Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Our team of experts have now finished answering your questions about the Spending Review, but our cost of living correspondent has also broken down some of the ways today's announcements will impact you and your money.

Job prospects and security

The defence sector and the NHS are getting a significant amount of government funding. Science and tech will see investment. Other areas much less so.

That could lead to more jobs, or a squeeze, in the public sector, depending on where you work.

Free school meals

In the run-up to the Spending Review the government announced that any child in England whose parents receive universal credit will be able to claim free school meals from September 2026.

Winter fuel payment U-turn

This winter, the fuel payment will go to all pensioners in England and Wales who have an annual taxable income of £35,000 or less. Separate policies in Scotland and Northern Ireland may now be reconsidered.

Commuting costs and transport links

In October, the £2 cap on bus fares, covering most bus journeys in England, was raised to £3.

This was due to run until the end of 2025, but now the government says it will last until "at least" March 2027. There are separate bus caps in London and Manchester.

Bins and local services

It will take some time to work out how much each department is receiving from 2026 to 2029.

Local government funding can have a direct impact on your life. It may be the availability of social care for older people, which is covered by local government budgets, various local services or the cost of a parking permit.

• Read more in Kevin's full article

As the Spending Review was announced, the government revealed £39bn for social housing.

Our cost of living correspondent Kevin Peachey answers a question here over what role the local government has in implementing this type of housing.

BBC Verify policy and analysis correspondent Ben Chu has taken a look at the government's pledges to increase defence spending.

Take a look at his breakdown of the figures below:

Ben Zaranko
IFS associate director

Next up: Why is Scotland getting more money than Wales and Northern Ireland?

Most of today's Spending Review was focused on England. It was set by the Westminster government with regards to the things that they have control over.

Lots of services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are devolved and therefore the responsibility of the devolved parliaments.

The way that funding is allocated is through something called the Barnett formula - an equation which is based on the population shares of different parts of the country, and on the sorts of services their local government is responsible for providing.

Because Scotland has a bigger population than Wales or Northern Ireland, when the government spends more in England - as it is doing - it will give more to Scotland than to Wales or Northern Ireland.

So it's not so much a specific decision that Rachel Reeves has made. It's because of this longstanding formula that dates back to the 1970s.

That then governs how much goes to the devolved nations to spend how they like; they don't have to spend it in the same way that the Westminster government is.

Ben Zaranko, an economist from the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, has answered a question about what is being do to reduce waste in the health service.

Watch his answer below:

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Our next question is from Mick. He says the £39bn allocated to social housing sounds brilliant - but what exactly does it mean?

In the £39bn for social housing announced today, there's a guarantee for social landlords on how much landlords can charge for rent.

That's really important because that figure - 1% above the inflation rate for the next 10 years - means they can say we're going to put a certain amount of money aside for house building.

As we know, the government has its own tough housing targets to build 1.5 million homes by 2030.

How likely is it that Labour will raise taxes?published at 17:48 British Summer Time 11 June

17:48 BST 11 June

Ben King
Business reporter, BBC News

As our correspondents continue to answer your questions on Rachel Reeves's Spending Review - one question that many people are probably having is: how likely is it that the government will increase taxes?

But as the name suggests, today’s Spending Review looks at spending - not taxation.

But there is a good chance that the government will have to raise taxes in the Autumn Budget.

The spending totals announced today may not be enough to deliver the improved public services Labour hopes for.

A 2.8% above-inflation increase in overall health spending (including a 3% increase for the NHS specifically) is not particularly generous, given ever-increasing demands on the NHS. Money is tight for other priorities such as schools.

Labour might feel it needs to spend more.

Rachel Reeves has announced a U-turn on the Winter Fuel Payment. While that’s not a hugely expensive decision in and of itself, Reeves is under pressure to make other spending giveaways, such as ending the two-child benefit cap.

The chancellor also has almost no margin for error against her (self-imposed) spending rules.

This is measured by the Office for Budget Responsibility – and it could disappear by the autumn if economic conditions deteriorate. On the other hand, an improved economic outlook could give her more room to play with.

All these things could force her hand and make further tax rises inevitable if she wants to stick to her spending rules.

Ben Chu
BBC Verify policy and analysis correspondent

Our first question comes from a reader who wants to know: where is the money coming from to pay for today's spending commitments?

It's a great one to kick us off. The short answer is that it's coming from a combination of extra borrowing by the government, and extra taxes by the government.

The envelope for what we've seen distributed by Reeves today was set in the Budget last year by Rachel Reeves.

In that Budget, she essentially said she was going to spend an extra 2% of GDP on a combination of day-to-day spending and capital spending, and she was going to raise an extra 1% of GDP a year through taxation - the National Insurance rise was the bulk of that.

She also said she was going to borrow an extra 1% of GDP.

Put that all together, and that explains how they are going to pay for this spending, which they've allocated to different departments today.

This afternoon, we've been unpicking and providing analysis on Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Spending Review - and now its time for your questions to be answered.

Over the next hour, our team of experts will be providing some clarity on reader queries, which have been sent in since the chancellor finished speaking in the House of Commons.

