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How to Write an Executive Summary in 6 Steps

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When you’re starting a business, one of the first things you need to do is write a business plan. Your business plan is like a roadmap for your business, so you can lay out your goals and a concrete plan for how you’ll reach them.

Not only is a business plan essential for any business owner, but it’s also a requirement if you decide to apply for small business funding or find investors. After all, before a bank or individual hands over any money, they’ll want to be sure your company is on solid ground (so they can get their money back).

A business plan consists of several pieces, from an executive summary and market analysis to a financial plan and projections. The executive summary will be the first part of your business plan.

If wondering how to write an executive summary has kept you from completing your business plan, we’re here to help. In this guide, we’ll explain what an executive summary is and provide tips for writing your own so your business plan can start strong.

executive summary for a business plan

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is a short, informative, and easy-to-read opening statement to your business plan. Even though it’s just one to two pages, the executive summary is incredibly important.

An executive summary tells the story of what your business does, why an investor might be interested in giving funds to your business, why their investment will be well-spent, and why you do what you do. An executive summary should be informative, but it should also capture a busy reader’s attention.

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Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

Why write an executive summary?

Anyone you’re sending your executive summary and business plan to is likely busy—very busy. An entire business plan is long, involved, and deals with a lot of numbers.

Someone busy wants to get an understanding of your business, and they want to do it quickly, which is to say not by diving into a complicated, 80-page business plan. That’s where your executive summary comes in.

An executive summary provides just the opportunity to hook someone’s interest, tell them about your business, and offer a clear selling point as to why they should consider investing in your business.

Your executive summary is your chance to sell your business to potential investors and show them your business is worth not only their money but also their time.

What to include in an executive summary

By its nature, an executive summary is short. You must be able to clearly communicate the idea of your business, what sets you apart, and how you plan to grow into a successful enterprise.

The subsequent sections of your business plan will go into more detail, but your executive summary should include the most critical pieces of your business plan—enough to stand on its own, as it’s often the only thing a prospective investor will read. Here’s what your executive summary should include—consider it an executive summary template from which you can model your own.

1. The hook

The first sentence and paragraph of your executive summary determine whether or not the entire executive summary gets read. That’s why the hook or introduction is so important.

In general, a hook is considered anything that will get a reader’s attention. While an executive summary is a formal business document, you do want your hook to make you stand out from the crowd—without wasting time.

Your hook can be sharing something creative about your company, an interesting fact, or just a very well-crafted description of your business. It’s crucial to craft your hook with the personality of your reader in mind. Give them something that will make your company stand out and be memorable among a sea of other business plans.

Grab their attention in the first paragraph, and you’re much more likely to get your executive summary read, which could lead to an investment.

2. Company description summary

Now that you’ve hooked your reader, it’s time to get into some general information about your business. If an investor is going to give you money, after all, they first need to understand what your company does or what product you sell and who is managing the company.

Your company description should include information about your business, such as when it was formed and where you’re located; your products or services; the founders or executive team, including names and specific roles; and any additional details about the management team or style.

3. Market analysis

Your market analysis in the executive summary is a brief description of what the market for your business looks like. You want to show that you have done your research and proven that there is a need for your specific product or services. Some questions you should answer:

Who are your competitors?

Is there a demand for your products or services?

What advantages do you have that make your business unique in comparison to others?

To reiterate, stick to the highlights of your market analysis in your executive summary. You’ll provide a complete analysis in a separate section of your business plan, but you should be able to communicate enough in the executive summary that a potential investor can gauge whether your business has potential.

4. Products and services

Now that you’ve established a need in the market, it’s time to show just how your business will fill it. This section of your executive summary is all about highlighting the product or service that your company offers. Talk about your current sales, the growth you’ve seen so far, and any other highlights that are a selling point for your company.

This is also a good time to identify what sets your business apart and gives you a competitive advantage. After all, it’s unlikely that your business is the first of its kind. Highlight what you do better than the competition and why potential customers will choose your product or service over the other options on the market.

5. Financial information and projections

In this section of your executive summary, you want to give the reader an overview of your current business financials. Again, you’ll go more in-depth into this section later in your business plan, so just provide some highlights. Include your current sales and profits (if you have any), as well as what funding you’re hoping to acquire and how this will affect your financials in the next few years.

This is also where you can explain what funding, if any, you’ve received in the past. If you paid back your loan on time, this is an especially bright selling point for potential lenders.

6. Future plans

While asking for what funding you need is essential, you’ve also got to make clear what you’re going to use that funding for. If you’re asking for money, you want the person to know you have a plan to put those funds to good use.

Are you hoping to open another location, expand your product line, invest in your marketing efforts? This final section of your executive summary should detail where you want your business to go in the future, as well as drive home how funding can help you get there.

Tips for writing an executive summary

Even if you include each part of a good executive summary, you might not get noticed. What is written can be just as important as how it’s written. An executive summary has to strike a delicate balance between formal, personable, confident, and humble.

1. Be concise

An executive summary should include everything that’s in your business plan, just in a much shorter format. Writing a concise executive summary is no easy task and will require many revisions to get to the final draft. And while this is the first section of your executive summary, you’ll want to write it last, after you’ve put together all the other elements.

To choose your most important points and what should be included in the executive summary, go through your business plan, and pull out single-line bullet points. Go back through those bullet points and eliminate everything unnecessary to understanding your business.

Once you have your list of bullet points narrowed down, you can start writing your executive summary. Once it’s written, go back in and remove any unnecessary information. Remember, you should only be including the highlights—you have the rest of your business plan to go into more detail. The shorter and clearer your executive summary is, the more likely someone is to read it.

2. Use bullet points

One simple way to make your executive summary more readable is to use bullet points. If someone is reading quickly or skimming your executive summary, extra whitespace can make the content faster and easier to read.

Short paragraphs, short sentences, and bullet points all make an executive summary easier to skim—which is likely what the reader is doing. If important numbers and convincing stats jump out at the reader, they’re more likely to keep reading.

3. Speak to your audience

When writing your executive summary, be sure to think about who will be reading it; that’s who you’re speaking to. If you can personalize your executive summary to the personality and interests of the person who will read it, you’re more likely to capture their attention.

Personalizing might come in the form of a name in the salutation, sharing details in a specific way you know that person likes and the tone of your writing. An executive summary deals with business, so it will generally have a formal tone. But, different industries may be comfortable with some creativity of language or using shorthand to refer to certain ideas.

Know who you’re speaking to and use the right tone to speak to them. That might be formal and deferential, expert and clipped, informal and personable, or any other appropriate tone. This may also involve writing different versions of your executive summary for different audiences.

4. Play to your strengths

One of the best ways to catch the attention of your reader is to share why your business is unique. What makes your business unique is also what makes your business strong, which can capture a reader’s interest and show them why your business is worth investing in. Be sure to highlight these strengths from the start of your executive summary.

5. Get a test reader

Once you’ve written and edited your executive summary, you need a test reader. While someone in your industry or another business owner can be a great resource, you should also consider finding a test reader with limited knowledge of your business and industry. Your executive summary should be so clear that anyone can understand it, so having a variety of test readers can help identify any confusing language.

If you don’t have access to a test reader, consider using tools such as Hemingway App and Grammarly to ensure you’ve written something that’s easy to read and uses proper grammar.

How long should an executive summary be?

There’s no firm rule on how long an executive summary should be, as it depends on the length of your business plan and the depth of understanding needed by the reader to fully grasp your ask.

That being said, it should be as short and concise as you can get it. In general, an executive summary should be one to two pages in length.

You can fudge the length slightly by adjusting the margin and font size, but don’t forget readability is just as important as length. You want to leave plenty of white space and have a large enough font that the reader is comfortable while reading your executive summary. If your executive summary is hard to read, it’s less likely your reader will take the time to read your business plan.

What to avoid in an executive summary

While the rules for writing a stellar executive summary can be fuzzy, there are a few clear rules for what to avoid in your executive summary.

Your executive summary should avoid:

Focusing on investment. Instead, focus on getting the reader to be interested enough to continue and read your business plan or at least schedule a meeting with you.

Clichés, superlatives, and claims that aren’t backed up by fact. Your executive summary isn’t marketing material. It should be straightforward and clear.

Avoiding the executive summary no-nos is just as important as striking the right tone and getting in the necessary information for your reader.

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The bottom line

While an executive summary is short, it’s challenging to write. Your executive summary condenses your entire introduction, business description, business plan, market analysis, financial projections, and ask into one to two pages. Condensing information down to its most essential form takes time and many drafts. When you’re putting together your business plan’s executive summary, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to write it and to seek the help of friends or colleagues for editing it to perfection.

However, some tools make crafting a business plan, including your executive summary, a simpler process. A business plan template is a great place to start, and business plan software can especially help with the design of your business plan. After all, a well-written executive summary can make all the difference in obtaining funding for your business, so you’ll want all the help you can get.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

On a similar note...

How to Write a Powerful Executive Summary [+4 Top Examples]

Caroline Forsey

Published: August 31, 2023

Whether you're an entrepreneur looking for investors for your small business or the CEO of a large corporation, an executive summary can help you succeed and is a critical component for long-term growth.

Executive summary with examples

A short, attention-grabbing executive summary is an essential part of your business plan . Done correctly, it will ensure your company becomes or remains a key player in your industry. In this post, you’ll learn what an executive summary is and how to write one that engages investors, customers, and general audiences.

Executive Summary

An executive summary is a brief overview of a long document, such as a business plan, proposal, or report. It's a section that grabs readers’ attention and summarizes critical information from the document, such as the problem or opportunity being addressed, objectives, key findings, goals, and recommendations.

Some documents that may have an executive summary include:

  • Business plans
  • Research documents
  • Project proposals
  • Annual reports

Ultimately, the executive summary is meant to inform readers of the most important information in the document, so they don't have to read it all and can get caught up quickly.

executive summary for a business plan

Free Executive Summary Template

Use this executive summary template to provide a summary of your report, business plan, or memo.

  • Company & Opportunity
  • Industry & Market Analysis
  • Management & Operations
  • Financial Plan

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Executive Summary vs. Business Plan

All business plans have an executive summary, but not all executive summaries belong to business plans.

A business plan includes a company overview, your company's short-term and long-term goals, information on your product or service, sales targets, expense budgets, your marketing plan, and a list including each member of your management team. In this case, the executive summary is the first section of the business plan that convinces readers that it’s worth their time to read the whole thing.

Business plans are very detailed and comprehensive, and can be as short as a dozen pages or as long as 100 pages. However, a CEO or investor might not have the interest or time to read your full business plan without first getting the general gist of your company or goals through an executive summary.

Executive Summary vs. Mission Statement

Mission statements and executive summaries are typically both found in business plans, but they serve different purposes.

A mission statement defines your organization’s purpose, values, and vision. It’s your company’s north star and communicates your core identity and reason for existence. On the other hand, an executive summary provides a high-level overview of the document.

Ultimately, your mission statement provides direction for developing your business plan, while your executive summary describes your business plan to executives and shareholders.

Executive Summary vs. Company Description

Like mission statements and executive summaries, company descriptions can also be found in business plans as well as the “About us” page of your website . It provides an overview of your business, including essential details like company history, what your company does, unique selling points, goals, management team, and overall value proposition.

Executive Summary vs. Objective

An objective is a specific goal or target that your company takes aims to achieve its overall goal. It is a concrete, measurable outcome that guides your business’s actions and decisions. Objectives are usually set at the strategic level and are typically aligned with the company’s mission, vision, and overall strategic plan.

Company objectives are often included in executive summaries, but are not the sole focus of them.

What is the purpose of an executive summary?

Writing an executive summary may not seem that necessary. After all, you can find the same information just by reading the rest of the document.

However, the executive summary serves many purposes for your document and those who read it. Here are some of the benefits of having one:

  • It saves your readers time. CEOs and investors often have limited time to review lengthy documents. An executive summary allows them to quickly grasp the main points, key findings, and recommendations without needing to read the entire document.
  • It provides clarity and conciseness. By providing a condensed overview, executive summaries help to distill complex information and present it in a manner that’s easy to understand.
  • It helps with document navigation. For longer documents or reports, an executive summary provides a roadmap for readers. It helps them navigate through the document by signaling the main sections or topics covered, improving overall document usability and accessibility.

To write an impressive executive summary that effectively embodies all the important elements of your business plan, we've cultivated a list of necessary components for an executive summary, as well as an example to get you started.

Follow Along With HubSpot's Executive Summary Template

Executive summary template from HubSpot

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How to write an executive summary.

A good executive summary tells your company’s story, contains in-depth research, conveys information with an appropriate tone, is void of clichés, and follows your business plan’s structure. These elements will ensure your executive summary is effective, informative, and impactful.

1. Tell your story.

When investors or CEO's read your executive summary, they should understand what your business is about. This is one of the first elements of your business plan, so it should set the tone.

In your executive summary, be sure to tell your story and include an overview about what your company does and why you do what you do. You can also briefly highlight important details about your company’s management.

For instance, you could talk about your founder or CEO’s qualifications and motivations. You can also provide a high-level summary of your company’s business operations and any management methods or best practices that you abide by.

You’ll also want to explain the problem or opportunity that is being addressed, and how it is valuable to investors and customers. Think of this like an elevator pitch . If someone stopped reading and you only had the executive summary to explain your company, what information would you include?

2. Highlight important data.

An executive summary, while short, should include plenty of research.

Highlight the most important findings and insights from the document, including any critical data or statistics discovered in your competitor analysis . While your business plan will flesh out the details, it's important to include your key findings in your executive summary.

You should also provide a basic rundown of your target market, how you plan on addressing their needs and pain points, and how you will reach them.

Additionally, you should include key financial information. The main points you should cover are the overall budget, the price per product/service, and your financial projections.

3. Pay attention to your tone.

Although the tone of your executive summary should be professional and concise, it should also be true to your company and target audience. Aim to convey a sense of authority and credibility while remaining accessible and engaging.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

  • Focus on presenting information objectively with facts and evidence.
  • Don’t voice your personal opinions or use subjective statements.
  • Strive for clarity and simplicity in your language and ensure that your message is easily understood.
  • Avoid unnecessarily complexity or convolution.
  • Don’t use hyperbole or excessive claims.
  • Use strong verbs, active voice, and concise language to make your points effectively.
  • Aim to resonate with the reader’s interests and concerns.

By striking the right balance between professionalism, clarity, and engagement, you can effectively deliver your message and compel the reader to take action or make informed decisions based on the summary.

4. Avoid cliché language.

With any style of writing, it's best to avoid clichés. Clichés can convey the wrong message or be misunderstood, which is something you want to avoid when someone reads your executive summary.

Additionally, clichés tend to overpromise and under-deliver. For example, including something like “The Best Restaurant in Town” isn‘t true because you’re untested as a business. Your executive summary should reflect the truth and who you are as a company.

To avoid clichés while writing, it’s essential to be aware of their presence. Familiarize yourself with common clichés and be mindful of them as you write. Some examples include:

  • “Thinking outside the box”
  • “Innovative solutions”
  • “Cutting-edge technology”

Instead of relying on these overused phrases, be descriptive and embrace the uniqueness of your brand when writing your executive summary. For instance, there’s no need to vaguely refer to your product as a “game-changer,” when you could explain how it benefits your target audience instead. Show, don’t tell.

