The first Budget by Labour since 2010 was certainly a bumper edition, with the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer making dozens of new policy announcements or changes over 90 minutes in the House of Commons. No matter who you are or what you do, the announcements in the Budget have implications – but there are pages and pages of detail behind the headlines to unpick.
Looking at the big picture, it was confirmed that Levelling Up Fund projects across all three rounds will continue, providing £1bn in 2025-26 to revitalise high streets, town centres and communities. There are several ongoing debates over some specific projects, but in large it’s clear the government intends to continue with the levelling up mission, if only under new terminology.
Tying into this, the Chancellor also announced the first integrated settlements for devolved authorities. The Mayoral Combined Authorities in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester will receive a single flexible pot of funding from 2025-26, allowing them to invest and deliver growth in the way that works best for their regional needs. This will go even further in time, with integrated settlements to be launched for the North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authorities, and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority from the start of 2026-27 financial year.
This shows clear direction on regional investment, and being able to deliver the maximum returns on investments based on local needs – something that properly considered procurement processes are poised to unlock. But what are the most prominent sector announcements to be aware of across the built environment?
Housing and development
With such focus on housing as a key election manifesto topic, it’s no big surprise to see new policies announced for the sector. Investment for 2025-26 will top £5bn, spread across various funding allocations towards not just new homes, but also improving existing ones. As our development director Jonathan Parker has already discussed, forward plans need to go beyond just new homes and integrate with wider town and city placemaking in order to make a real difference.
The Affordable Homes Programme has will receive an additional £500m, while Labour’s Warm Homes Plan allocates an initial £3.4bn towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency over the next three years – with both policies holding the potential to significantly improve the social homes landscape. Meanwhile, further announcements are expected later this year on the Warm Homes Plan, along with added detail on further remediation measures to accelerate the removal of unsafe cladding from existing homes with £1bn of funding for 2025-26.
For new homes, a focus has been placed on unblocking and accelerate, which ties in with the main goals of Labour’s planning reforms announced in the summer. The Budget confirmed £56m to deliver more than 2,000 homes at Liverpool Central Docks, while £47m has been allocated through the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund to support the delivery of up to 28,000 homes that would otherwise be stuck due to nutrient neutrality requirements.
Finally, SMEs and the Build-To-Rent (BTR) sector have been boosted by £3bn in the form of housing guarantee schemes to assist developers in accessing low-cost loans and support the delivery of tens of thousands of new homes.
It’s clear there’s huge potential to deliver new homes with the right funding in place, but the bigger picture must be considered along with the planning reforms already underway – and that will come from proper engagement and collaboration between clients and developers.
Transport infrastructure
Whether it’s potholes or HS2, transport announcements in the Budget are often headliners. This time around, both were included, with an additional £500m for pothole repairs in England and a commitment to fund tunnelling work to take the HS2 rail line to Euston station.
Elsewhere, the delivery of the Transpennine upgrade connecting York and Manchester with electrification on the line via Leeds and Huddersfield was promised, along with the new East West Rail line. These are significant investments designed to improve capacity and passenger experience – vital at a time where rail ticket costs continue to spark negative attention amid passengers. These sorts of improvements come with social value benefits too – such as better connectivity to social activities, education, healthcare, and jobs – but also serve to encourage participation on public transport for environmental purposes and to reduce traffic on the roads.
Whether it’s road improvements or rail projects, innovative approaches are there to be found through collaboration between industry and clients. Early contractor engagement – such as the services being delivered through our civils and infrastructure framework for TfL’s Piccadilly Line Upgrade – will serve to finding those bespoke solutions for every scenario and ensure that every penny invested is fully maximised.
All of this will be important in the context of town and city regeneration, along with the drive for new housing. As with everything, the infrastructure needs to be in place for growing populations to ensure positive outcomes from development for everyone.
Planning professionals
Hand-in-hand with all the funding that goes into housing development, transport infrastructure, and improving public service buildings like schools and hospitals, is the need for that robust and capable planning system.
The outcomes of the National Planning Policy Framework consultation are expected before the end of the year, which will provide a clearer and more strategic direction of travel. Meanwhile, the capacity of planning departments needs bolstering in order to meet increased planning demands, but also ensure that projects going through planning have that intended positive outcome for communities – generating social value and maximising investment as far as possible when it comes to public spend.
The Budget included allocation of funding for 300 future planning professionals, along with upskilling and improving capacity in local planning departments around the country. More detail is needed on what that upskilling process looks like, but that and the new influx of planning officials will be a central pillar to realising the potential of the planning reforms Labour is pushing forward as a priority.
Maximising public investments
When approached correctly and compliantly, it should be driving that maximum return on investment for clients – not simply from a monetary perspective, but in overall value. That incorporates social and environmental factors along with the economic ones – and is continuing to grow in focus.
Along with our own focus on driving social value through procurement here at Pagabo, the forthcoming Procurement Act changes reflect this ever-growing focus on best value over the bottom line. The concept of Most Advantageous Tender is one that will need to be applied by contracting authorities when awarding public contracts moving forwards, reflecting this ever-growing focus on best value over the bottom line.
No matter what the project being procured is, the same message remains. Procurement is powerful and when done right is there to protect public expenditure from being wasted and making sure the funding in the Budget – and other announcements – can go as far as possible for the greatest public benefit.
To learn more about the Autumn Budget and what it means for the public sector, join us for the next episode of Pagabo Live on 20 November at 3pm. Register now.
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