was no food at home. Now the 26-year-old and four other young people are calling on the government to end child poverty. Growing up in poverty has left an indelible trace on Georgia Sullivan. "I grew up with a fear of food, because I wasn't used to eating different things," Georgia, now 26, explains. "I'd be at school eating things I didn't usually eat, and I remember gagging because I needed to eat the meal because we might not have anything to eat at home. That's a core memory for me. As I got older, I'd sometimes not eat in the evening so my parents could eat my food." Georgia from Nottingham, who grew up in North London and Stevenage adds: "Part of poverty is trying to pretend and act like things that are ordinary for other people aren't extraordinary for you. There were times growing up I was told not to open the door because of the bailiffs. All the physical things – like having nits for months because we couldn't afford the treatments – have a real impact. I'm dealing with the lasting consequences every day." On Wednesday, Georgia and four other young people who grew up in poverty will hand deliver a letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Liz Kendall, Work and Pensions Secretary – who co-chair the government's Child Poverty Taskforce. From their own experiences, and as young ambassadors for Action For Children, these five young people know better than anyone that every day a child spends in poverty is one day too long. After 14 years of brutal Tory Austerity, Labour inherited staggering levels of child poverty, affecting around 4.5 million children – yet the government's flagship Child Poverty Strategy has become mired in delays. Spring became summer, and now the strategy has reportedly been delayed until at least the autumn. And while Wednesday's Spending Review saw a return from the Chancellor to core Labour values – full of bold plans for transport, the NHS, infrastructure – there was no mention of lifting the two-child benefit cap or other measures that could dramatically shift the dial on child poverty. As internal rows continue to rage over the two-child limit, and benefit cuts continue down the pipeline, every day more children go hungry and endure health and mental health problems, bullying and indignities that will shape their adult lives. So, Georgia and a group of young people have decided to act to remind Labour of its manifesto commitment to end child poverty. "Dear Bridget Phillipson and Liz Kendall," their letter says. "We know how it feels to grow up in poverty. We've felt the anxiety, shame, and loneliness that poverty causes. We felt it as children, and as adults we still feel it. We worry that we won't be able to keep our own children from it. "Your government has said 'no child should be left hungry, cold or have their future held back' by poverty… Hearing these promises, we feel hopeful - but we're also worried… the two-child limit remains in place, and other benefits are being cut." They urge the cabinet ministers – "Please make the right choices." After the welcome government U-turn on winter fuel, ministers can expect to be deluged by anti-poverty charities over the coming weeks, pushing for action on the two-child benefit cap. Paul Carberry, CEO of Action for Children, welcomes the additional funding for children's social care, social housing, and the expansion of free school meals in the Spending Review. But he adds: "If this government is to succeed in its bold ambition to drive down the UK's shamefully high levels of child poverty, it must go further. The Child Poverty Strategy this autumn must rebuild our inadequate social security system, starting with scrapping the two-child limit and benefit cap." Another of the letter's co-authors, Louise Fitt, 24, from West London, says growing up in poverty has deeply affected her adult life. "Childhood poverty affected me in every sense, from not having enough to eat, to coming home and there being no money on the meter to have a hot shower or watch TV," she says. "We didn't have enough money for school uniforms, and we would wear our shoes until they were worn out. Not eating enough affected my concentration at school. We were underweight, malnourished. I couldn't go on school trips with my friends. I didn't know at the time we didn't' really have money, I thought I was being punished." At the age of 11, Louise went into care, and later became a young parent. "I now work full-time as a civil servant but it's still a struggle to make ends meet," she says. "Many care leavers like me lack the support networks that most people take for granted. But when you come from nothing, it makes you more determined. I started with nothing, but I want to leave knowing I have achieved something and leave a legacy for my daughter." Jo Rawle, 26, lives in Bideford, North-Devon. Having lived through childhood poverty, now – as a solo parent living in temporary accommodation – she fears history repeating for her four-year-old son. "My son has autism and complex additional needs," she says. "That means it's difficult for me to work until he starts school. Meanwhile, everything has gone up. Sometimes I run out of money to buy a bottle of milk or nappies or fuel, then I have to borrow money from a friend, which I have to pay back later." Jo's benefits income is not enough to support her and her son. "I've visited food banks before. I make sure my son comes first. I've gone without a meal myself and I wear my clothes until they have holes in them." A Government spokesman said: "We are determined to lift more children out of poverty. We have already expanded free school meals, increased the national minimum wage, rolled out breakfast clubs and introduced a fair repayment rate for universal credit deductions. And this week the spending review allocated £1bn in crisis support, including funding to feed hungry children during the holidays. We are determined to go further and that's why we will publish an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy later this year." The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has told the Mirror in the past about her family being 'pushed into poverty' when she was a child and has called child poverty "a scar on our society". "I know what it is to grow up on free school meals, to grow up in a household where there isn't enough: when the house is cold, the food runs short, when the choices about which others don't think twice just aren't there," she has said. In Wednesday's Spending Review speech, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that "every young person should have the equal chance to succeed". Young campaigners Georgia, Freya, Aaron, Louise, Holly and 4.5 million children are counting on Labour to make the right decisions.