By staying true to your voice and delivering an honest message, you can keep your writing fresh and your audience engaged.

5. Write it after completing your business plan.

An executive summary is a summary of your business plan. However, it‘s hard to write a summary when you haven’t written your business plan yet. That's why your executive summary should be the final thing you write.

By saving this step for last, you’re able to gain a thorough understanding of the entire plan, including your business’s goals, strategies, market analysis, and financial projections. This enables you to accurately depict the most important aspects in your summary.

If you write you executive summary first, you’re more likely to miscommunicate the essence of your business plan to executives and shareholders. Sure, you may have an outline prepare, but not having all the information can lead to inconsistencies or inaccuracies in your summary. You also risk including irrelevant details or omitting important details that come up during the planning process.

Ultimately, writing your executive summary last ensures that precisely represents the content and findings your plan.

If you don’t have a business plan yet, don’t worry; we have a comprehensive business plan template to help you create one quickly and effectively.

Featured Resource: Business Plan Template

how to write executive summary: use business plan template from hubspot

Download Your Free Template Here

Now that you know how to write an executive summary, let's dive into the details of what to include.

What to Include in Your Executive Summary

Your business plan should convey your company‘s mission, your product, a plan for how you’ll stand out from competitors, your financial projections, your company's short and long-term goals, your buyer persona, and your market fit.

Ultimately, an executive summary should provide a preview for investors or CEO's, so they know what to expect from the rest of your report. Your executive summary should include:

  • The name, location, and mission of your company
  • A description of your company, including management, advisors, and brief history
  • Your product or service, where your product fits in the market, and how your product differs from competitors in the industry
  • Financial considerations, start-up funding requirements, or the purpose behind your business plan — mention what you hope the reader will help your company accomplish

How long should an executive summary be?

While there is no hard and fast rule for the exact length, executive summaries typically range from one to three pages. However, it's important to note that the length should be determined by the document it accompanies and the content itself rather than a predetermined page count.

At the end of the day, your executive summary should engage the reader and highlight the most important points of your document while avoiding unnecessary details.

Feeling at a loss? Download a free template below that will take you through the executive summary creation process.

Executive Summary Template

executive summary template from hubspot

Download Your Free Executive Summary Template Here

In this free executive summary template, you’ll be able to outline several pieces of information, including:

  • Introduction: Explain what your executive summary contains.
  • Company & Opportunity: Explain who you are and your biggest opportunities for growth.
  • Industry & Market Analysis: Explain the state of your industry and your target market.
  • Management & Operations: Explain who your key leaders are and their roles.
  • Implementation & Marketing: Explain how you plan to deploy your product to the marketplace.
  • Financial Plan: Explain your company’s finances. Change the verbiage depending on whether you’re writing to investors or a general audience.
  • Conclusion: Summarize what you’ve covered.

Ready? Download your free executive summary template .

To understand more tactically how an executive summary should look, let’s review a few examples.

Executive Summary Examples

1. connected.

executive summary example: connected

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  • How to write an executive summary, with ...

How to write an executive summary, with examples

Julia Martins contributor headshot

The best way to do that is with an executive summary. If you’ve never written an executive summary, this article has all you need to know to plan, write, and share them with your team.

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is an overview of a document. The length and scope of your executive summary will differ depending on the document it’s summarizing, but in general an executive summary can be anywhere from one to two pages long. In the document, you’ll want to share all of the information your readers and important stakeholders need to know.

Imagine it this way: if your high-level stakeholders were to only read your executive summary, would they have all of the information they need to succeed? If so, your summary has done its job.

You’ll often find executive summaries of:

Business cases

Project proposals

Research documents

Environmental studies

Market surveys

Project plans

In general, there are four parts to any executive summary:

Start with the problem or need the document is solving.

Outline the recommended solution.

Explain the solution’s value.

Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work.

What is an executive summary in project management?

In project management, an executive summary is a way to bring clarity to cross-functional collaborators, team leadership, and project stakeholders . Think of it like a project’s “ elevator pitch ” for team members who don’t have the time or the need to dive into all of the project’s details.

The main difference between an executive summary in project management and a more traditional executive summary in a business plan is that the former should be created at the beginning of your project—whereas the latter should be created after you’ve written your business plan. For example, to write an executive summary of an environmental study, you would compile a report on the results and findings once your study was over. But for an executive summary in project management, you want to cover what the project is aiming to achieve and why those goals matter.

The same four parts apply to an executive summary in project management:

Start with the problem or need the project is solving.  Why is this project happening? What insight, customer feedback, product plan, or other need caused it to come to life?

Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives.  How is the project going to solve the problem you established in the first part? What are the project goals and objectives?

Explain the solution’s value.  Once you’ve finished your project, what will happen? How will this improve and solve the problem you established in the first part?

Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work.  This is another opportunity to reiterate why the problem is important, and why the project matters. It can also be helpful to reference your audience and how your solution will solve their problem. Finally, include any relevant next steps.

If you’ve never written an executive summary before, you might be curious about where it fits into other project management elements. Here’s how executive summaries stack up:

Executive summary vs. project plan

A  project plan  is a blueprint of the key elements your project will accomplish in order to hit your project goals and objectives. Project plans will include your goals, success metrics, stakeholders and roles, budget, milestones and deliverables, timeline and schedule, and communication plan .

An executive summary is a summary of the most important information in your project plan. Think of the absolutely crucial things your management team needs to know when they land in your project, before they even have a chance to look at the project plan—that’s your executive summary.

Executive summary vs. project overview

Project overviews and executive summaries often have similar elements—they both contain a summary of important project information. However, your project overview should be directly attached to your project. There should be a direct line of sight between your project and your project overview.

While you can include your executive summary in your project depending on what type of  project management tool  you use, it may also be a stand-alone document.

Executive summary vs. project objectives

Your executive summary should contain and expand upon your  project objectives  in the second part ( Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives ). In addition to including your project objectives, your executive summary should also include why achieving your project objectives will add value, as well as provide details about how you’re going to get there.

The benefits of an executive summary

You may be asking: why should I write an executive summary for my project? Isn’t the project plan enough?

Well, like we mentioned earlier, not everyone has the time or need to dive into your project and see, from a glance, what the goals are and why they matter.  Work management tools  like Asana help you capture a lot of crucial information about a project, so you and your team have clarity on who’s doing what by when. Your executive summary is designed less for team members who are actively working on the project and more for stakeholders outside of the project who want quick insight and answers about why your project matters.

An effective executive summary gives stakeholders a big-picture view of the entire project and its important points—without requiring them to dive into all the details. Then, if they want more information, they can access the project plan or navigate through tasks in your work management tool.

How to write a great executive summary, with examples

Every executive summary has four parts. In order to write a great executive summary, follow this template. Then once you’ve written your executive summary, read it again to make sure it includes all of the key information your stakeholders need to know.

1. Start with the problem or need the project is solving

At the beginning of your executive summary, start by explaining why this document (and the project it represents) matter. Take some time to outline what the problem is, including any research or customer feedback you’ve gotten . Clarify how this problem is important and relevant to your customers, and why solving it matters.

For example, let’s imagine you work for a watch manufacturing company. Your project is to devise a simpler, cheaper watch that still appeals to luxury buyers while also targeting a new bracket of customers.

Example executive summary:

In recent customer feedback sessions, 52% of customers have expressed a need for a simpler and cheaper version of our product. In surveys of customers who have chosen competitor watches, price is mentioned 87% of the time. To best serve our existing customers, and to branch into new markets, we need to develop a series of watches that we can sell at an appropriate price point for this market.

2. Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives

Now that you’ve outlined the problem, explain what your solution is. Unlike an abstract or outline, you should be  prescriptive  in your solution—that is to say, you should work to convince your readers that your solution is the right one. This is less of a brainstorming section and more of a place to support your recommended solution.

Because you’re creating your executive summary at the beginning of your project, it’s ok if you don’t have all of your deliverables and milestones mapped out. But this is your chance to describe, in broad strokes, what will happen during the project. If you need help formulating a high-level overview of your project’s main deliverables and timeline, consider creating a  project roadmap  before diving into your executive summary.

Continuing our example executive summary:

Our new watch series will begin at 20% cheaper than our current cheapest option, with the potential for 40%+ cheaper options depending on material and movement. In order to offer these prices, we will do the following:

Offer watches in new materials, including potentially silicone or wood

Use high-quality quartz movement instead of in-house automatic movement

Introduce customizable band options, with a focus on choice and flexibility over traditional luxury

Note that every watch will still be rigorously quality controlled in order to maintain the same world-class speed and precision of our current offerings.

3. Explain the solution’s value

At this point, you begin to get into more details about how your solution will impact and improve upon the problem you outlined in the beginning. What, if any, results do you expect? This is the section to include any relevant financial information, project risks, or potential benefits. You should also relate this project back to your company goals or  OKRs . How does this work map to your company objectives?

With new offerings that are between 20% and 40% cheaper than our current cheapest option, we expect to be able to break into the casual watch market, while still supporting our luxury brand. That will help us hit FY22’s Objective 3: Expanding the brand. These new offerings have the potential to bring in upwards of three million dollars in profits annually, which will help us hit FY22’s Objective 1: 7 million dollars in annual profit.

Early customer feedback sessions indicate that cheaper options will not impact the value or prestige of the luxury brand, though this is a risk that should be factored in during design. In order to mitigate that risk, the product marketing team will begin working on their go-to-market strategy six months before the launch.

4. Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work

Now that you’ve shared all of this important information with executive stakeholders, this final section is your chance to guide their understanding of the impact and importance of this work on the organization. What, if anything, should they take away from your executive summary?

To round out our example executive summary:

Cheaper and varied offerings not only allow us to break into a new market—it will also expand our brand in a positive way. With the attention from these new offerings, plus the anticipated demand for cheaper watches, we expect to increase market share by 2% annually. For more information, read our  go-to-market strategy  and  customer feedback documentation .

Example of an executive summary

When you put it all together, this is what your executive summary might look like:

[Product UI] Example executive summary in Asana (Project Overview)

Common mistakes people make when writing executive summaries

You’re not going to become an executive summary-writing pro overnight, and that’s ok. As you get started, use the four-part template provided in this article as a guide. Then, as you continue to hone your executive summary writing skills, here are a few common pitfalls to avoid:

Avoid using jargon

Your executive summary is a document that anyone, from project contributors to executive stakeholders, should be able to read and understand. Remember that you’re much closer to the daily work and individual tasks than your stakeholders will be, so read your executive summary once over to make sure there’s no unnecessary jargon. Where you can, explain the jargon, or skip it all together.

Remember: this isn’t a full report

Your executive summary is just that—a summary. If you find yourself getting into the details of specific tasks, due dates, and attachments, try taking a step back and asking yourself if that information really belongs in your executive summary. Some details are important—you want your summary to be actionable and engaging. But keep in mind that the wealth of information in your project will be captured in your  work management tool , not your executive summary.

Make sure the summary can stand alone

You know this project inside and out, but your stakeholders won’t. Once you’ve written your executive summary, take a second look to make sure the summary can stand on its own. Is there any context your stakeholders need in order to understand the summary? If so, weave it into your executive summary, or consider linking out to it as additional information.

Always proofread

Your executive summary is a living document, and if you miss a typo you can always go back in and fix it. But it never hurts to proofread or send to a colleague for a fresh set of eyes.

In summary: an executive summary is a must-have

Executive summaries are a great way to get everyone up to date and on the same page about your project. If you have a lot of project stakeholders who need quick insight into what the project is solving and why it matters, an executive summary is the perfect way to give them the information they need.

For more tips about how to connect high-level strategy and plans to daily execution, read our article about strategic planning .

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How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

3-minute read

  • 19th November 2023

An executive summary is the part of a business plan that gives an outline of the main plan. So to write an executive summary, we first need to read the business plan carefully and understand its key points. These key points are what we will condense to form the executive summary. It’s important to ensure that the executive summary can stand alone because plenty of users will read only that and not the main business plan. We could say that the business plan is the original TL;DR (too long; didn’t read)!

But first, let’s take a quick look at what goes into a business plan so we can focus on the sections we need for our executive summary.

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that sets out a business’s strategy and the means of achieving it. The business plan usually contains the following sections:

How to Write an Executive Summary

The executive summary covers the same headings as the main business plan but not in so much detail. This is where our editing skills come to the fore!

The following six steps explain how to approach writing the executive summary.

Consider the Audience

Who will be using the summary? The business plan might be issued only to a very specific group of people, in which case, their needs are paramount and specialized. If the business plan is going out on wider release, we need to think about what a general reader will want to know.

Check That It Makes Sense on Its Own

Make sure the summary can be read as a stand-alone document for users who won’t read the whole plan.

Use Formatting Effectively

Make good use of formatting, headings, numbering, and bullets to increase clarity and readability.

Keep It Brief

One page (or around ten percent of the total word count for a large document) is great.

Avoid Jargon

Try to avoid jargon and use straightforward language. Readers of the executive summary might not have business backgrounds (for instance, if they are friend and family investors in a small start-up business).

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Proofread the Executive Summary

The executive summary will very likely be the first – and perhaps the only – part of the business plan some people will read, and it must be error-free to make a professional impression.

●  Consider the audience .

●  Ensure that the executive summary can stand alone.

●  Use formatting tools to good advantage.

●  Keep it brief.

●  Keep it simple.

●  Proofread it.

If you’d like an expert to proofread your business plan – or any of your writing – get in touch!

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Executive Summary of the Business Plan

How to Write an Executive Summary That Gets Your Business Plan Read

Susan Ward wrote about small businesses for The Balance for 18 years. She has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses.

executive summary for a business plan

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An executive summary of a business plan is an overview. Its purpose is to summarize the key points of a document for its readers, saving them time and preparing them for the upcoming content.

Think of the executive summary as an advance organizer for the reader. Above all else, it must be clear and concise. But it also has to entice the reader to read the rest of the business plan .

This is why the executive summary is often called the most important part of the business plan. If it doesn’t capture the reader's attention, the plan will be set aside unread—a disaster if you've written your business plan as part of an attempt to get money to start your new business . (Getting startup money is not the only reason to write a business plan; there are other just-as-important reasons .)

Because it is an overview of the entire plan, it is common to write the executive summary last (and writing it last can make it much easier).

What Information Goes in an Executive Summary?

The information you need to include varies somewhat depending on whether your business is a startup or an established business.

For a startup business typically one of the main goals of the business plan is to convince banks, angel investors , or venture capitalists to invest in your business by providing startup capital in the form of debt or equity financing .

