July 09, 2025
Article
On 11 June 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled a multi-year Spending Review, outlining departmental budgets for the fiscal years 2026–27 to 2028–29, with capital allocations extending to 2029–30.
The review signals a clear strategic shift: significant investment in the NHS, defence, housing, transport, energy and green infrastructure, but tighter control, or even cuts, on other departments.
DEFRA position
DEFRA emerges with a mixed but manageable settlement: its core and admin budgets are constrained, but targeted capital and nature spending are protected.
Summarised below are the key areas of the DEFRA budget, and the outcome of the spending review:
Whilst the CLA and NFU have welcomed the schemes being maintained, given the cuts to core and administrative budget, time will tell on whether DEFRA can deliver their capital projects and implement environmental schemes to support our farming and landed estate clients.
Wider impacts
We will have to wait and see how the markets react to the spending review. From initial reaction, it seems that the markets are predicting interest rates to remain higher for longer, and there could be a balancing of the books in the next budget coming in the Autumn.