ITV News
6 hours ago
- ITV News
The £13 bn hole in the government's 2.6% defence target
The Chancellor's and the Treasury's assertion, in its latest Spending Review, that by 2027 defence spending will 'reach 2.6% of GDP' is not all it seems, to the tune of about £13 billion. Here's why. The published forecasts for defence spending in the financial years 2026/7 and 2027/8, of £65.5 billion and £71 billion respectively in cash terms, are 2.1% and 2.2% of the OBR's forecast of 'current prices' GDP in those years. This is a long way short of the pledged 2.6%. The gap in cash terms is £13 billion - which is NOT a rounding error. I should start by saying that 24 hours ago I asked Treasury officials to explain the gap. It can't be hard for them to do so. They've gone away to think about it. So here are a few of my thoughts about what is going on. Some of you may remember that the government is including 'Nato qualifying' spending on intelligence in its calculation of that 2.6% target. From Westminster to Washington DC - our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below... But defence-related intelligence cannot possibly be more than a fifth of all UK spending on Mi6, Mi5 and GCHQ, because Nato is very clear that the only intelligence spending that counts has to be directly related to military operations. I am going to be generous and assume spending on military intelligence that is part of the so-called Single Intelligence Account and outside of the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) budget is just over a billion pounds. Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, tells me this is absurdly high. But I am trying to give the Treasury the benefit of the doubt. Even with my generosity there is a £12 billion gap. And by the way, even if every single penny of intelligence spending was attributed to defence, there would be a £7 billion gap! One Treasury official said another £1.6 billion is probably the £1.6 billion annual cash cost of army pensions. I'll lop that off the £13 billion. Which leaves only £10 billion to find. Wallace told me that when Osborne was chancellor, he insisted that in submissions of the UK's defence spending to Nato the MoD had to include the VAT it pays on procurement. As Wallace says this is double counting, because the VAT is paid to the Treasury. When defence secretary, he was so infuriated that one year he refused to submit numbers to Nato. So perhaps the whole of the £10 billion gap is VAT. And maybe the reason the Treasury isn't getting back to me to confirm or deny is that it knows neither Nato or President Trump would be impressed that a huge proportion of our claimed defence spending may be around £10 billion in tax payments to... the British government. Anyway, now that I've put these numbers in the public domain, I await with interest clarification from the Treasury of what's going on here. None of what I've just said takes away from the published fact that defence spending is rising 3.8% faster than inflation for the next three years. That is a huge amount of resource being transferred to defence. But if when you read that the UK is set to spend 2.6% of GDP on defence, you thought all of that significant expenditure was on the armed forces, munitions, military satellites, nukes, planes and boats - as I did - you need to think again.