In order to do so you will have to provide a solid case for your business idea which makes your executive summary all the more important. A typical executive summary for a startup company includes the following sections:

  • The business opportunity. Describe the need or the opportunity.
  • Taking advantage of the opportunity. Explain how will your business will serve the market.
  • The target market . Describe the customer base you will be targeting.
  • Business model . Describe your products or services and and what will make them appealing to the target market.
  • Marketing and sales strategy . Briefly outline your plans for marketing your products and services.
  • The competition. Describe your competition and your strategy for getting market share. What is your competitive advantage, e.g. what will you offer to customers that your competitors cannot?
  • Financial analysis. Summarize the financial plan including projections for at least the next three years.
  • Owners/Staff. Describe the owners and the key staff members and the expertise they bring to the venture.
  • Implementation plan. Outline the schedule for taking your business from the planning stage to opening your doors.

For established businesses the executive summary typically includes information about achievements, growth plans , etc. A typical executive summary outline for an established business includes:

  • Mission Statement . Articulates the purpose of your business. In a few sentences describe what your company does and your core values and business philosophy.
  • Company Information. Give a brief history of your company —d escribe your products or services, when and where it was formed, who the owners and key employees are, statistics such as the number of employees, business locations, etc.
  • Business Highlights. Describe the evolution of the businesshow it has grown, including year-over-year revenue increases, profitability, increases in market share, number of customers, etc.
  • Financial Summary. If the purpose of updating the business plan is to seek additional financing for expansion, then give a brief financial summary.
  • Future goals. Describe your goals for the business . If you are seeking financing explain how additional funding will be used to expand the business or otherwise increase profits.

How Do I Write an Executive Summary of a Business Plan?

Start by following the list above and writing one to two sentences about each topic (depending on whether your business is a startup or an established business). No more! 

The Easy Way of Writing One

Having trouble getting started? The easiest way of writing the executive summary is to review your business plan and take a summary sentence or two from each of the business plan sections you’ve already written.

If you compare the list above to the sections outlined in the  Business Plan Outline , you’ll see that this could work very well.

Then finish your business plan’s executive summary with a clinching closing sentence or two that answers the reader’s question, “Why is this a winning business?”

For example, an executive summary for a pet-sitting business might conclude: “The loving on-site professional care that Pet Grandma will provide is sure to appeal to both cat and dog owners throughout the West Vancouver area.”

(You may find it useful to read the entire Pet Grandma  executive summary example  before you write your own.)

Tips for Writing the Business Plan’s Executive Summary

  • Focus on providing a summary.  The business plan itself will provide the details and whether bank managers or investors, the readers of your plan don’t want to have their time wasted.
  • Keep your language strong and positive.  Don’t weaken your executive summary with weak language. Instead of writing, “Dogstar Industries might be in an excellent position to win government contracts,” write “Dogstar Industries will be in an excellent position.”
  • Keep it short–no more than two pages long . Resist the temptation to pad your business plan’s executive summary with details (or pleas). The job of the executive summary is to present the facts and entice your reader to read the rest of the business plan, not tell him everything.
  • Polish your executive summary.  Read it aloud. Does it flow or does it sound choppy? Is it clear and succinct? Once it sounds good to you, have someone else who knows nothing about your business read it and make suggestions for improvement.
  • Tailor it to your audience.  If the purpose of your business plan is to  entice investors , for instance, your executive summary should focus on the opportunity your business provides investors and why the opportunity is special. If the purpose of your business plan is to get a small business loan , focus on highlighting what traditional lenders want to see, such as management's experience in the industry and the fact that you have both collateral and strategies in place to minimize the lender's risk.
  • Put yourself in your readers’ place. And read your executive summary again. Does it generate interest or excitement in the reader? If not, why? Also try giving it to a friend or relative to read, who is not engaged in the business. If you've done a good job on the executive summary, an impartial third party should be able to understand it.

Remember, the executive summary will be the first thing your readers read. If it's poorly written, it will also be the last thing they read, as they set the rest of your business plan aside unread.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. " Business Plan Guidelines ," Page 2.

Corporate Finance Institute. " Executive Summary ."

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. " How to Prepare Your Business Plan ," Page 167.

Iowa State University. " Types and Sources of Financing for Start-up Businesses ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

Clute Institute. " Using Business Plans for Teaching Entrepreneurship ," Page 733.

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How to write an executive summary in 10 steps

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Whether presenting a business plan, sharing project updates with stakeholders, or submitting a project proposal, an executive summary helps you grab attention and convey key insights.

Think of it as a condensed version of a document, report, or proposal that highlights the most important information clearly and concisely. It's like a "cheat sheet" that gives you a snapshot of the main points without reading the entire thing.

Throughout the article, we'll explore some examples of executive summaries to give you a better understanding of how they can be applied. Plus, we'll provide you with ready-to-use templates and best practices for writing compelling executive summaries.

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What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is a concise overview of a longer document or report. It is typically written for busy executives or decision-makers who may not have the time to read the entire document but still need to grasp its key points and recommendations. 

An effective executive summary should capture the essence of the document, highlighting the most important information in a brief and easily understandable way. It should provide a snapshot of the document's purpose, methodology, major findings, and key recommendations. The summary should be written in a way that allows the reader to quickly grasp the main ideas and make informed decisions based on the information presented.

Why do you need to write one?

For a business owner , an executive summary is one of the most important documents you will have. Like a business plan , they help you lay out the potential value of your business and your potential for success. 

Unlike a business proposal, however, an executive summary is designed to be read in a brief amount of time. That makes them ideal for a variety of uses, like project proposals and research summaries. Sending your strategic plan to a prospective investor or stakeholder likely won’t get you far. But a brief report that clearly states your key findings and what’s in it for them might help you — and your proposal — stand out. It isn't all the details. It's what gets you the meeting to share more.

An executive summary is also a business document that can travel without you. It may be presented to other leaders and potential investors. If it’s written well, it will take on a life of its own. You may find that you get support and resources from places you never imagined.

What should be included in an executive summary?

Your executive summary should include brief descriptions of who your product, service, or proposal is for and your competitive advantage. Be sure to introduce your report concisely yet clearly . Note the most important points and its overall purpose––what do you hope to achieve with this report? 

Also, include any necessary background information and statistics about the industry, high-level information about your business model, necessary financial information, or other insights you discuss in the report. Depending on your proposal, you may want to consider summarizing a market analysis of your target market.

Typically, an executive summary follows a structured format, including sections such as:

  • Introduction: Provides a brief background and context for the document.
  • Objective or purpose: Clearly states the goal of the document and what it aims to achieve.
  • Methodology: Briefly describes the approach, data sources, and methods used to conduct the research or analysis.
  • Findings: Summarizes the main findings, conclusions, or results derived from the document.
  • Recommendations: Outlines the key recommendations or proposed actions based on the findings.
  • Conclusion: Provides a concise wrap-up of the main points and emphasizes the significance of the document.

presenting-to-board-meeting-executive-summary-example

How do you write an executive summary?

When tackling an executive summary, it's all about following a structured approach to ensure you effectively communicate those crucial points, findings, and recommendations. Let’s walk through some steps and best practices to make it a breeze:

Step 1: Get to know the document

Take the time to dive into the full document or report that your executive summary will be based on. Read it thoroughly and identify the main objectives, key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

Step 2: Know your audience

Think about who you're writing the executive summary for. Consider their knowledge level, interests, and priorities. This helps you tailor the summary to their needs and make it relevant and impactful.

Step 3: Outline the structure

Create an outline for your executive summary with sections like introduction, objective, methodology, findings, recommendations, and conclusion. This way, you'll have a logical flow that's easy to follow.

Step 4: Start strong

Kick off your executive summary with a captivating opening statement. Make it concise, engaging, and impactful to hook the reader and make them want to keep reading.

Step 5: Summarize objectives and methodology

Give a brief overview of the document's objectives and the methodology used to achieve them. This sets the context and helps the reader understand the approach taken.

Step 6: Highlight key findings

Summarize the main findings, conclusions, or results. Focus on the juiciest and most relevant points that support the document's purpose. Keep it clear and concise to get the message across effectively.

Step 7: Present key recommendations

Outline the important recommendations or proposed actions based on the findings. Clearly state what needs to be done, why it matters, and how it aligns with the document's objectives. Make those recommendations actionable and realistic.

Step 8: Keep it snappy

Remember, an executive summary should be short and sweet. Skip unnecessary details, jargon, or technical language . Use straightforward language that hits the mark.

Step 9: Review and polish

Once you've written the executive summary, give it a careful review for clarity, coherence, and accuracy. Make sure it captures the essence of the full document and represents its content faithfully. Take the extra step to edit out any fluff or repetition.

Step 10: Dress to impress

Consider formatting and presentation. Use headings, bullet points, and formatting styles to make it visually appealing and easy to skim. If it makes sense, include some graphs, charts, or visuals to highlight key points.

Tips for writing an effective executive summary

  • Adapt your language and tone to suit your audience.
  • Keep things concise and crystal clear—say no to jargon.
  • Focus on the most important info that packs a punch.
  • Give enough context without overwhelming your reader.
  • Use strong and persuasive language to make your recommendations shine.
  • Make sure your executive summary makes sense even if the full document isn't read.
  • Proofread like a pro to catch any pesky grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors.

Executive summary template for business plans

Here's a general template for creating an executive summary specifically for business plans:

[Your Company Name]

[Business Plan Title]

Business overview

Provide a brief introduction to your company, including its name, location, industry, and mission statement . Describe your unique value proposition and what sets your business apart from competitors.

Market analysis

Summarize the key findings of your market research. Provide an overview of the target market, its size, growth potential, and relevant trends. Highlight your understanding of customer needs, preferences, and behaviors.

Product or service offering

Outline your core products or services, including their key features and benefits. Emphasize how your offerings address customer pain points and provide value. Highlight any unique selling points or competitive advantages.

Business model

Explain your business model and revenue generation strategy. Describe how you will generate revenue, the pricing structure, and any distribution channels or partnerships that contribute to your business's success.

Marketing and sales strategy

Summarize your marketing and sales approach. Highlight the key tactics and channels you will use to reach and attract customers. Discuss your promotional strategies, pricing strategies, and customer acquisition plans.

Management team

Introduce the key members of your management team and their relevant experience. Highlight their expertise and how it positions the team to execute the business plan successfully. Include any notable advisors or board members.

Financial projections

Summarize your financial projections, including revenue forecasts, expected expenses, and projected profitability. Highlight any key financial metrics or milestones. Briefly mention your funding needs, if applicable.

Funding requirements

If seeking funding, outline your funding requirements, including the amount needed, its purpose, and the potential sources of funding you are considering. Summarize the expected return on investment for potential investors.

Reiterate the vision and potential of your business. Summarize the key points of your business plan, emphasizing its viability, market potential, and the expertise of your team. Convey confidence in the success of your venture.

Note: Keep the executive summary concise and focused, typically within one to two pages. Use clear and compelling language, emphasizing the unique aspects of your business. Tailor the template to suit your specific business plan, adjusting sections and details accordingly.

Remember, the executive summary serves as an introduction to your business plan and should pique the reader's interest, conveying the value and potential of your business in a concise and persuasive manner.

Executive summary examples

Every executive summary will be unique to the organization's goals, vision, and brand identity. We put together two general examples of executive summaries to spark your creativity and offer some inspiration. 

These are not intended to be used as-is but more to offer ideas for how you may want to put your own executive summary together. Be sure to personalize your own summary with specific statistics and relevant data points to make the most impact.

Example 1: executive summary for a communications business plan

Introduction:

We're thrilled to present our innovative [insert product] that aims to revolutionize the way people connect and engage. Our vision is to empower individuals and businesses with seamless communication solutions that break barriers and foster meaningful connections.

Market opportunity:

The communications industry is evolving rapidly, and we've identified a significant opportunity in the market. With the proliferation of remote work, the need for reliable and efficient communication tools has skyrocketed. Our extensive market research indicates a demand for solutions that prioritize user experience, security, and flexibility.

Product offering:

At [Company Name], we've developed a suite of cutting-edge communication tools designed to meet the diverse needs of our customers. Our flagship product is a unified communication platform that integrates voice, video, messaging, and collaboration features into a seamless user experience. We also offer customizable solutions for businesses of all sizes, catering to their unique communication requirements.

Unique value proposition:

What sets us apart from the competition? Our user-centric approach and commitment to innovation. We prioritize user experience by creating intuitive interfaces and seamless interactions. Our solutions are scalable, adaptable, and designed to keep up with evolving technological trends. By combining ease of use with advanced features, we deliver unparalleled value to our customers.

Target market:

Our primary focus is on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that require efficient and cost-effective communication tools. We also cater to individuals, remote teams, and larger enterprises seeking reliable and secure communication solutions. Our target market encompasses industries such as technology, finance, healthcare, and professional services.

Business model:

To generate revenue, we employ a subscription-based business model. Customers can choose from different plans tailored to their specific needs, paying a monthly or annual fee. We also offer additional services such as customization, integration, and customer support, creating additional revenue streams and fostering long-term customer relationships.

Marketing and sales strategy:

Our marketing strategy centers around building brand awareness through targeted digital campaigns, content marketing, and strategic partnerships. We'll leverage social media, industry influencers, and online communities to reach our target audience. Additionally, our sales team will engage in proactive outreach, nurturing leads and providing personalized consultations to convert prospects into loyal customers.

Team and expertise:

Our team is composed of experienced professionals with a deep understanding of the communications industry. Led by our visionary founder and supported by a skilled and diverse team, we have the expertise to drive innovation, develop robust products, and deliver exceptional customer service. We're passionate about our mission and dedicated to making a lasting impact in the market.

Financial projections:

Based on extensive market research and financial analysis, we anticipate strong growth and profitability. Our financial projections indicate steady revenue streams, with increasing customer adoption and market share. We're committed to managing costs effectively, optimizing our resources, and continuously reinvesting in research and development.

Funding requirements:

To fuel our ambitious growth plans and accelerate product development, we're seeking [funding amount] in funding. These funds will be allocated towards expanding our team, scaling our infrastructure, marketing efforts, and ongoing product innovation. We believe this investment will position us for success and solidify our market presence.

Conclusion:

In summary, [Company Name] is poised to disrupt the communications industry with our innovative solutions and customer-centric approach. We're ready to make a positive impact by empowering individuals and businesses to communicate effectively and effortlessly. Join us on this exciting journey as we redefine the future of communication. Together, we'll shape a connected world like never before.

Example 2: executive summary for a project proposal

[Project Name]

[Project Proposal Date]

Hello! We're thrilled to present our project proposal for [Project Name]. This executive summary will provide you with a high-level overview of the project, its objectives, and the value it brings.

Project overview:

Our project aims to [describe the project's purpose and scope]. It's a response to [identify the problem or opportunity] and has the potential to bring significant benefits to [stakeholders or target audience]. Through meticulous planning and execution, we're confident in our ability to achieve the desired outcomes.

Objectives:

The primary goal of our project is to [state the overarching objective]. In addition, we have specific objectives such as [list specific objectives]. By accomplishing these goals, we'll create a positive impact and drive meaningful change.

Our proposed approach for this project is based on a thorough analysis of the situation and best practices. We'll adopt a structured methodology that includes [describe the key project phases or activities]. This approach ensures efficient utilization of resources and maximizes project outcomes.

