Agenda Alliance responds to the Spring Spending Review

Rachel Reeves today announced the government’s Spending Review, outlining how public money will be used over the next three years. We share our response as an organisation below:

It has been estimated that the UK is the leading growing economy in the G7—and as the sixth richest country in the world—this moment demands serious reinvestment in our public services. If this government is committed to improving the lives of women and girls, then it must financially support its ambitions to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG), reduce the number of women in custody, and address the growing absenteeism of girls in schools by improving their experience in education.

We welcome the £39 billion committed to increasing social housing and supporting responsible social rents. However, we know women, mothers, and children have already waited too long in overcrowded, unsafe, or unsuitable housing. Housing allocations and policies that are not fit for purpose continue to be a major factor in the challenges women face, particularly when it leads to separation from their children.

We also welcome the increased investment in education, particularly the expansion of breakfast clubs and early intervention programmes aimed at preventing child removal—an experience that disproportionately affects women in their role as mothers. For these measures to be effective, funding must be delivered to gender- and trauma-informed services that help improve the wellbeing and meet the multiple, unmet needs of mothers.

The £700 million committed to probation services is a positive step in supporting the effort to reduce the number of women sentenced to custody—if it is used as recommended in Rt Hon David Gauke’s Sentencing Review. This a welcome funding commitment that we hope will support the Women’s Centres in prioritising community-based sentencing. This shift could break the cycle where women lose their housing, have their families destabilised, and, in some cases, have their children removed as a result of short prison sentences.

We also acknowledge the £3.2 billion commitment through the Transformation Fund as a significant step toward transforming public services—where preventing homelessness, strengthening SEND provision, and improving early intervention in children’s social care can help address the unmet needs of women and girls.

There are strong signs in this Spending Review: funding for community sentencing, early intervention to keep families together, and commitments to address the housing crisis and expand community sentencing. But the real test will be in the detail.

Funding must be allocated transparently and in ways that recognise the gendered nature of the challenges women face. Specialists in the third sector—which delivers much of this vital work—must receive long-term, stable funding that reflects the true cost of delivering these services. Only then can we ensure mothers are supported to keep their children, that girls stay in school, and that women living on low incomes no longer face impossible gaps in support.

In response to the Spending Review, Indy Cross, Agenda Alliance CEO said: