Spending Round 2019 sets out the Government’s spending plans for 2020-21. HM Treasury has published a summary of the headline announcements here, while the Chancellor’s speech can be read here.

This Spending Round focuses on day-to-day resource spending. Departments and the devolved administrations already have capital budgets for 2020-21, which were set at the Spending Review in 2015. A full multi-year spending review will be conducted in 2020 for capital and resource budgets beyond 2020-21. The review will take into account the nature of Brexit and set out further plans for long-term reform.

The HMRC settlement includes:

• a resource budget increase in line with inflation from 2019-20 to 2020-21;
• £382 million for Brexit, to develop and deliver improved critical internal systems, support businesses and taxpayers in all scenarios, develop long-term transit and infrastructure solutions, and make further progress on Alternative Arrangements
• continued funding to tackle tax avoidance, evasion and other forms of non-compliance, which has helped secure and protect over £200 billion of tax revenue since 2010
• continued funding to support HMRC’s ongoing transformation programme and deliver future additional sustainable efficiency savings. This is designed to ensure the successful rollout and operation of Making Tax Digital for VAT, increase the uptake of HMRC’s digital services, maintain HMRC’s IT infrastructure and consolidate the HMRC estate into 13 large, modern regional centres by 2023.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport settlement includes a 4.1 per cent increase in real terms to the department’s resource budget from 2019-20
to 2020-21. No specific reference has been made in respect of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS), but this may follow. There is known to be budget provision up to March 2020.

The annual budget for the Charity Commission for England and Wales is due to increase from £24.9m in 2019-20 to £27.3m in 2020-21.

The International Aid budget has been protected as 0.7% of GNI.

The Government has also confirmed that Local Government’s business rate baseline funding levels will also increase in line with inflation.