The benefits of this project are truly exciting. Through its implementation, we anticipate [describe the anticipated benefits or outcomes]. These benefits include [list specific benefits], which will have a lasting and positive effect on [stakeholders or target audience].

Implementation timeline:

We've devised a comprehensive timeline to guide the project from initiation to completion. The project is divided into distinct phases, with well-defined milestones and deliverables. Our timeline ensures that tasks are executed in a timely manner, allowing us to stay on track and deliver results.

Resource requirements:

To successfully execute this project, we've identified the key resources needed. This includes [list the resources required, such as human resources, technology, equipment, and funding]. We're confident in our ability to secure the necessary resources and allocate them effectively to ensure project success.

A project of this nature requires a well-planned budget. Based on our analysis, we've estimated the required funding to be [state the budget amount]. This budget encompasses all project-related costs and aligns with the anticipated benefits and outcomes.

Our project proposal is an exciting opportunity to address [the problem or opportunity] and create tangible value for [stakeholders or target audience]. With a clear vision, defined objectives, and a robust implementation plan, we're ready to embark on this journey. Join us as we bring this project to life and make a lasting impact. 

person-holding-one-sheet-executive-summary-example

Is an executive summary the same as a project plan?

While both are important components of project management and documentation , they serve different purposes and contain distinct information.

An executive summary, as discussed earlier, is a concise overview of a longer document or report. It provides a snapshot of the key points, findings, and recommendations. It focuses on high-level information and aims to provide an overview of the document's purpose, methodology, findings, and recommendations.

On the other hand, a project plan is a detailed document that outlines the specific activities, tasks, timelines, resources, and milestones associated with a project. It serves as a roadmap for project execution, providing a comprehensive understanding of how the project will be carried out.

A project plan typically includes objectives, scope, deliverables, schedule, budget, resource allocation, risk management, and communication strategies. It is intended for project team members, stakeholders, and those directly involved in the execution.

In summary, an executive summary offers a condensed overview of a document's key points, while a project plan provides a comprehensive and detailed roadmap for executing a project.

Executive summaries vs. abstracts

An executive summary is not the same as an abstract. Executive summaries focus on the main points of a proposal. They highlight when and why a reader should invest in the company or project.

An abstract, on the other hand, concentrates on what the business does and its marketing plan. It typically doesn’t include detailed information about finances.

While it is usually compelling, it’s less of an elevator pitch and more of a summary. The goal of an abstract is to inform, not to persuade. On the other hand, the goal of an executive summary is to give readers who are pressed for time just enough information that they’ll want to look further into your proposition.

When do you use an executive summary?

An executive summary is used in various situations where there is a need to present a condensed overview of a longer document or report. Here are some common instances when an executive summary is used:

  • Business proposals: When submitting a business proposal to potential investors, partners, or stakeholders, an executive summary is often included. It provides a concise overview of the proposal, highlighting the key aspects such as the business idea, market analysis, competitive advantage, financial projections, and recommended actions.
  • Reports and research studies: Lengthy reports or research studies often include an executive summary at the beginning. This allows decision-makers, executives, or other stakeholders to quickly understand the purpose, methodology, findings, and recommendations of the report without going through the entire document.
  • Project updates: During the course of a project, project managers may prepare executive summaries to provide updates to stakeholders or higher-level management. These summaries give a brief overview of the project's progress, achievements, challenges, and upcoming milestones.
  • Strategic plans: When developing strategic plans for an organization, an executive summary is often included to provide an overview of the plan's goals, objectives, strategies, and key initiatives. It allows executives and stakeholders to grasp the essence of the strategic plan and its implications without reading the entire document.
  • Funding requests: When seeking funding for a project or venture, an executive summary is commonly used as part of the funding proposal. It provides a succinct summary of the project, highlighting its significance, potential impact, financial requirements, and expected outcomes.

In general, an executive summary is used whenever there is a need to communicate the main points, findings, and recommendations of a document concisely and efficiently to individuals who may not have the time or inclination to read the entire content. It serves as a valuable tool for understanding and facilitates quick decision-making.

5 ways project managers can use executive summaries

Project managers can use executive summaries in various ways to effectively communicate project updates, status reports, or proposals to stakeholders and higher-level management. Here are some ways project managers can use executive summaries:

  • Project status updates: Project managers can provide regular executive summaries to stakeholders and management to communicate the current status of the project. The summary should include key achievements, milestones reached, challenges encountered, and any adjustments to the project plan. It allows stakeholders to quickly grasp the project's progress and make informed decisions or provide guidance as needed.
  • Project proposals: When pitching a project idea or seeking approval for a new project, project managers can prepare an executive summary to present the essential aspects of the project. The summary should outline the project's objectives, scope, anticipated benefits, resource requirements, estimated timeline, and potential risks. It helps decision-makers understand the project's value and make an informed choice about its initiation.
  • Project closure reports: At the end of a project, project managers can prepare an executive summary as part of the project closure report. The summary should highlight the project's overall success, key deliverables achieved, lessons learned, and recommendations for future projects. It provides a concise overview of the project's outcomes and acts as a valuable reference for future initiatives.
  • Steering committee meetings: When project managers present updates or seek guidance from a steering committee or governance board, an executive summary can be an effective tool. The summary should cover the important aspects of the project, such as progress, issues, risks, and upcoming milestones. It ensures that decision-makers are well-informed about the project's status and can provide relevant guidance or support.
  • Change requests: When submitting a change request for a project, project managers can include an executive summary to summarize the proposed change, its impact on the project, potential risks, and benefits. It helps stakeholders and decision-makers quickly assess the change request and make informed decisions about its implementation.

Using executive summaries, project managers can efficiently communicate project-related information to stakeholders, executives, and decision-makers. The summaries provide a concise overview of the project's status, proposals, or closure reports, allowing stakeholders to quickly understand the key points and take appropriate action.

When should you not use an executive summary?

While executive summaries are widely used in many situations, there are some cases where they may not be necessary or suitable. Here are a few scenarios where an executive summary may not be appropriate, along with alternative approaches:

  • Highly technical documents: If the document contains highly technical or specialized information that requires a detailed understanding, an executive summary alone may not be sufficient. In such cases, it is better to provide the complete document and supplement it with explanatory materials, presentations , or meetings where experts can explain and discuss the technical details.
  • Personal or creative writing: Executive summaries are typically used for informational or analytical documents. If the content is more personal in nature, such as a memoir, novel, or creative piece, an executive summary may not be relevant. Instead, focus on providing an engaging introduction or book blurb that entices readers and conveys the essence of the work.
  • Short documents: If the document itself is already concise and can be easily read in its entirety, an executive summary may be redundant. In these cases, it is more effective to present the complete document without an additional summary.
  • Interactive presentations: In situations where you can present information interactively, such as in meetings, workshops, or conferences, it may be more effective to engage the audience directly rather than relying solely on an executive summary. Use visual aids, demonstrations, discussions, and Q&A sessions to convey the necessary information and capture the audience's attention.

Final thoughts on writing a compelling executive summary

An executive summary isn’t the kitchen sink — it’s the bells and whistles. Geared toward busy decision-makers, these one-pagers communicate your case for action and proposed solutions. When it’s written well, your audience will walk away with an understanding of what needs to be done, why it needs to happen, and why they should help it move forward. 

But writing it well doesn’t just mean spell-checking. It means tailoring your communication to an influential, yet busy and distracted audience. To be effective, you’ll need to write your proposal with empathy and an understanding of what matters to them .

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How to Write an Executive Summary

Folder with a light bulb emerging from it. Represents summarizing your business as an executive summary from a larger document.

9 min. read

Updated December 13, 2023

An executive summary isn’t just the beginning of your business plan – it’s your opening act, your first chance to impress potential investors, banks, clients and other stakeholders.

An effective executive summary gives decision-makers critical information about your business instantly.

Creating an executive summary is more than just a writing exercise. It requires careful crafting and strategic thinking, as well as an ability to balance the needs to be both succinct and comprehensive.

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  • What is an executive summary?

The executive summary is a brief introduction and summary of your business plan. It introduces your business, the problem you solve, and what you’re asking from your readers. Anyone should be able to understand your business by simply reading this section of your plan.

While structurally it is the first chapter of your plan—you should write it last. Once you know the details of your business inside and out, you will be better prepared to write this section.

  • Why write an executive summary?

The business plan executive summary provides quick access to critical information from your more detailed business plan.

It is essential for informing anyone outside of your business. Many people—including investors and bankers—will only read your summary. Others will use it to decide if they should read the rest. For you, it is a snapshot of your business to reference when planning or revising your strategy.

Now if you’re writing a business plan solely for internal use you may not need an executive summary. However, some internal plans may necessitate writing an executive summary for assignment—such as for an annual operations plan or a strategic plan .

It takes some effort to do a good summary, so if you don’t have a business use in mind, don’t do it.

  • How long should it be?

Business plan executive summaries should be as short as possible. Your audience has limited time and attention and they want to quickly get the details of your business plan.

Try to keep your executive summary under two pages if possible, although it can be longer if absolutely necessary. If you have a one-page business plan, you can even use that as your executive summary.

What’s your biggest business challenge right now?

  • Executive summary outline

Two pages isn’t a ton of space to capture the full scope of your vision for the business. That means every sentence of your executive summary counts.

You will want to immediately capture the reader’s attention with a compelling introduction. Without getting too lengthy, present who you are as an organization, the problem you are seeking to solve, your skills, and why you are the best entity to solve the problem you’ve outlined.

It’s crucial to establish the need or problem your business is solving in a clear manner, in order to convince your audience that it must be addressed. Following that, recommend the solution and show its value. Be clear and firm in your recommendation, making sure to justify your cause and highlighting key reasons why your organization is the perfect fit for the solution you’re proposing. Finally, a strong conclusion is needed to reiterate the main points and wrap up the executive summary.

What to include in your executive summary

1. business overview.

A one-sentence description that explains what you do, why you do it, and how you do it.

Summarize the problem you’re solving in the market and reference any data that solidifies that there is a need.

3. Solution

Describe your product or service and how it addresses the problem you identified.

4. Target market

Who is your ideal customer? Describe who they are, how they’ll benefit, and why they’re an attainable customer base.

5. Competition

Who are your competitors? List out any primary competition as well as alternatives that your customers may consider. Include key details about their current offerings, promotions, and business strategy.

6. Your team

In your executive summary, outline your organizational structure and current team. List out brief explanations of who you and your team are, your qualifications, and what your function will be within the business. It may be valuable to also highlight any gaps in your team and how you intend to fill them. If you have potential partners or candidates in mind, briefly mention them and expand on their qualifications within your full business plan.

7. Financial summary

Highlight key aspects of your financial plan that address sales, expenses, and profitability. Try to keep these in chart or graph form to ensure the information is easy to consume and resonates visually.

8. Funding requirements

This section is only necessary if you’re seeking out funding or pitching to investors. Be sure to throw out your financing number and reasoning upfront, rather than hiding it later on in your plan. It helps investors understand your position, what you’re asking for, and how you’ll use it.

9. Milestones and traction

Add initial sales, pre-sales, newsletter sign-ups, or anything else that showcases customer interest. Outline what steps you’ve already taken to launch your business, the milestones you’ve hit, and your goals and milestones for the next month, six months, year, etc.

Executive summary vs introduction

A common mistake some people make when starting an executive summary outline is thinking it performs the same function as the introduction to their business plan. In fact, the two serve different purposes and contain different types of information, even though they are both essential.

As we’ve discussed, the executive summary is a high-level overview of the entire business plan. The introduction, by contrast, dives deeper into your business, providing information about the nature of your business, the history of your company, your mission statement, products or services, and the specific problem that your business solves.

The introduction is more detailed, and usually comes right after the executive summary.

On the other hand, the introduction gives investors or lenders – anyone reading your business plan – a sense of why they should continue reading. Think of it more as the space to tell stakeholders why you are speaking to them. An executive summary can also serve this purpose, but the introduction is meant to speak more directly to your target audience, while an executive summary could give a larger audience a general overview of your business.

Tips for writing an effective executive summary

Here are a few best practices to make writing your executive summary easier, and ultimately more effective. 

1. Think of an executive summary as your pitch

The executive summary is like an elevator pitch. You’re selling someone on reading your full plan while quickly summarizing the key points. Readers will expect it to cover certain areas of your business—such as the product, market, and financial highlights, at the very least.

While you need to include what’s necessary, you should also highlight areas that you believe will spark the reader’s interest. Remember, you’re telling the brief but convincing story of your business with this summary. Just be sure that you’re able to back it up with the right details with the rest of your business plan. 

2. Write it last

Even though the executive summary is at the beginning of a finished business plan, many experienced entrepreneurs choose to write it after everything else. In theory, this makes it easier to write since all of the information is already written out and just needs to be condensed into a shorter format. 

Now, if you’ve started with a one-page plan, this process is even easier. Just use your one-page plan as a starting point and add additional details to any sections that need it. You may even find that no changes are necessary.  

3. Keep it short

Ideally, the executive summary is short—usually just a page or two, five at the outside—and highlights the points you’ve made elsewhere in your business plan. Whatever length you land on, just focus on being brief and concise. Keep it as short as you can without missing the essentials. 

4. Keep it simple

Form follows function, so don’t overcomplicate or over-explain things. The best executive summaries are a mixture of short text, broken up with bullets and subheadings, and illustrations, such as a bar chart showing financial highlights. 

Run through a legibility test after writing your summary. Is it easy to skim through? Are the right pieces of information jumping out? If the answer to either of those questions is no, then work back through and try breaking up information or adjusting the formatting.

5. Create an executive summary outline based on importance and strengths

Organize your executive summary outline so that the most important information appears first. While there are specific components to include, there is no set order of appearance. So, use the order to show emphasis.

Lead with what you want to get the most attention, and add the rest by order of importance. For example, you may start with the problem because that can add drama and urgency that tees up the solution you provide.

Additional resources to write a great executive summary

Need more information and guidance to craft a convincing executive summary? Check out these in-depth resources and templates.

Key mistakes to avoid when writing an executive summary

Here are the critical mistakes you should avoid when writing your executive summary.

How to write your executive summary for specific audiences

The executive summary should tell your audience exactly what your business is, what it does, and why it’s worth their time. Here’s how you can take it a step further and fine-tune it for specific people.

How to develop a mission statement

Learn to put a heart behind the business and create an easy-to-understand narrative by writing a mission statement.

Executive Summary FAQ

What is in an executive summary?

The executive summary of a business plan is a brief introduction and summary of your business strategy, operations, and goals.

What is the purpose of an executive summary?

An executive summary is typically written to convince someone to read your more detailed plan. For investors, it may be the only thing they look at when deciding if they’d like to hear your pitch. Loan officers may review it to determine if your business seems financially sound. And partners, mentors, or anyone else may use it to determine if they want to be involved with your business.

How do you start an executive summary?

While there is no required order for an executive summary, it’s often recommended that you lead with the problem you’re solving or the purpose of your business. This will help frame your intent for the reader, and ideally make them more interested in learning more.

How do you write a good executive summary?