Stay tuned for responses from experts, including:

• Ben Chu – BBC Verify's policy and analysis correspondent
• Kevin Peachey – Cost of living correspondent
• Ben Zaranko – Associate Director at the IFS

They'll be here to help cut through the jargon, break down the big figures, and explain how the Spending Review will affect you directly. You can also follow along by pressing watch live above or below. Stay with us.

The Holyrood clock is tickingpublished at 17:25 British Summer Time 11 June

17:25 BST 11 June

James Cook
Scotland editor

Labour has a problem in Scotland and Rachel Reeves knows it.

That problem is time. The Treasury talks of a "decade of national renewal" but elections to the Scottish Parliament are less than a year away.

Success in a Holyrood by-election in South Lanarkshire last week did give Labour a lift but both the Scottish National Party and Nigel Farage's Reform UK were close behind.

A prominent issue in that election was the state of Hamilton town centre.

You hear similar complaints here in Kirkcaldy, which the chancellor mentioned in today’s statement, albeit mangling the pronunciation (it's kur COD ee).

Reeves promised investment in the Fife town's seafront and high street to "create jobs and new business opportunities".

That will take more than a few pots of red, white and blue paint.

There are a handful of smart shops but on one short section of the high street I counted 13 boarded-up units.

"It's a disgrace," says Stewart Cavey, relaxing on a bench in the sunshine. "The high street is a depressing area," he adds.

Generating growth, boosting incomes, and restoring pride in places such as Kirkcaldy may be vital if Labour is to regain power at Holyrood after nearly two decades of SNP rule.

For Reeves and Keir Starmer, defeat would reverberate across the UK.

They know the clock is ticking, loudly.

Image source, Getty Images

Throughout the day, we've brought you analysis from BBC correspondents on the biggest announcements from Chancellor Rachel Reeves's Spending Review. Here's a brief overview of the reaction:

• Our business editor Simon Jack said there is jam in the Spending Review - with big announcements on energy and transport - but warns it will take a while for the results to be felt
• The BBC's home editor, Mark Easton, said there are questions on how the Home Office will achieve its pledges on policing and immigration all while managing a sizeable squeeze to its budget
• On education, our correspondent Hazel Shearing said that the money announced by the chancellor has a long way to stretch - including on special education needs and disabilities (Send) support and leaky schools waiting for refurbishment
• Our home and legal correspondent Dominic Casciani said there's been mixed reaction from the criminal justice sector
• Sima Kotecha, the BBC's senior UK correspondent, said the funding for more prisons indicates the severity and urgency of the overcrowding problem - but warns building more prisons will take years
• Our housing correspondent Tarah Welsh said social housing landlords will breathe a sigh of relief after Reeves announced £39bn will be allocated for social housing between 2026-2036

Speaking to the BBC after delivering the Spending Review, Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she is "impatient for change", but is "not going to apologise" for making long-term decisions.

These decisions, she says, will take time but they will create good jobs and opportunities across the UK.

She is "confident" they will meet their target of cutting NHS waiting lists to 18 weeks for all patients by the end of Parliament.

She says they have already delivered more than 3.5 million additional appointments, and waiting lists are down by 200,000.

Her confidence, she says, is because of the "3% annual increase" in funding announced today.

Questioned over the police and Home Office, she says "I recognise that not everyone is going to get what they want" in this review.

A reminder, the Home Office saw its day-to-day budget cut by 1.7%.

The government isn't able to do "everything for everyone", but reminds that the government has committed to a 2.3% per year increase in spending for police.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her Spending Review, setting out budgets for government departments.

The chancellor says she's rejecting "austerity" and confirms total departmental spending will grow by 2.3% over inflation per year.

Here's everything you need to know about where the money will be going... in under two minutes.

Will the 'Northern Powerhouse Rail' get onto the tracks?published at 16:48 British Summer Time 11 June

16:48 BST 11 June

Nick Marsh
Transport correspondent

Governments have been talking about this new 'Northern Powerhouse Rail' line for the best part of a decade.

Now, Labour seems committed to making it happen - although building wouldn't start until the early 2030s at the very soonest.

It would cut the average journey time between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly from 52 minutes to 32 minutes.

It could also link up key commercial hubs such as Manchester Airport and the Port of Liverpool.

It has been nearly 200 years since the world’s first ever passenger train line opened between Liverpool and Manchester and, for many, this project is long, long overdue.

Ask anyone in the North West and they’ll tell you the current service is slow, unreliable and outdated.

Steve Rotheram, the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, told the BBC that the new line would spark £90bn of economic growth across the north.

We don't know an awful lot more than that. But we are told that we can expect more detail in the coming weeks.

There is jam in the Spending Review - but it will take time to spreadpublished at 16:35 British Summer Time 11 June

16:35 BST 11 June

Simon Jack
Business editor

The chancellor has made full use of the extra £113bn in capital spending available as a result of changing her own borrowing rules.

There are some big-ticket items on the list - most announced before today - but these large projects will take many years before people will notice the difference.

