What to expect when Rachel Reeves delivers her spring statement today
You might have noticed that you haven’t been hearing much about today’s spring statement – and it’s not just because a new war has kicked off in the Middle East.
In the past, the Chancellor’s spring fiscal event has held equal or even greater significance to the Budget in the autumn.
But when Rachel Reeves arrived at the Treasury in 2024, she said she wanted to do things differently and stick with just one big slate of economic announcements towards the end of the year.
That position didn’t quite hold out last year, when she revealed new details of Labour’s ill-fated plan to reform the welfare system.
This year, though, her team has done all they can to hammer home the message that the 2026 spring statement is going to be pretty boring.
The government isn’t even calling it a spring statement – instead, it’s being billed as the ‘spring forecast’ to emphasise that it’ll mainly consist of setting out the possible impact of measures already announced.
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Nevertheless, there’s a big question mark over how useful any of these predictions will be in a world turned upside down last weekend by Donald Trump and Israel’s war on Iran.
What will the Spring Statement 2026 contain?
This year’s spring statement is expected to contain very little in the way of new policy announcements and fiscal tweaks.
Instead, Rachel Reeves will respond to a forecast produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), focusing on how the government’s existing measures might boost or bash the economy.
And even this forecast won’t cover as much as normal.
Last November, Reeves announced the OBR would only set out the Treasury’s progress in meeting its fiscal rules once a year, alongside the autumn Budget.
Instead, we’ll get an idea of what the spending soothsayers believe will happen in areas like inflation, growth, and the cost of government borrowing.
We’re expecting positive news on the cost of borrowing and tax income after a good start to the year on both those counts.
But the Chancellor will also have to deal with issues arising from sluggish growth, rising unemployment and plummeting migration.
What time will the Spring Statement take place today?
The 2026 Spring Statement is expected to begin in the House of Commons at around 12.30pm.
You can watch it on the Parliament Live website or on news channels.
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