The Treasury has announced that Chancellor John Healey will not establish a timeline for meeting the 3% of GDP defence spending target in the upcoming budget scheduled for 28 October. Instead, the government plans to address this commitment during a spending review in the following year, with no specific date yet set for that review.
Healey, who previously held the position of defence secretary before moving to the Treasury, had earlier advocated for the 3% target to be achieved by 2030. His shift in stance comes after he succeeded Rachel Reeves in the chancellorship role. A government spokesperson indicated that the administration intends to unveil a pathway toward meeting NATO’s 3.5% defence spending commitment by 2035, with a target date for reaching 3% to be established during the spending review process.
Current projections indicate that defence spending will reach 2.7% of GDP by 2030, with funding supported partly through reductions in UK aid expenditure. The Treasury confirmed that Healey’s first budget will focus on fully funding the defence investment plan, a three-year program that was among the prime minister’s final initiatives. However, the plan contained a funding gap of approximately £1.2bn annually that the previous chancellor had suggested would need to be covered through spending reductions elsewhere in government departments.
Meanwhile, Healey is scheduled to attend a G20 finance ministers meeting in North Carolina this weekend, where discussions will center on global economic growth prospects amid elevated energy costs, unstable government bond markets, and ongoing trade tensions between the US and Canada.
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