THE Government’s latest 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 on 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 a few of its omissions.
“We applaud the Government’s concentrate on increasing the provision of inexpensive and social housing, and hope that this renewed investment will move us towards the vision outlined within the Archbishops’ Commission’s ‘Coming Home’ report (News, 3 May 2024) that each one housing must be secure, stable, sustainable, sociable and satisfying,” they said in a joint statement.
Dr Hartley, who’s the lead bishop for economics and business, and Dr Walker, who’s the Convener of the Lords Spiritual, also welcomed increased investment for the NHS, but expressed hope for an increased concentrate on adult social-care.
“As we reflect on the goals outlined by the Chancellor today, we remember our calling as followers of Jesus Christ, who got here to bring excellent news to the poor. It is subsequently an ethical and practical imperative to be certain that public spending is targeted 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 yr was welcomed by the Policy and Public Affairs Manager of Christians Against Poverty, Juliette Flach. “Knowing their children will receive such a meal at college, while on Universal Credit, will probably be a real lifeline and an enormous 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 removed from over.”
The chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, said: “The Chancellor described austerity as destructive but government remains to be rolling it out within the two-child limit which pulls 109 children into poverty daily.
“Struggling families won’t feel any renewal until the two-child limit — the largest driver of rising child poverty — is scrapped and that must occur within the Autumn budget. National renewal doesn’t start with record child poverty.”
Bishops within 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 yr should construct 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 federal government will keep its promise on climate finance. How can we fear anything but more broken guarantees like those we saw earlier this yr with international aid?”
The previously announced decision to chop the international aid budget to fund a rise in UK defence spending was described as “simply incorrect” by the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow (News, 28 February).