A good executive summary is brief, convincing, and easy to read. Focus on keeping things short and concise, only including necessary information. Be sure to lead and highlight anything that is especially interesting or important about your business. And after writing, spend some time reviewing and reformatting to make your summary as attractive to read as possible.

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Content Author: Tim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

executive summary for a business plan

Table of Contents

  • What to include
  • Writing tips
  • Additional resources

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How to Write an Executive Summary (Example & Template Included)

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Here’s the good news: an executive summary is short. It’s part of a larger document like a business plan, business case or project proposal and, as the name implies, summarizes the longer report.

Here’s the bad news: it’s a critical document that can be challenging to write because an executive summary serves several important purposes. On one hand, executive summaries are used to outline each section of your business plan, an investment proposal or project proposal. On the other hand, they’re used to introduce your business or project to investors and other stakeholders, so they must be persuasive to spark their interest.

Writing an Executive Summary

The pressure of writing an executive summary comes from the fact that everyone will pay attention to it, as it sits at the top of that heap of documents. It explains all that follows and can make or break your business plan or project plan . The executive summary must know the needs of the potential clients or investors and zero in on them like a laser. Fortunately, we’ll show you how to write and format your executive summary to do just that.

Getting everything organized for your executive summary can be challenging. ProjectManager can help you get your thoughts in order and collaborate with your team. Our powerful task management tools make it easy to get everything prioritized and done on time. Try it free today.

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What Is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary is a short section of a larger document like a business plan , investment proposal or project proposal. It’s mostly used to give investors and stakeholders a quick overview of important information about a business plan like the company description, market analysis and financial information.

It contains a short statement that addresses the problem or proposal detailed in the attached documents and features background information, a concise analysis and a conclusion. An executive summary is designed to help executives and investors decide whether to go forth with the proposal, making it critically important. Pitch decks are often used along with executive summaries to talk about the benefits and main selling points of a business plan or project.

Unlike an abstract, which is a short overview, an executive summary format is a condensed form of the documents contained in the proposal. Abstracts are more commonly used in academic and research-oriented writing and act as a teaser for the reader to see if they want to read on.

executive summary for a business plan

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Executive Summary Template

Use this free Executive Summary Template for Word to manage your projects better.

How to Write an Executive Summary

Executive summaries vary depending on the document they’re attached to. You can write an executive summary for a business plan, project proposal, research document, or business case, among other documents and reports.

However, when writing an executive summary, there are guidelines to ensure you hit all the bases.

Executive Summary Length

According to the many books that have been written about executive summaries, as well as training courses, seminars and professional speakers, the agreed-upon length for an executive summary format should be about five to 10 percent of the length of the whole report.

Appropriate Language

The language used should be appropriate for the target audience. One of the most important things to know before you write professionally is to understand who you’re addressing. If you’re writing for a group of engineers, the language you’ll use will differ greatly from how you would write to a group of financiers.

That includes more than just the words, but the content and depth of explanation. Remember, it’s a summary, and people will be reading it to quickly and easily pull out the main points.

Pithy Introduction

You also want to capture a reader’s attention immediately in the opening paragraph. Just like a speech often opens with a joke to break the tension and put people at ease, a strong introductory paragraph can pull a reader in and make them want to read on. That doesn’t mean you start with a joke. Stick to your strengths, but remember, most readers only give you a few sentences to win them over before they move on.

Don’t forget to explain who you are as an organization and why you have the skills, personnel and experience to solve the problem raised in the proposal. This doesn’t have to be a lengthy biography, often just your name, address and contact information will do, though you’ll also want to highlight your strengths as they pertain to the business plan or project proposal .

Relevant Information

The executive summary shouldn’t stray from the material that follows it. It’s a summary, not a place to bring up new ideas. To do so would be confusing and would jeopardize your whole proposal.

Establish the need or the problem, and convince the target audience that it must be solved. Once that’s set up, it’s important to recommend the solution and show what the value is. Be clear and firm in your recommendation.

Justify your cause. Be sure to note the key reasons why your organization is the perfect fit for the solution you’re proposing. This is the point where you differentiate yourself from competitors, be that due to methodology, testimonials from satisfied clients or whatever else you offer that’s unique. But don’t make this too much about you. Be sure to keep the name of the potential client at the forefront.

Don’t neglect a strong conclusion, where you can wrap things up and once more highlight the main points.

Related: 10 Essential Excel Report Templates

What to Include in an Executive Summary

The content of your executive summary must reflect what’s in the larger document which it is part of. You’ll find many executive summary examples on the web, but to keep things simple, we’ll focus on business plans and project proposals.

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

As we’ve learned above, your executive summary must extract the main points of all the sections of your business plan. A business plan is a document that describes all the aspects of a business, such as its business model, products or services, objectives and marketing plan , among other things. They’re commonly used by startups to pitch their ideas to investors.

Here are the most commonly used business plan sections:

  • Company description: Provide a brief background of your company, such as when it was established, its mission, vision and core values.
  • Products & services: Describe the products or services your company will provide to its customers.
  • Organization and management: Explain the legal structure of your business and the members of the top management team.
  • SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis explains the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business. They describe the internal and external factors that impact your business competitiveness.
  • Industry & market analysis: This section should provide an overview of the industry and market in which your business will compete.
  • Operations: Explain the main aspects of your business operations and what sets it apart from competitors.
  • Marketing plan: Your marketing plan describes the various strategies that your business will use to reach its customers and sell products or services.
  • Financial planning: Here, you should provide an overview of the financial state of your business. Include income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements.
  • Funding request: If you’re creating your business plan to request funding, make sure to explain what type of funding you need, the timeframe for your funding request and an explanation of how the funds will be used.

We’ve created an executive summary example to help you better understand how this document works when using it, to sum up a business plan.

To put all of that information together, here’s the basic format of an executive summary. You can find this same information in our free executive summary template :

  • Introduction, be sure to know your audience
  • Table of contents in the form of a bulleted list
  • Explain the company’s role and identify strengths
  • Explain the need, or the problem, and its importance
  • Recommend a solution and explain its value
  • Justify said solution by explaining how it fits the organization
  • A strong conclusion that once more wraps up the importance of the project

You can use it as an executive summary example and add or remove some of its elements to adjust it to your needs. Our sample executive summary has the main elements that you’ll need project executive summary.

Executive summary template for Word

Executive Summary Example

For this executive summary example, we’ll imagine a company named ABC Clothing, a small business that manufactures eco-friendly clothing products and it’s preparing a business plan to secure funding from new investors.

Company Description We are ABC Clothing, an environmentally-friendly manufacturer of apparel. We’ve developed a unique method of production and sourcing of materials that allows us to create eco-friendly products at a low cost . We have intellectual property for our production processes and materials, which gives us an advantage in the market.

  • Mission: Our mission is to use recycled materials and sustainable methods of production to create clothing products that are great for our customers and our planet.
  • Vision: Becoming a leader in the apparel industry while generating a positive impact on the environment.

Products & Services We offer high-quality clothing products for men, women and all genders. (Here you should include pictures of your product portfolio to spark the interest of your readers)

Industry & Market Analysis Even though the fashion industry’s year-over-year growth has been affected by pandemics in recent years, the global apparel market is expected to continue growing at a steady pace. In addition, the market share of sustainable apparel has grown year-over-year at a higher pace than the overall fashion industry.

Marketing Plan Our marketing plan relies on the use of digital marketing strategies and online sales, which gives us a competitive advantage over traditional retailers that focus their marketing efforts on brick-and-mortar stores.

Operations Our production plant is able to recycle different types of plastic and cotton waste to turn it into materials that we use to manufacture our products . We’ve partnered with a transportation company that sorts and distributes our products inside the United States efficiently and cost-effectively.

Financial Planning Our business is profitable, as documented in our balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. The company doesn’t have any significant debt that might compromise its continuity. These and other financial factors make it a healthy investment.

Funding Request We’re requesting funding for the expansion of our production capacity, which will allow us to increase our production output in order to meet our increasing customer demand, enter new markets, reduce our costs and improve our competitiveness.

If you’d like to see more executive summary examples for your business plan, you can visit the U.S. small business administration website. They have business plans with executive summary examples you can download and use.

Executive summaries are also a great way to outline the elements of a project plan for a project proposal. Let’s learn what those elements are.

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Project Proposal

An executive summary for your project proposal will capture the most important information from your project management plan. Here’s the structure of our executive summary template:

  • Introduction: What’s the purpose of your project?
  • Company description: Show why you’re the right team to take on the project.
  • Need/problem: What is the problem that it’s solving?
  • Unique solution: What is your value proposition and what are the main selling points of your project?
  • Proof: Evidence, research and feasibility studies that support how your company can solve the issue.
  • Resources: Outline the resources needed for the project
  • Return on investment/funding request: Explain the profitability of your project and what’s in for the investors.
  • Competition/market analysis: What’s your target market? Who are your competitors? How does your company differentiate from them?
  • Marketing plan: Create a marketing plan that describes your company’s marketing strategies, sales and partnership plans.
  • Budget/financial planning: What’s the budget that you need for your project plan?
  • Timeline: What’s the estimated timeline to complete the project?
  • Team: Who are the project team members and why are they qualified?
  • Conclusions:  What are the project takeaways?

Now that we’ve learned that executive summaries can vary depending on the type of document you’re working on, you’re ready for the next step.

What to Do After Writing an Executive Summary

As with anything you write, you should always start with a draft. The first draft should hit all the marks addressed above but don’t bog yourself down in making the prose perfect. Think of the first draft as an exploratory mission. You’re gathering all the pertinent information.

Next, you want to thoroughly review the document to ensure that nothing important has been left out or missed. Make sure the focus is sharp and clear, and that it speaks directly to your potential client’s needs.

Proofread for Style & Grammar

But don’t neglect the writing. Be sure that you’re not repeating words, falling into cliché or other hallmarks of bad writing. You don’t want to bore the reader to the point that they miss the reason why you’re the organization that can help them succeed.

You’ve checked the content and the prose, but don’t forget the style. You want to write in a way that’s natural and not overly formal, but one that speaks in the manner of your target audience . If they’re a conservative firm, well then, maybe formality is called for. But more and more modern companies have a casual corporate culture, and formal writing could mistakenly cause them to think of you as old and outdated.

The last run should be proofing the copy. That means double-checking to ensure that spelling is correct, and there are no typos or grammatical mistakes. Whoever wrote the executive summary isn’t the best person to edit it, however. They can easily gloss over errors because of their familiarity with the work. Find someone who excels at copy-editing. If you deliver sloppy content, it shows a lack of professionalism that’ll surely color how a reader thinks of your company.

Criticism of Executive Summaries

While we’re advocating for the proper use of an executive summary, it’d be neglectful to avoid mentioning some critiques. The most common is that an executive summary by design is too simple to capture the complexity of a large and complicated project.

It’s true that many executives might only read the summary, and in so doing, miss the nuance of the proposal. That’s a risk. But if the executive summary follows the guidelines stated above, it should give a full picture of the proposal and create interest for the reader to delve deeper into the documents to get the details.

Remember, executive summaries can be written poorly or well. They can fail to focus on results or the solution to the proposal’s problem or do so in a vague, general way that has no impact on the reader. You can do a hundred things wrong, but if you follow the rules, then the onus falls on the reader.

ProjectManager Turns an Executive Summary Into a Project

Your executive summary got the project approved. Now the real work begins. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that helps you organize tasks, projects and teams. We have everything you need to manage each phase of your project, so you can complete your work on time and under budget.

Work How You Want

Because project managers and teams work differently, our software is flexible. We have multiple project views, such as the kanban board, which visualizes workflow. Managers like the transparency it provides in the production cycle, while teams get to focus only on those tasks they have the capacity to complete. Are you more comfortable with tasks lists or Gantt charts? We have those, too.

A screenshot of the Kanban board project view

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To ensure your project meets time and cost expectations, we have features that monitor and track progress so you can control any deviations that might occur. Our software is cloud-based, so the data you see on our dashboard is always up to date, helping you make better decisions. Make that executive summary a reality with ProjectManager.

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5 Steps for Writing an Executive Summary

Table of contents.

executive summary for a business plan

Anyone starting a new business must create a business plan that clearly outlines the organization’s details and goals. The executive summary is a crucial element of that business plan.

We’ll explore five steps to writing your business plan’s executive summary, including what to include and avoid. We’ll also point you toward executive summary templates to help you get started. 

What is an executive summary?

New entrepreneurs or business owners typically use a business plan to present their great business idea to potential stakeholders like angel investors . The purpose of the business plan is to attract financing from investors or convince banking executives to get a bank loan for their business . An executive summary is a business plan overview that succinctly highlights its most essential elements. 

It’s not just a general outline; the executive summary might be the only part of your business plan that busy executives and potential investors read. 

“The executive summary of a business plan is designed to capture the reader’s attention and briefly explain your business, the problem you are solving, the target audience, and key financial information,” Ross Kimbarovsky, CEO and founder of Crowdspring, told Business News Daily. “If the executive summary lacks specific information or does not capture the attention of the reader, the rest of the plan might not be read.”

While your executive summary should be engaging and comprehensive, it must also be quick and easy to read. These documents average one to four pages – ideally, under two pages – and should comprise less than 10% of your entire business plan.

Along with an executive summary, a business plan will include your business’s legal structure , the products and services you sell, and a financial plan with sales forecasts .

How do you write an executive summary?

Your executive summary will be unique to your organization and business plan. However, most entrepreneurs and business owners take the following five steps when creating their executive summary.

  • Write your business plan first. The executive summary will briefly cover the most essential topics your business plan covers. For this reason, you should write the entire business plan first, and then create your executive summary. The executive summary should only cover facts and details included in the business plan.
  • Write an engaging introduction. What constitutes “engaging” depends on your audience. For example, if you’re in the tech industry, your introduction may include a surprising tech trend or brief story. The introduction must be relevant to your business and capture your audience’s attention. It is also crucial to identify your business plan’s objective and what the reader can expect to find in the document.
  • Write the executive summary. Go through your business plan and identify critical points to include in your executive summary. Touch on each business plan key point concisely but comprehensively. You may mention your marketing plan , target audience, company description, management team, and more. Readers should be able to understand your business plan without reading the rest of the document. Ideally, the summary will be engaging enough to convince them to finish the document, but they should be able to understand your basic plan from your summary. (We’ll detail what to include in the executive summary in the next section.)
  • Edit and organize your document. Organize your executive summary to flow with your business plan’s contents, placing the most critical components at the beginning. A bulleted list is helpful for drawing attention to your main points. Double-check the document for accuracy and clarity. Remove buzzwords, repetitive information, qualifying words, jargon, passive language and unsupported claims. Verify that your executive summary can act as a standalone document if needed.
  • Seek outside assistance. Since most entrepreneurs aren’t writing experts, have a professional writer or editor look over your document to ensure it flows smoothly and covers the points you’re trying to convey.

What should you include in an executive summary?

Your executive summary is based on your business plan and should include details relevant to your reader. For example, if your business plan’s goal is pitching a business idea to potential investors , you should emphasize your financial requirements and how you will use the funding. 

