What were yesterday’s announcements all about?
The government sets out a Spending Review every five years to announce how it intends to spend taxpayers’ money during the course of the Parliament. Within the Spending Review, the government decides budgets for each department, called departmental settlements. The Defra department settlement is available here. In addition, twice a year the government updates its plans for the economy through ‘the Budget’ and ‘the Autumn Statement’. This year the Spending Review and Autumn Statement coincided, with the Chancellor making a statement to the House of Commons on 25th November.