How does the government’s spending review impact the public sector?

Yesterday, the government held the June 2025 spending review which you’re likely to have heard about either via national media, social media, or in general conversation around the office. 

So what actually is this review? In simple terms, it’s an announcement on how the UK government is going to spend its money until 2028/2029. Unlike the annual budget announcement, the spending review is, as expected, about spending, rather than focusing on where the government gets its money from. 

Starting off on a positive note, the key headlines are that spending on the NHS will increase by 3% each year after inflation, there will be £39 billion for social and affordable housing and a boost in defence spending.

However, some departments will see cuts in their day to day spending. The Department for Transport will see a decrease in the amount they’re allowed to spend on things like maintaining existing infrastructure, staff salaries, and administrative costs, despite being given a £15 billion increase for infrastructure developments. These ‘day to day’ cuts will also be seen across local government, environmental departments, the Home Office, and the Foreign Office. And, although policing will see a rise of 2.3% per year amounting to an additional £2 billion for forces, the cuts to the Home Office may spill over into day to day cuts for the police, resulting in further recruitment challenges and issues with pay.

But, how does this impact comms and marketing professionals in departments that are facing cuts?

In yesterday’s spending review, there was a shift from ‘we must grow at all costs’, to a message of sustainable growth and productivity. The narrative of the review strongly emphasised delivering results and improving public sector services within tighter budgets. This means comms and marketing teams will need to become more efficient. As well as this, when a department faces cuts, what often happens is that the more ‘essential’ areas of the business get most of the money, meaning that there is often a reduction for areas like communication and marketing. This means that these teams will need to find ways to achieve the same results, with fewer resources.

We understand that for a lot of people working in comms and marketing right now, it could feel a little doom and gloom. Tools like Orlo can help your team manage all social media and community engagement in one place, allowing you to streamline workflows, publish content efficiently, and manage all digital interactions from a single platform. This will lead to better response times to questions, insight driven decisions and improved collaboration, which will boost your team’s productivity and impact. 

The spending review highlights the government’s priorities. Messaging around these priorities will focus on the outcomes of being able to spend more, so instead of talking about the money departments can spend, the emphasis will be on what this money achieves for people, for example shorter NHS waiting lists and more affordable homes. Even if your department is facing cuts, comms and marketing professionals will need to make sure their strategies align with these priorities and outcomes.

For example, we know that the government is placing the health of the nation very high on their priorities list, and there are ways that departments outside of health services can align their messaging to reflect this priority. For example, if you work for a transport body and are able to communicate to your citizens about the importance of active travel, you’ll be helping to improve the overall health of your community. 

The shift in priorities for the government also means that services that are facing cuts on their day to day spend, such as transport, will rely on their comms and marketing teams to explain these decisions to their citizens. For example, as there’s less money to spend on maintaining current infrastructure and doing repairs, citizen satisfaction may take a dip, but there are ways that comms and marketing teams can mitigate those complaints. Careful, empathetic, and transparent communication to make sure that every single citizen knows where they stand with which services is key.

It’s pretty common to see a raft of negative comments across social media when the government sets out budgets or spending reviews. Service changes and cuts understandably lead to frustration, anger, confusion and dissatisfaction in general, so comms teams will be crucial in managing public perception and maintaining trust in the government and the public sector as a whole. 

Using social listening tools will allow teams to see what is being said online and understand how much of their messaging is being understood. They’ll then be able to address these concerns and begin to build that trust back up.

It’s also important to remember internal comms teams and the gravitas that negative comments from public sector workers carry when it comes to reputation. Staff within public sector organisations will also be affected by budget decisions and effective internal communications are essential to keep morale up, explain changes, and ensure consistent messaging from the inside out.

At Orlo, many of our colleagues have worked in the public sector and understand how much of a stressful, frantic, and frankly confusing time this can be. However, it’s important to remember that you aren’t alone! Every comms and marketing professional in any team across the public sector will be having these same feelings, so remember to reach out to your team mates for support. 

Remember to be patient. Sometimes what these reviews mean for comms teams takes a while to filter down, so don’t panic straight away if you see that your department is facing cuts. While you might be tempted to jump to conclusions, use this time to carefully consider how your team can adapt to these changes. Tools like Orlo can become even more crucial in these periods, helping you deliver clear and consistent messaging to your citizens all from one place, and freeing up valuable time so you can focus on strategic messaging and demonstrating the undeniable value of your work.