The type of language you use depends on whether your audience consists of generalists or industry experts.

While executive summary specifics will vary by company, Marius Thauland, business strategist at OMD EMEA, says all executive summaries should include a few critical elements:

  • Target audience
  • Products and services
  • Marketing and sales strategies
  • Competitive analysis
  • Funding and budget allocation for the processes and operations
  • Number of employees to be hired and involved
  • How you’ll implement the business plan 

When synthesizing each section, highlight the details most relevant to your reader. Include any facts and statistics they must know. In your introduction, present pertinent company information and clearly state the business plan’s objective. To pinpoint key messages for your executive summary, ask yourself the following questions: 

  • What do you want the reader to take away from the document? 
  • What do you want to happen after they read it? 

“Put yourself in the business plan reader’s shoes, and think about what you would like to know in the report,” Thauland advised. “Get their attention by making it simple and brief yet still professional. It should also attract them to read the entire document to understand even the minute details.”

If securing financing is your priority, read our reviews of the best business loans to compare options.

What should you avoid in an executive summary?

When writing your executive summary, be aware of the following common mistakes: 

  • Making your executive summary too long. An executive summary longer than two pages will deter some readers. You’re likely dealing with busy executives, and an overlong stretch of text can overwhelm them.
  • Copying and pasting from other executive summary sections. Reusing phrases from other sections and stringing them together without context can seem confusing and sloppy. It’s also off-putting to read the same exact phrase twice within the same document. Instead, summarize your business plan’s central points in new, descriptive language.
  • Too many lists and subheadings in your executive summary. After one – and only one – introductory set of bullets, recap your business plan’s main points in paragraph form without subheadings. Concision and clarity are more important for an executive summary than formatting tricks.
  • Passive or unclear language in your executive summary. You’re taking the reins of your business, and your executive summary should show that. Use active voice in your writing so everyone knows you’re running the show. Be as clear as possible in your language, leaving no questions about what your business will do and how it will get there.
  • Avoid general descriptions in your executive summary. Kimbarovsky said it’s best to avoid generalities in your executive summary. For example, there’s no need to include a line about “your team’s passion for hard work.” This information is a given and will take attention away from your executive summary’s critical details.
  • Don’t use comparisons in your executive summary. Kimbarovsky also advises staying away from comparisons to other businesses in your executive summary. “Don’t say you will be the next Facebook, Uber or Amazon,” said Kimbarovsky. “Amateurs make this comparison to try and show how valuable their company could be. Instead, focus on providing the actual facts that you believe prove you have a strong company. It’s better if the investor gives you this accolade because they see the opportunity.”

When you’re starting a new business, the first people you should hire include a product manager, chief technology officer (CTO) , chief marketing officer and chief financial officer.

Executive summary templates and resources

If you’re writing an executive summary for the first time, online templates can help you outline your document. However, your business is unique, and your executive summary should reflect that. An online template probably won’t cover every detail you’ll need in your executive summary. Experts recommend using templates as general guidelines and tailoring them to fit your business plan and executive summary.

To get you started, here are some popular executive summary template resources:

  • FormSwift. The FormSwift website lets you create and edit documents and gives you access to over 500 templates. It details what an effective executive summary includes and provides a form builder to help you create your executive summary. Fill out a step-by-step questionnaire and export your finished document via PDF or Word.
  • Smartsheet. The Smartsheet cloud-based platform makes planning, managing and reporting on projects easier for teams and organizations. It offers several free downloadable executive summary templates for business plans, startups, proposals, research reports and construction projects.
  • Template.net. The Template.net website provides several free business templates, including nine free executive summary templates that vary by project (e.g., business plan, startup, housing program development, proposal or marketing plan). Print out the templates and fill in your relevant details.
  • TemplateLab. The TemplateLab website is a one-stop shop for new business owners seeking various downloadable templates for analytics, finance, HR, marketing, operations, project management, and time management. You’ll find over 30 free executive summary templates and examples.
  • Vertex42. The Vertex42 website offers Excel templates for executive summaries on budgets, invoices, project management and timesheets, as well as Word templates for legal forms, resumes and letters. This site also provides extensive information on executive summaries and a free executive summary template you can download into Word or Google Docs.

Summing it all up

Your executive summary should preview your business plan in, at most, two pages. Wait until your business plan is complete to write your executive summary, and seek outside help as necessary. A thorough, engaging business plan and executive summary are well worth the time and money you put into them. 

Max Freedman contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

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How to Write a Great Executive Summary in a Business Plan

Executive Summary Template

Free Executive Summary Template

  • March 2, 2024

10 Min Read

executive summary

We all know that pursuing investors for funding or entrepreneurs for partnership is a challenging task. But an engaging executive summary makes it easy for you.

A well-written executive summary acts as the first impression in convincing your readers of anything related to your business.

But the question is how to write one!

See, include all the sections in the summary, highlight all the main points of the business plan, keep the language simple & clear, and voila, you will have a nice executive summary.

But if you want to know more about how to write an engaging executive summary in a business plan with all the tips, then hop on, let’s begin.

What is an executive summary in a business plan?

An executive summary is a concise and compelling overview of the whole business plan. It includes and highlights all the key points of the plan as an introduction.

It should be clear, well-structured, and engaging, prompting the reader to want to learn more. It also should provide enough information to convey the business plan’s purpose.

Simply put, it is an outline of the business plan. And it helps readers to understand your business before making any decision.

Purpose of an executive summary

An Executive summary is one of the core parts of the business plan, and it has many purposes instead of just being a section, let’s see:

Concise overview

An executive summary is a short version of your business plan. Since not everyone has time to read the full plan, a well-crafted summary gives investors a quick overview of your business, helping them make decisions right there and then.

Decision-making

Executive summary plays a crucial role in the decision-making journey. As it presents all the facts and key findings of the business concisely, it helps decision-makers get a quick overview in no time. This way, readers do not have that fear of not making an informed decision.

Accessibility

An executive summary makes a document more accessible to a wider audience. Those who are not an expert in understanding all the technicalities of the plan can get the gist of the entire business plan by reading an executive summary.

Now that you know the importance of writing an executive summary, let us move forward with the topic of how to actually write one.

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executive summary for a business plan

How to write an executive summary for a business plan

1. introduce the purpose.

First things first, let your readers know what is this all about—meaning what your document is all about and which business you are doing.

Then introduce the purpose your business plan is going to address. This way you are setting the base of your business plan, giving a clear idea to the readers about why this document is important.

2. Give the company description

Here, briefly describe your company. It includes things like business name, location, owners, company history, and other such things of the business that matter.

If you are just starting up, then focus on the qualifications and responsibilities of your team members.

Highlight any key milestones or achievements demonstrating your company’s growth and success. This section should give readers a clear understanding of what your company does, why it exists, and how it has evolved.

3. State the problem and how will you solve it

Mention the problem in the market first that your product or service will help solve. This will make your readers confident about your market research and your offerings.

Then showcase the innovative solution your business will offer. Highlight the unique value proposition of your business along with it. Also, mention how your product or service is a market fit and has demand in the industry.

4. Outline market analysis

Once you have defined the problem and solution, it is time to mention the market landscape for your business. It should include the market size, expected growth, target market, and all other demographics.

Also, highlight your competitive advantage here. And mention the market share you are going to capture.

5. Define your business model

In this section, mention how your business earns the revenue and how it works. It sets a clear picture of how your company will make a profit and cover the costs.

This information is necessary for investors, so make sure to present it engagingly and realistically.

6. Give an overview of your marketing and sales strategies

Once you start the business, one of the most important things investors would want to know is how will you attract customers. Therefore, this section is all about what strategies you will implement to bring in new customers and how your business will retain them.

It includes the brand message, logo, marketing medium, and all other tools you have for marketing. Apart from that, it also showcases the seriousness of reaching the sales goal of your business.

7. Mention the team you hired or will hire

Provide an overview of the organizational structure and current team. Introduce yourself and your team members, along with their qualifications and roles in the firm.

Also, identify any gaps and the needs of other employees in the business. In short, this section gives readers a clear understanding of your team’s capabilities and how you plan to leverage their skills for the success of your business.

8. Mention your financial summary

In this part, you outline your company’s current brief financial summary and future projections. It includes annual revenue, sales and expenses, and milestones for the coming years.

For existing companies, former years’ revenue and sales numbers can act as evidence to support forecasts. For startups, it is suggested to include all the costs as it will help investors to know completely about the financial picture of your company before making any decision.

9. Funding requirement

If you are preparing your business plan’s executive summary for seeking funding, then make sure to include this section. Make sure what you include in this section and what you ask practically.

Some of the questions you need to answer in this section are:

  • How much funding do you need in total?
  • How much have you already secured?
  • How much are you seeking from the current readers?
  • Where are you going to use this funding?
  • How much will this funding impact your business?

Answering these questions will help investors get a quick look at your funding requirements without having to wait till the end of your business plan. This saves time and is more efficient.

How long should an executive summary be?

Before you write an executive summary, this question might have occurred to you a lot more times what is the ideal length of a summary, right? Worry not, let’s discuss the length here.

Keep your executive summary as short as possible, because your audience has limited time and attention span.

Generally, executive summaries are 1-2 pages long, but you can exceed this norm if necessary. However, it is necessary to consider the length of the business plan too before you finalize the length of the executive summary.

The key over here is to get the reader’s attention and highlight all the essential points of a detailed business plan.

Tips for writing an effective executive summary

Understand your audience.

Before writing the summary, you need to first know and understand your audience. Consider their background, knowledge level, and expectations to ensure that the summary matches their expectations.

Keep it as an elevator pitch

Remember, executive summaries are like elevator pitches. You’re selling your business just by reading the focus points only.

Perhaps readers would want to know every aspect of your business, and with a well-written summary, they can have the essence of the business in no time.

Keep it short and sweet

Ideally, a great executive summary is about a page or two. Whatever length seems ideal to you, make sure to make it a brief and not a detailed one. Keep it as short as you can without missing the needed part.

Prefer to write it last

Though being the first sections, entrepreneurs generally choose to write the executive summary at the end, till then, they have a thorough knowledge of the entire plan.

And it is easier to write the summary after having all the focus points to write about. So, prefer writing the summary in the end.

Use a structured format and highlight the main points first

You have to present your summary in an organized structure, though change the order as per the importance. You can highlight the main things first and then gradually go to the financial plan. In short, in skim reading, your audience should get the crux.

Example of a business plan executive summary

Business Name: Elegance Bistro Location: Queens, New York Type of Business: Restaurant

Elegance Bistro is a new upscale dining establishment located in the vibrant borough of Queens, New York. Our mission is to provide an elegant and unforgettable dining experience, combining exceptional service with a curated menu of gourmet dishes inspired by global cuisine.

Despite the diverse culinary scene in Queens, there is a lack of upscale dining options that offer a refined ambiance and high-quality cuisine. Residents and visitors seeking an upscale dining experience often have to travel to Manhattan, leading to a gap in the market that Elegance Bistro aims to fill.

Elegance Bistro will provide a sophisticated dining experience that showcases the rich diversity of flavors and ingredients found in global cuisine. Our menu will feature a selection of expertly crafted dishes made from locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, ensuring freshness and quality in every bite.

Market Analysis

Queens is a thriving culinary destination, known for its diverse population and vibrant food scene. With a growing number of residents and tourists seeking unique dining experiences, there is a significant opportunity for a high-end restaurant like Elegance Bistro to attract a discerning clientele. There is a competition for the same, but our dining experience with appealing ambiance stands out from all.

Our curated menu includes all the culinary dishes that are popular among New Yorkers and tourists.

Our mission at Elegance Bistro is to elevate the dining experience in Queens by offering exceptional cuisine, impeccable service, and a warm, inviting atmosphere that celebrates the art of dining.

Financial Position

Based on our market research and projected sales, we anticipate generating annual revenues of $1.5 million in our first year of operation, with a net profit margin of 15%. Our startup costs are estimated at $500,000, which will be primarily used for leasehold improvements, kitchen equipment, and initial marketing efforts.

Funding Requirement

To fund our startup costs and initial operating expenses, we are seeking a total investment of $750,000. This will allow us to launch Elegance Bistro successfully and establish a strong presence in the Queens dining scene.

So, finally, you know what it takes to write an engaging executive summary. We hope this has been helpful to you in your writing journey.

If you are still confused or don’t know where to start, then you can always rely on good business plan software like Upmetrics. It will provide you with step-by-step guidance, so you don’t have to roam to and fro for the next step.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is executive summary first in the business plan.

Yes, an executive summary is the first chapter of the business plan. Yet, people prefer to write it at the last, after having the full knowledge of the whole business plan.

What writing style should I use?

An executive summary serves as the introduction to the business plan. So, ideally, it should be in a professional tone. However, whichever writing style you choose, make sure it is clear, concise, engaging, and maintains professionalism. 

What are the key elements of an effective executive summary?

Key elements of an effective executive summary are:

  • Introduction
  • Problem statement
  • Market analysis
  • Value proposition
  • Business model
  • Financial Overview
  • Implementation plan
  • Call to action

By including these key elements in your executive summary, you can effectively communicate the key points of your business and make a strong impression on your audience.

What is the best format for an executive summary?

The best format for an executive summary is one that is clear, concise, and well-organized.

It should provide a brief overview of the main points of the document, including the purpose, problem & solution, market analysis, unique value proposition, business model, financial position, team, milestones, funding requirements, and call to action.

The format should be easy to read and understand, with headings and subheadings to break up the text.

When should I update my executive summary?

You should update your executive summary whenever any necessary changes to your business impact the information in the summary.

If there are no frequent changes, then you should change your executive summary at least once in a quarter, two quarters, or a year.

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Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

When you’re starting a business, one of the most important documents you’ll need to create is a business plan. A well-written business plan can help you secure funding from investors, convince suppliers to do business with you, and give you a roadmap for how your business will grow.

Wondering how to develop a good business plan ? In addition to all of the usual sections–like your company overview, products and services, market analysis, and financial projections–you also need to write an executive summary. The executive summary will decide whether potential investors will read the next sections of your business plan, which is why it’s the most crucial part of your proposal. 

In this article, we’ll discuss what an executive summary is, tips for writing a good one, and the mistakes you should avoid at all costs. 

What Is an Executive Summary, and Why Do You Need One?

An executive summary is a brief, yet comprehensive overview of your business plan. It should touch on all of the key points of your business, and then convince the reader to keep reading.

You can think of it as a preview of what’s to come, written in a concise, easy-to-understand format that describes your company goals, objectives, and projected financial impact. Although all sections of your business plan are important, the executive summary is critical because investors will base their decision on whether or not to read the rest of your proposal on how well you write it.

What’s more, if you’re writing for potential investors, they might even turn down a well-written business plan that doesn’t include an executive summary, which is why it might be a good idea to invest in a dedicated freelance business plan writer .

How to Write an Executive Summary for Your Business Plan

Now that you know why an executive summary is important, it’s time to learn how to write one–but before you set out to write an executive summary, make sure you’re clear about what a business plan is and why it’s important . 

