Levelling up underspend hands chancellor more headroom

Government departments are due to spend £24bn less than the Treasury budgeted for last October, partly due to reductions by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Total government spending this financial year is expected to be just over £764bn, compared with the £789bn budgeted in the autumn. However, this is still significantly higher than the £117bn projected last June, before the unprecedented increase in energy prices and Liz Truss’s mini-Budget. The DLUHC appears to have a £2.4bn reduction in its capital budget, due in part to spending less than budgeted on the affordable homes scheme. The Treasury said the better-than-expected figures did not mean that the chancellor had more room for tax cuts. The Times (£)