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Telegraph
Sadiq Khan's London is crumbling. Reeves may have just sealed its fate
Rachel Reeves knew the Conservatives would condemn her spending plans in the strongest terms they could conjure up. The same goes for the Liberal Democrats and Reform. What she might not have expected was the strength of opposition from within her own party. Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London and one of Labour's most high-profile figures, issued perhaps the most cutting criticisms. From crime to transport to housing, the newly knighted veteran of Left-wing politics laid into the Chancellor's schemes. 'This spending review could result in insufficient funding for the Met and fewer police officers. It's also disappointing that there is no commitment today from the Treasury to invest in the new infrastructure London needs,' Sir Sadiq said. 'Projects such as extending the Docklands Light Railway not only deliver economic growth across the country, but also tens of thousands of new affordable homes and jobs for Londoners. Unless the Government invests in infrastructure like this in our capital, we will not be able to build the numbers of new affordable homes Londoners need.' The mayor's outburst comes amid signs the capital is crumbling, with crime surging. Without additional support, Reeves risks condemning the city to a future of decline – imperilling a Labour stronghold in the process. Shoplifting jumped by more than 50pc in the capital last year according to police data, a far sharper increase than in any other region. Non-violent thefts such as pickpocketing were up by 41pc. Mayfair, the haunt of the global rich, has attracted a reputation for high-value crime. Indian bosses, for instance, used a meeting last year with David Lammy, the then shadow foreign secretary, to complain about the threat of muggers seeking expensive watches, jewellery and phones. Shopkeepers view the Metropolitan Police as the worst force for responding to crime, according to the British Retail Consortium. Its surveys found one in three Londoners witnessed shoplifting last year. Crime has got so bad that Greggs has moved its drinks and sandwiches behind the counter in five stores, including in London's Whitechapel, Peckham and Ilford, blaming anti-social behaviour. It follows reports of a growing problem with thefts from the bakery chain. 'We've got youths who think it is perfectly acceptable to run through the streets with machetes, we've got people literally walking into shops and taking exactly what they want,' says Susan Hall, a member of the London Assembly and the Conservative candidate for the mayoralty last year. 'The whole social fabric is just disappearing. It is becoming more and more lawless,' she says, noting fare-dodging on public transport is at 'epidemic levels'. The capital's decline is attracting increasing political attention. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, filmed himself confronting fare-dodgers at London stations. Neil O'Brien, a Conservative MP, posted photos of a train carriage covered floor to ceiling in graffiti, saying: Mad what Khan has allowed to happen to the Bakerloo line - looks like 70s New York — Neil O'Brien (@NeilDotObrien) May 28, 2025 A guerrilla group of graffiti cleaners recently publicised their activities on social media, scrubbing despoiled Tube carriages in high-vis jackets bearing the slogan 'Doing what Sadiq Khant'. Rough sleeping in London has doubled since 2021, more than erasing the improvement in the lockdown era. The boroughs of Westminster, Camden and the City of London top the rankings. In the case of Westminster and the City of London, it makes for incongruous scenes of poverty alongside luxury, with homeless encampments opposite the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane. Doorways on famed thoroughfares including the Strand and the routes from Buckingham Palace to Parliament are used as shelters for the night. Once-proud Oxford Street, centre of London's shopping district and an international tourist attraction, has declined amid the rise of American candy stores and tat merchants. Officials in Westminster have drawn up plans to revive it. London's unemployment rate of 6.4pc is the highest in the nation, and the fastest-rising. Despite the capital's problems – and the fact London has long been a bedrock of Labour support – Reeves and her colleagues show no signs of trying to make the problem any better. For one thing, the Government is making it harder to take on workers. Higher staffing costs since April's National Insurance tax raid and a sharp increase in the minimum wage are squeezing already cash-strapped restaurants, bars and cafes. London institutions including The Gun in Homerton, Leroy in Shoreditch and Lyle's, which held a Michelin star for a decades, are among scores that have closed their doors in recent months. It adds to fears for London's eroding nightlife scene: around 3,000 nightclubs closed from 2020 to 2023, according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). 'We know that London's hospitality is the critical factor in attracting inward investment and making the capital the best in the world to do business so we need the mayor to have the tools on licencing, planning, skills, rates and rents to make a difference,' says Kate Nicholls, chairman of trade body UKHospitality. The economy's woes have hit the housing market, too. House prices across the UK as a whole have risen by 4pc since the start of 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. Yet the average price in London is down by more than 3pc. All of this went unrecognised in the spending review. When the Chancellor name-checked towns and cities across the Midlands and the north of England, as well as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, her comments appeared to rile London's mayor. 'I have heard the concerns of my honourable friends the members for Mid Cheshire, and for Rossendale and Darwen, and the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, that past governments have under-invested in towns and cities outside London and the South East. They are right,' Reeves thundered as she revamped investment rules to boost spending elsewhere in the country. While Reeves meant the comment as a signal that investment was being rebalanced at long last, Sir Sadiq took it another way. 'The way to level up other regions will never be to level down London,' he said. 'I'll continue to make the case to the Government that we must work together for the benefit of our capital and the whole country.' Reeves disputed his argument, noting rising police spending and a four-year £2.2bn fund for Transport for London, which runs public transport and the main roads. The Treasury called it 'the largest multi-year settlement for London in over a decade'. Hall says the dispute is evidence of a split at the heart of the governing party, shattering Left-wingers' hopes that a Labour Government and mayoralty would herald a tide of new funding for London. 'Sadiq Khan has been completely shut out,' she says. Sir Sadiq won a third term in last year's election with a commanding lead over Hall, taking the lead in nine of the 14 London Assembly constituencies. Yet he came away with less than half the votes cast, on a turnout of 40pc. A split in Labour and dissatisfaction with the state of the capital raise the possibility his grip on power may not be unshakeable. Reeves' snub may not be just a disappointment for London – it could be a blow to the hopes of re-election for the city's Labour mayor too.