With that being said, here are a few tips to help you write your summary: 

1. Start With a Bang

When readers see the first sentence of your executive summary, they should be hooked immediately. This means that you need to start with a strong opening that will grab their attention and keep them reading.

2. Explain Your Business in Detail

Your executive summary should provide a detailed overview of your entire business plan, including its core ideas and projected financial impact. This means that you need to describe all aspects of your company in enough detail so that readers can easily understand what it is and how it will succeed.

3. Back Up Your Claims With Data

When you’re writing an executive summary, it’s important to back up all of your claims with relevant data and statistics. This can include things like market research or financial projections, which will help illustrate the potential value of your business.

4. Use Persuasive Language

An executive summary is not the time to be shy–you need to use persuasive language that will convince readers to invest in your business. This means using strong verbs and making bold statements about your company’s potential.

5. Keep It Short and Sweet

Although you want to include all of the important details about your business in your executive summary, you also need to keep it concise. Aim for no more than two or three pages, and use clear, direct language.

6. Include a Call to Action

Your executive summary should end with a strong call to action that encourages readers to learn more about your business. This can be something as simple as inviting them to read the next sections of your business plan, or a suggestion to get in touch with you for more information.

What Are the Mistakes to Avoid When Writing an Executive Summary?

Just as there are steps you can take to write a strong executive summary, there are also mistakes that you should avoid at all costs. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Don’t be vague or overly general . Your executive summary should be detailed and specific, not just a vague overview of your business.
  • Don’t include anything that isn’t relevant to your goals as a company . An executive summary is meant to highlight the most important aspects of your business, so save the details for later sections.
  • Don’t be afraid to make bold claims . When you’re writing an executive summary, it’s okay to be confident and assertive in your language. Just remember to back up your statements with data and statistics.
  • Don’t forget to proofread . Once you’ve finished writing your executive summary, be sure to proofread it carefully for any errors or typos. This is not the time to skimp on quality and may be another reason to hire a professional business plan writer.

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What is an executive summary in a business plan?

Including an executive summary in your business plan can grab attention and help communicate key information quickly.

A business plan written up in a notebook

What is a business plan?

A business plan is the blueprint for how your business will run. It describes your product or service, identifies your customer and the problem they face, and explains how you’ll succeed in fixing that for them.

Your business plan also helps other people understand what you do and how you do it. Groups like banks and investors will want to see your business plan before deciding to put money into your business, for example. Your accountant should also be able to easily understand what your business idea is and how you’ll make money from it.

It’s a living document that can help you clarify your ideas and maintain a clear direction as you grow. It shouldn’t be just a one-off document – you can return to it at any time and add to it or change it as your business changes.

Looking for help to build your business plan? Download our free business plan templates to get started.

The executive summary is the elevator pitch for the rest of your business plan. Use it to highlight what you do, why you do it and how you’ll succeed.

It’s often the first section that a person will read in your business plan, so this is your opportunity to "sell" your idea and its potential for success.

It should explain enough that a reader could understand the key information about your business without having to read the whole document – this is especially helpful for readers who are pushed for time. However, a compelling executive summary will also grab someone’s attention enough to make them want to keep reading.

While it’s a helpful section for rushed readers, you may feel an executive summary isn’t absolutely necessary just yet. Think about your audience and the complexity of your business plan when weighing up the benefit of having an executive summary.

How does an executive summary differ from a mission statement or business objective?

A mission statement outlines the overall purpose and vision of your business, and a business objective is a specific goal or target you’ll aim for to help you achieve that vision.

The executive summary could include both your mission statement and business objectives. However, it should ultimately be a high-level overview of your whole business plan.

What to include in an executive summary

Treat your executive summary as the one and only section someone may read in your business plan. What must they know in order to understand your business?

Pull the key high-level information from other parts of your business plan, including:

  • what your business does and why you do it
  • your mission statement, if you have one
  • your target customers, the problem they face and how you solve it for them
  • the product or service you’re selling
  • any key information from competitor or market research that helps tell your story
  • a schedule to launch, or steps to implement your business plan

If you’re approaching lenders or investors for financing, include key financial information and your plans for growth in your executive summary too.

How to write an executive summary

It’s a good idea to fill in the other sections of your business plan first, before deciding what goes in an executive summary. This way, you have complete information for you to draw from.

Aim to summarize the key sections of your business plan in a few sentences using plain language that’s easy to understand. Include any important data or information that backs up your ideas, and leave out personal opinions.

Beware of copying and pasting information from other parts of your plan; the executive summary should be as specific and concise as possible. An executive summary that’s too general, or padded with unnecessary detail might lose the reader’s interest.

Think about who will read your business plan, and what they’ll be interested in. For example, if you want to connect with lenders or investors, promote the size of the opportunity for your business, and how much money you’ll need to make it a success.

There’s no strict rule about length, but it should remain clear and engaging the whole way through. Keeping to one page is a good general guide to maintain your reader’s attention without overwhelming them.

Ultimately, an executive summary should benefit your business plan by laying out critical information clearly and simply upfront. An engaging, informative summary will help key people understand your plan and your needs, so they can offer guidance and support your success.

You can find tips on business planning and more in How to start a business

Xero does not provide accounting, tax, business or legal advice. This guide has been provided for information purposes only. You should consult your own professional advisors for advice directly relating to your business or before taking action in relation to any of the content provided.

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How to Write An Executive Summary for a Business Plan

It is important to know how to write an executive summary for a business plan, particularly if you expect an outside source to read it. 3 min read updated on February 01, 2023

It is important to know how to write an executive summary for a business plan, particularly if you expect an outside source to read it. This part of your business plan will provide a brief, but thorough overview of the most critical details of your company so that you can attract investors or reach other important goals as an organization.

What is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary can be defined as a short introduction in your business plan. The goal of the executive summary is to highlight the key points of the plan for anyone who reads it, which helps to save time and lets them know what the rest of the business plan will include.

It is essentially an advance organizer. The executive summary can often be considered the most crucial part of a business plan. It will describe a business, which problems it will solve, the target market, and a highlight of the financials.

Every plan will not need a summary. It is crucial for the plans that are written for outsiders. It will take considerable effort to write an excellent summary. If there is no real business use for it, do not write the summary.

There are many jobs that are accomplished by an executive summary . It needs to show readers the answers to their questions by pointing to the section with detailed information about their query. It should also make it easier for anyone who has to read it while making it enjoyable, through the presentation of interesting and useful facts about a company.

What Should an Executive Summary Include?

What needs to be included in an executive summary will largely depend on the business. The summary for a start-up and an established company will vary greatly. For start-ups, the primary goal of the business plan is to get money by convincing banks, venture capitalists, or angel investors to invest in a business by providing equity or debt financing.

To accomplish this, a company will need to present a tight case for a business idea. This is where the executive summary is very important.

An executive summary needs to include the following :

  • Who are you? You need to provide the name of your business, its location, and all contact information.
  • What do you offer and what problems will your business solve ? You should include a short description of the products and services you provide and why it is needed. The business does not need to solve a huge social problem, but it needs to show why it meets a specific need in the market.
  • Who is your target market? You need to describe the type of customer you are trying to reach. Your product can define itself through its name in some cases, such as “Prius dashboard accessory.” If this is not the case, simply provide a short description of who your target customer is.
  • What is the purpose of your business plan? You need to state whether you are trying to get investments or a bank loan. The executive summary is really only needed when you are sharing your plan with outsiders.
  • Who is your competition? Talk about your competition and describe the strategies you will implement for getting a share of the market. Name your competitive advantages and how you stand out against the competition.
  • How are your finances? You should include a financial analysis to summarize your financial plan. You also need to include all projections for the next three years.
  • What is your size and scale? For instance, if you own an existing company, this information can consist of simply adding your most recent sales numbers. For a start-up, it can be a short description of your goals or aspirations for the next one to three years.
  • Are there any further critical details? You should mention any important, defining detailed information that will be important to whoever reads your summary. For example, you could include that those who founded the company are all local MBA students or any development grants you have received.

If you need help with writing an executive summary for your business plan, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel’s marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law, and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

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How to create an executive summary for a business plan

Table of Contents

What to include in an executive summary

Startup companies, established businesses, how long should the executive summary be, tips on how to create an executive summary for a business plan, leave it until the end, focus on providing a summary, use strong and positive language, polish it up, tailor it to your audience, show off your efficient financial management.

An executive summary of a business plan is an overview that summarises the key points of the document to prepare readers for the upcoming content. When done well, an executive summary entices the reader to keep reading. But, the summary can also cause readers to lose interest if you fail to hook their attention. 

This guide will show you how to write an executive summary for your small business plan to ensure you include everything you need. We’ll cover the following points:

  • What to include in your executive summary
  • How long the summary should be
  • How the right accounting software can help

The information to include in your executive summary depends on where you are in your business venture and what your goal is with writing a business plan. Plans for startups and established businesses typically have different purposes.

Say you’re a startup looking for funding from banks, angel investors , or venture capitalists . In that case, you’ll need to provide a solid case for your business idea to convince investors that it’s a good investment. 

For that reason, a typical executive summary for a startup company will include: 

  • Business opportunity – describe the need or opportunity for your solution and how your business will serve the market. 
  • Target market – describe the customer base you will target and why. Learn how to define your target market .
  • Business model – describe your products or services and how they will appeal to your target market. 
  • Marketing and sales strategy – how do you plan to market your solution to your target market? Outline any plans you have and why you believe they will work.
  • Financial projection – summarise your financial plan for at least the next three years, including expected startup costs , projected income, and your budgeting plans.  
  • Owners – describe the owners of your business (in this case, you) and the expertise they bring to the business.
  • Implementation plan – outline the plan and timeline for taking your business from the planning stage to the launch. 

If your business is already up and running, the purpose of your business plan is likely to secure funding to support your growth plans. For example, you may want to expand your product line or add to your existing services. 

So an executive summary for an established business typically includes:

  • Mission statement – this is where you articulate the purpose of your business by describing what your company does and outlining your core values and business philosophy.
  • Company information – share some background information about your business. Describe your solution, business set-up (freelancer or limited company), owners, business locations, and so on. 
  • Business highlights – describe how your business has evolved over time. Include things like year-on-year revenue increases, profitability, number of customers/clients, and increases in market share.
  • Financial summary – if the purpose of writing your business plan is to seek additional financing, give a brief summary of how much you’ll need and why. 
  • Future goals –  this is where you describe the goals and objectives you have for your business. If you seek financing, explain how you’ll use it to expand the business and any other ways you’ll increase its profitability.

Ideally, your executive summary should be under one-two pages, but it can be longer if absolutely necessary. 

The general rule of thumb is to keep your executive summary as short as possible while still covering the relevant points. Readers will have limited time and attention to read your summary, so getting the key details out as quickly as possible is crucial. 

Follow the tips below to create an executive summary that provides value and grabs the reader’s attention from the get-go.

It’s best to leave your executive summary for last, so you know exactly what the key points are in your business plan. If you don’t know where to begin when writing your summary, the easiest way is to take a summary sentence or two from each business plan section. 

The key to a good executive summary is to avoid going into too much detail. That’s what the business plan itself is for. Your readers don’t want to have their time wasted, so keep the summary brief and to the point. 

You want your summary to pull the reader in and encourage them to read the entire business plan. So use language that creates excitement and shows the reader what a fantastic business you are. For example, instead of writing “this could have potential to succeed in different markets…”, write “this shows excellent potential to succeed in different markets…”

Your executive summary should be easy to read. A great way to test how well your text flows is to read it aloud. Is it clear and concise, or does it sound choppy? Once you’re happy with how your text sounds, let someone read it who knows nothing about your business. Then ask them for suggestions for improvement. 

It’s important to ensure that your summary appeals to the people you expect to read it. So if your goal is to entice investors, focus on highlighting the opportunity your business provides. If the purpose is to get a small business loan , focus on aspects that traditional lenders want to see. Highlight your industry experience and show your collateral and strategies to minimise the lenders’ risk. 

Your executive summary (and entire business plan) should demonstrate why your business is worth investing in. So do what you can to boost your business profitability. 

An excellent way to do this is by investing in a solution that optimises your financial management, like Countingup. This unique two-in-one business current account and accounting software lets you manage all your financial data from one simple app. 

Countingup helps you improve your financial health in several ways. Its automatic expense categorisation feature sorts your costs into HMRC-approved categories, keeping your records organised for you. The app also generates running cash flow reports and tax estimates so you can see how your business performs at any given time.

These features, along with all the other handy tools Countingup offers, give you an easy way to keep track of your expenses, income, profits and loss. This way, you can make informed decisions to improve your profitability and share them in your business plan. 

Find out more here . 

Countingup

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How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

Back to Business Plans

Written by: Carolyn Young

Carolyn Young is a business writer who focuses on entrepreneurial concepts and the business formation. She has over 25 years of experience in business roles, and has authored several entrepreneurship textbooks.

Edited by: David Lepeska

David has been writing and learning about business, finance and globalization for a quarter-century, starting with a small New York consulting firm in the 1990s.

Published on February 27, 2023 Updated on December 12, 2023

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

Launching a business involves countless tasks, but a crucial early hurdle is writing a business plan . Many entrepreneurs who aren’t looking for funding think they can skip this step, but that’s never a good idea . 

A sharp business plan is essentially a business owner’s commitment to and preparation for the road ahead, and the executive summary might be the most important part. Investors and lenders usually only read the executive summary, unless it succeeds in grabbing their interest. 

Thus, if you’re looking for financing, an excellent executive summary is absolutely essential. But even if you’re not, writing a strong executive summary can help gather your thoughts and lessons learned. Lucky for you, this guide shows you just how to do it. 

  • What is an Executive Summary?

The executive summary opens your business plan, but it’s the section you’ll write last. It summarizes the key points and highlights the most important aspects of your plan. 

Again, often investors and lenders will only read the executive summary; if it doesn’t capture their interest they’ll stop reading, so it must be as compelling as possible, even at two pages or less. 

  • What to Include in the Executive Summary

Several key points should be included in the executive summary.

1. The Business Opportunity

What problem are you solving in the market and for whom? Write a few sentences about the opportunity and your target market . This should be at the top of your executive summary after a very brief introduction of your concept and vision. 

2. The Business Idea and Model

Provide specific information about your product or service, how it solves a market problem, and how you’ll sell it. Will it be one-time sales or a subscription? Focus on your product or service as a solution, discussing how it solves the problem and why it’s better than other solutions. 

3. Company History

What have you done to this point? When you’re just getting started, this may be nothing more than coming up with the idea, choosing a business name , and forming a business entity. Highlight milestones you’ve achieved. 

4. Market Summary

Discuss the state of the industry, market size, and projected growth. Include data points with links to sources. Also, touch upon why you chose your target market and the competitive landscape of your market. Don’t go into too much detail, just mention the most intriguing elements.

5. Competitive Advantage

Write a strong statement about how your company is going to stand out in the market – why will customers choose your product over those of competitors? This is extremely important to investors, so take your time on this one after you’ve done your full competitive analysis . 

6. Objectives

Write a short list of specific goals that you plan to achieve in the short term, such as developing your product, launching a marketing campaign, or hiring a key person. 