An extra £14.2bn for Sizewell C - taking the total investment to nearly £18 billion - will be spent over at least a decade and the same is true of an extra £39bn for affordable and social housing.

New announcements included £10bn for making homes more energy efficient and a new carbon capture project in Scotland.

Connecting people and places also helps growth - but again the £16bn on transport links outside of London will not see quick returns - more on that in our next post.

Business groups are largely supportive of these ambitious plans and the chancellor will hope that it persuades firms to spend some of their own money to boost business investment that has been chronically low.

They may want to see the detail of the upcoming infrastructure and industrial strategies.

There is jam in here but it'll take time to spread and the results will take longer than tomorrow.

It's true that the majority of Rachel Reeves's announcements affect England.

But she also set out big boosts of spending for devolved governments in Scotland - which our Scotland editor just laid out - Wales and Northern Ireland.

Let's round-up some of the key takeaways from the chancellor's Spending Review:

• Reeves said the spending review period would provide £52bn for Scotland, £20bn for Northern Ireland and £23bn for Wales in terms of investment into the devolved powers
• These include boosting some of the UK's transport projects - including £445m for upgrades to Welsh railways
• Sticking with Wales, the chancellor also announced a multi-year settlement of £118m to keep coal tips in the nation safe
• In Scotland, Reeves announced funding for a long-awaited carbon capture project in Aberdeenshire
• Known as the Acorn facility, it had been overlooked by successive UK governments in recent years in favour of investment elsewhere. But the project - which will store carbon emissions from across Scotland under the North Sea - is now in line for "development funding"
• Finally, in Northern Ireland, £50m has been allocated to support the redevelopment of Casement Park in west Belfast

What does the Spending Review mean for Scotland?published at 16:20 British Summer Time 11 June

16:20 BST 11 June

Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland political editor

It's almost as if the chancellor was trying to tick off First Minister John Swinney’s wish list for infrastructure spending in Scotland.

It is not so long ago that Swinney challenged the UK government to give the go ahead for the Acorn carbon capture and storage project, and to reactivate the promise of investment in an Edinburgh supercomputer.

Only yesterday, Swinney called for new spending to build more social and affordable housing.

There are spending announcements on all three issues from Rachel Reeves today - although no immediate detail on what “support” for Acorn actually means.

There is also additional defence investment at the Clyde naval base.

Extra spending on the NHS in England generates more cash for the Scottish government to spend.

There will inevitably be important details to be picked over and Scottish ministers remain concerned about cuts to aspects of welfare spending and while their overall budget will continue to grow, they may still have difficult choices to make.

At first glance, this statement gives the UK government a better story to tell in Scotland than they had before.

In the days ahead, we’ll see if that withstands closer scrutiny.

How 'costly' are asylum hotels?published at 16:07 British Summer Time 11 June

16:07 BST 11 June

By Lucy Gilder

In her Spending Review speech earlier, Rachel Reeves reiterated the government’s pledge to end “the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers”.

She accused the previous government of spending “billions” of tax-payer money on them in recent years.

But just how costly have they become?

About £3bn was spent on hotels for asylum seekers in the UK in the 2023-24 financial year , external(the latest figures published) – an average of £8m per day according to the Home Office’s annual report.

That overall figure was up from £2.2bn spent on hotels in the previous financial year.

Home Office officials told a committee of MPs this week that more room-sharing in hotels had meant the per-person cost had come down over the past year.

In May 2025, the National Audit Office estimated that Home Office, external asylum accommodation contracts would cost more than £15bn over 10 years.

How will the Home Office manage a squeeze to its budget?published at 15:57 British Summer Time 11 June

15:57 BST 11 June

Mark Easton
Home editor

A 2.3% real terms yearly increase for policing in England and Wales is slightly better than senior officers had expected, but forces are already warning of "some ruthless prioritisation" - arguing that most of the money will be "swallowed up" by police pay rises.

The chancellor stressed that an increase of "more than £2bn" will mean government pledges on cutting crime and increasing police numbers can be kept.

But, with overall Home Office spending being cut by 1.7% a year, there is confusion at how this is all going to add up.

On immigration, there is more money for the Border Security Command, rising to £280m extra a year, with promises of new kit - including an army of drones to improve surveillance.

Rachel Reeves also promised that the use of hotels for asylum seekers would end by 2029, but there will be questions as to quite how the Home Office can achieve it all while managing a sizeable squeeze to its budget.

Investment in prison systems welcomed by probation officers - with caveatspublished at 15:53 British Summer Time 11 June

15:53 BST 11 June

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

We know the government is planning on building three more prisons to deal with overcrowding in prisons.

Addressing the capacity crisis during the Spending Review earlier, the chancellor said £7bn would be spent on that building project.

That’s more than what we were told earlier this month, when the figure stood at £4.7bn.

The increase in funding announced today indicates the severity and urgency of the problem - but building more prisons will take years.

But Reeves said that funding would help open up 14,000 new prison places.

She also said up to £700m per year will be put into reform probation. This is on top of the 1,300 officers the government has said it will employ this year.

Several probation officers tell the BBC they welcome this investment, but raise concerns about their “increasing workload” and when the new hires will be functional.