THE Government’s new spending plans, unveiled on Wednesday by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have drawn a mixed response from bishops and Christian charities.
Ms Reeves announced increased spending on the NHS, housing, school buildings, and defence — the latter at the expense of the overseas aid budget.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, and the Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, described the spending review as “promising”, while expressing reservations about some of its omissions.
“We applaud the Government’s focus on increasing the supply of affordable and social housing, and hope that this renewed investment will move us towards the vision outlined in the Archbishops’ Commission’s ‘Coming Home’ report (News, 3 May 2024) that all housing should be safe, stable, sustainable, sociable and satisfying,” they said in a joint statement.
Dr Hartley, who is the lead bishop for economics and business, and Dr Walker, who is the Convener of the Lords Spiritual, also welcomed increased investment for the NHS, but expressed hope for an increased focus on adult social-care.
“As we reflect on the aims outlined by the Chancellor today, we remember our calling as followers of Jesus Christ, who came to bring good news to the poor. It is therefore a moral and practical imperative to ensure that public spending is focused particularly on people living in poverty or who otherwise have been made vulnerable by their circumstances,” they said.
The Government’s extension of free school meals from next year was welcomed by the Policy and Public Affairs Manager of Christians Against Poverty, Juliette Flach. “Knowing their children will receive such a meal at school, while on Universal Credit, will be a genuine lifeline and a huge relief from financial strain,” she said. “No child should go to bed hungry.”
But she highlighted maintenance of the two-child limit for Universal Credit: “The fight against child poverty is far from over.”
The chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, said: “The Chancellor described austerity as destructive but government is still rolling it out in the two-child limit which pulls 109 children into poverty every day.
“Struggling families won’t feel any renewal until the two-child limit — the biggest driver of rising child poverty — is scrapped and that must happen in the Autumn budget. National renewal doesn’t start with record child poverty.”
Bishops in the House of Lords have consistently called for the reversal of the cap, which was introduced by the Conservative government in 2017.
Dr Walker and Dr Hartley also suggested that the publication of the Government’s child-poverty strategy this year should build on the extension of free school meals “by abolishing the two-child limit”.
On the Spending Review’s impact on aid and international agreements, Christian Aid’s Head of Campaigns and UK Advocacy, Jennifer Larbie, said that “the Chancellor hasn’t moved an inch to salvage the UK’s now fragile credibility with Global South governments.”
There was “no guarantee”, she said, “that the government will keep its promise on climate finance. How can we fear anything but more broken promises like those we saw earlier this year with international aid?”
The previously announced decision to cut the international aid budget to fund an increase in UK defence spending was described as “simply wrong” by the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow (News, 28 February).