7. Management team

Provide a summary of your management team, their roles, and the relevant experience that they have to serve in those roles. Don’t be overly self-promotional here; just state the facts in a positive way. 

8. Financial Highlights

Provide a summary of your financial plan including revenue and profit projections (best in bullet form) for at least three years and a break-even analysis in a simple chart form. If you’ve already made some sales, include your revenue numbers.

9. The “Ask”

Your “ask”, if applicable, is what you’re requesting from the investor or lender. You’ll include the amount you’d like and how it will be spent, such as “We are seeking $50,000 in seed funding to develop our beta product”.  

It’s best not to specify the terms of funding you’re requesting, such as stating an equity offer. That will be a matter of negotiation.

10. Other Compelling Points

If there are any other points from your business plan that illustrate how your business will be unique and successful, be sure to include those as well. The executive summary should be as persuasive as possible. 

If you finish your executive summary and it’s more than two pages long, cut it down. Investors and lenders aren’t looking for a long read; they want you to get to the point and to be “wowed” by your vision. That will persuade them to dig into your full plan. 

So take all the time you need to write an excellent summary, then have somebody you trust review it to make sure it delivers. The future of your business could depend on it.

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Trucking Business Plan PDF Example

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  • March 5, 2024
  • Business Plan

the business plan template for a trucking business

Creating a comprehensive business plan is crucial for launching and running a successful trucking business. This plan serves as your roadmap, detailing your vision, operational strategies, and financial plan. It helps establish your trucking business’s identity, navigate the competitive market, and secure funding for growth.

This article not only breaks down the critical components of a trucking business plan, but also provides an example of a business plan to help you craft your own.

Whether you’re an experienced entrepreneur or new to the service industry, this guide, complete with a business plan example, lays the groundwork for turning your trucking business concept into reality. Let’s dive in!

Our trucking business plan is formulated to encompass all essential aspects required for a thorough and strategic framework. It outlines the company’s operational strategies, marketing plans, industry landscape, competition, management structure, and financial forecasts.

  • Executive Summary: Provides a concise overview of the trucking company’s business model, highlighting the key aspects of market analysis, management capabilities, and financial strategy.
  • Shipping Routes & Operations: Describes the geographic scope and operational logistics that enable the company to provide efficient transportation solutions.
  • Services & Rates: Details the specific transportation services offered by the company, along with a transparent and competitive pricing structure.
  • Key Stats: Presents crucial statistics that underscore the size, growth, and dynamics of the trucking industry.
  • Key Trends: Highlights the evolving trends within the trucking sector that could influence business operations and opportunities.
  • Key Competitors: Provides an assessment of the competitive environment, delineating how the company distinguishes itself from other market players.
  • SWOT Analysis: Conducts a comprehensive examination of the internal and external factors that impact the company’s strategic positioning.
  • Marketing Plan: Articulates the marketing strategies devised to enhance the company’s market reach and customer engagement.
  • Timeline: Establishes critical milestones that the company aims to achieve in its journey towards expansion and market leadership.
  • Management: Introduces the experienced management team at the helm, detailing their roles in steering the company towards its objectives.
  • Financial Plan: Forecasts the 5-year financial trajectory of the trucking company, detailing expected revenue streams, profit margins, and the overarching financial strategy to ensure fiscal health and growth.

the business plan template for a trucking business

Trucking Business Plan

Download an expert-built 30+ slides Powerpoint business plan template

Executive Summary

The executive summary introduces your trucking business’s business plan, providing a succinct overview of your company and its logistics and transportation services. It should detail your market positioning, the variety of transport and logistical solutions you offer, its operational base, fleet size, and an outline of daily operations.

This section should also delve into how your trucking business will integrate into the regional or national market, including the number of direct competitors within the sector, identifying who they are, along with your business’s unique selling points that differentiate it from these competitors.

Furthermore, you should include information about the management and co-founding team, detailing their roles and contributions to the company’s success. Additionally, a summary of your financial projections, including revenue and profits over the next five years, should be presented here to provide a clear picture of your trucking business’s financial plan.

Make sure to cover here _ Business Overview _ Market Overview _ Management Team _ Financial Plan

Trucking Business Plan executive summary1

Dive deeper into Executive Summary

Business Overview

For a trucking business, the Business Overview section can be effectively divided into 2 main areas:

Shipping Routes & Operations

Briefly describe the core operational aspects of your trucking business, focusing on the geographical scope, such as regional, national, or international shipping routes.

Next, highlight the efficiency and reliability of your operations, emphasizing the strategic positioning of your hubs or depots for optimal logistics management. Explain why these routes and operations are advantageous in serving your target market and meeting customer demands.

Services & Rates

Detail the range of transportation and logistics services offered, from standard freight shipping to specialized services such as refrigerated transport, hazardous materials, or oversized loads.

Outline your pricing strategy, ensuring it reflects the value and competitiveness of your services within the industry. Highlight any flexible pricing options, bulk shipping discounts, or loyalty programs that provide added value to your clients, encouraging long-term partnerships and customer retention.

Make sure to cover here _ Shipping Routes & Operations _ Services & Rates

Trucking Business Plan PDF Example shipping routes

Market Overview

Industry size & growth.

In the Market Overview of your trucking business plan, begin by evaluating the size of the transportation and logistics industry and its growth potential. This analysis is essential for understanding the market’s breadth and pinpointing opportunities for expansion.

Key market trends

Continue by discussing recent market trends, such as the growing emphasis on supply chain efficiency, the rise of e-commerce driving demand for shipping services, and advancements in transportation technology like telematics and autonomous vehicles. For instance, highlight the need for versatile shipping solutions that accommodate a range of delivery timelines and product types, along with the increasing interest in eco-friendly and sustainable logistics practices.

Key Competitors

Next, assess the competitive landscape, which spans from large national carriers to smaller regional trucking companies, as well as alternative logistics services like intermodal transport. For example, underline what sets your trucking business apart, whether it’s through superior reliability, a broad spectrum of services, or niche expertise in certain types of cargo.

Make sure to cover here _ Industry size & growth _ Key competitors _ Key market trends

Trucking Business Plan market overview

Dive deeper into Key competitors

First, conduct a SWOT analysis for the trucking business, highlighting Strengths (such as a diverse fleet and reliable service), Weaknesses (including dependency on fuel prices or regulatory challenges), Opportunities (for instance, the expansion of e-commerce and the need for more shipping solutions), and Threats (such as economic fluctuations that may impact shipping volumes or the rise of digital freight matching platforms).

Marketing Plan

Next, develop a marketing strategy that outlines how to attract and retain clients through strategic partnerships, competitive pricing, a strong online presence, and exceptional customer service. Emphasize the importance of building a reputable brand in the logistics industry, leveraging digital marketing, and participating in industry events to network with potential clients.

Finally, create a detailed timeline that outlines critical milestones for the trucking business’s initiation, marketing initiatives, client acquisition, and growth objectives. Ensure the business progresses with clear direction and purpose by setting realistic goals for service expansion, fleet enhancement, and possibly geographic extension of operations.

Make sure to cover here _ SWOT _ Marketing Plan _ Timeline

Trucking Business Plan strategy

Dive deeper into SWOT

Dive deeper into Marketing Plan

The Management section focuses on the trucking business’s management and their direct roles in daily operations and strategic direction. This part is crucial for understanding who is responsible for making key decisions and driving the trucking business toward its financial and operational goals.

For your trucking business plan, list the core team members, their specific responsibilities, and how their expertise supports the business.

Trucking Business Plan management

Financial Plan

The Financial Plan section is a comprehensive analysis of your financial projections for revenue, expenses, and profitability. It lays out your Trucking business’s approach to securing funding, managing cash flow, and achieving breakeven.

This section typically includes detailed forecasts for the first 5 years of operation, highlighting expected revenue, operating costs and capital expenditures.

For your trucking business plan, provide a snapshot of your financial statement (profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow statement), as well as your key assumptions (e.g. number of customers and prices, expenses, etc.).

Make sure to cover here _ Profit and Loss _ Cash Flow Statement _ Balance Sheet _ Use of Funds

Trucking Business Plan financial plan

Privacy Overview

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Sample Mobile App Business Plan

Growthink.com Mobile App Business Plan Template

Download our Ultimate Mobile App Business Plan Template

Having a thorough business plan in place is critical for any successful mobile app venture. It will serve as the foundation for your operations, setting out the goals and objectives that will help guide your decisions and actions. A well-written business plan can give you clarity on realistic financial projections and help you secure financing from lenders or investors. A mobile app business plan example can be a great resource to draw upon when creating your own plan, making sure that all the key components are included in your document.

The mobile app business plan sample below will give you an idea of what one should look like. It is not as comprehensive and successful in raising capital for your mobile app as Growthink’s Ultimate Mobile App Business Plan Template , but it can help you write a mobile app business plan of your own.

Example – AppInnovate Solutions

Table of contents, executive summary, company overview, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan.

Welcome to AppInnovate Solutions, a trailblazing mobile app company nestled in the vibrant heart of Miami, FL. We are dedicated to revolutionizing the local mobile app market by offering a comprehensive suite of bespoke development services. Our expert team specializes in Mobile App Development, UI/UX Design, App Testing, Quality Assurance, and ongoing Maintenance and Updates. Additionally, we provide Consultation and Project Management to ensure our clients’ visions are seamlessly brought to life. Leveraging our deep understanding of both the local and global market, we are committed to creating intuitive, engaging, and technologically advanced apps that meet the highest international standards of excellence.

Our foundation for success is deeply rooted in the vast experience of our founder, combined with our commitment to delivering superior apps at competitive prices. Since launching on January 4, 2024, as a Limited Liability Company, we’ve made significant strides, including establishing a strong local presence in Miami and developing a unique brand identity. These initial steps have positioned us as a leading contender in the mobile app industry, with our dedication to quality, innovation, and affordability setting us apart as the go-to choice for mobile app development in the region.

The Mobile App industry in the United States is experiencing explosive growth, currently valued at over $120 billion. This growth is driven by an increasing dependency on smartphones and tablets, with a notable shift towards personalized and user-friendly apps. AppInnovate Solutions is uniquely positioned to capitalize on these trends, focusing on custom mobile apps that cater to the specific needs of Miami’s residents and businesses. Furthermore, the rise of mobile commerce presents an exceptional opportunity for us to provide innovative solutions to businesses aiming to engage in this lucrative trend, ensuring our competitive edge in the fast-paced mobile app market.

Our initial market penetration strategy targets local residents and tourists in Miami, offering them innovative app solutions to enhance their daily lives and travel experiences. By tailoring our app’s features to meet the needs of Miami’s diverse population, we ensure a wide range of functionalities from local service recommendations to event discovery. Additionally, we aim to serve local businesses by offering advertising opportunities and business tools within our app, fostering a beneficial relationship that enhances visibility for businesses while providing valuable, localized offers to our users.

Our main competitors are Pixels Media Inc, SDSol Technologies, and Business Site Designer, each offering a range of digital services. Despite the strengths of these companies, AppInnovate Solutions stands out for our ability to deliver high-quality, affordable mobile applications. Our competitive advantage lies in our innovative development techniques, cost-effective pricing, and deep understanding of the Miami market. This unique combination enables us to offer applications that are not only financially accessible but also resonate well with our target audience, ensuring high user engagement and satisfaction.

AppInnovate Solutions offers a comprehensive range of services, including Mobile App Development, UI/UX Design, App Testing, Quality Assurance, and ongoing Maintenance and Updates. Our pricing strategy is designed to cater to a broad spectrum of clients, ensuring affordability without compromising on quality or functionality. Our promotional strategy is centered around online marketing, leveraging social media, SEO, and email marketing to build a strong digital presence. Additionally, we plan to engage with the local community through events and partnerships, complemented by a referral program to organically grow our user base. This multifaceted approach aims to not only attract but also retain customers by establishing a strong brand presence and fostering community engagement.

To ensure the success of AppInnovate Solutions, we will engage in continuous market analysis, provide exceptional customer support, regularly update our app based on user feedback, and maintain rigorous quality assurance standards. Our operational strategy also includes targeted marketing campaigns, careful financial management, and fostering partnerships with other businesses. Crucially, we will focus on compliance, security, and fostering a collaborative work environment. Upcoming milestones include securing initial funding, finalizing product development, achieving operational stability, reaching 1,000 active users, and generating significant monthly revenue. These steps are designed to systematically reduce risks and establish a stable foundation for our long-term success.

Under the leadership of our CEO, Dylan Torres, AppInnovate Solutions boasts a management team with unrivaled expertise and a track record of success in the mobile app industry. Torres’s extensive experience and strategic vision are instrumental in navigating the complexities of app development and market penetration. His leadership ensures that our team remains focused on innovation, user experience, and scalability, driving AppInnovate Solutions towards achieving our ambitious goals.

Welcome to AppInnovate Solutions, a pioneering mobile app company catering to the vibrant community of Miami, FL. As a local mobile app business, we pride ourselves on filling the void in high-quality local mobile app services in the area. Our dedication to innovation and excellence sets us apart, ensuring we meet the diverse needs of our customers with unparalleled precision and creativity.

At AppInnovate Solutions, our offerings encompass a comprehensive suite of mobile app development services designed to bring your digital visions to life. Our expertise in Mobile App Development is complemented by our deep understanding of User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Design, ensuring that every app we create is not only functional but also intuitive and engaging for users. We are committed to excellence through our rigorous App Testing and Quality Assurance processes, ensuring that every product we deliver operates flawlessly. Additionally, we provide ongoing App Maintenance and Updates to keep our clients’ applications at the forefront of technological advancements. Understanding the complexities of app development, we also offer Consultation and Project Management services to guide our clients through every step of the development process, ensuring a smooth and efficient journey from concept to launch.

Located in the heart of Miami, FL, AppInnovate Solutions is strategically positioned to serve the vibrant and diverse community of this dynamic city. Our deep understanding of the local market, combined with our global outlook, enables us to create apps that resonate with local users while meeting international standards of excellence.

Our unique position for success is rooted in the rich experience of our founder, who has a proven track record of running a successful mobile app business. This experience, combined with our commitment to creating superior apps at affordable prices, positions us as a formidable competitor in the mobile app industry. Our dedication to quality, innovation, and affordability makes us the preferred choice for mobile app development in Miami, FL.

Since our inception on January 4, 2024, AppInnovate Solutions has made significant strides as a Limited Liability Company. Our journey began with the creation of a distinct logo and the careful selection of our company name, which reflects our mission and values. Finding an ideal location in Miami has enabled us to establish a strong presence in the local market. These foundational steps mark the beginning of our journey towards becoming a leader in the mobile app development industry.

The Mobile App industry in the United States is currently booming, with a market size of over $120 billion. This industry has shown consistent growth over the past few years, and is expected to continue expanding at a rapid pace in the coming years. With the increasing reliance on smartphones and tablets for everyday tasks, the demand for mobile apps is only expected to rise.

One of the key trends in the Mobile App industry is the shift towards personalized and user-friendly apps. Customers are now looking for apps that cater to their specific needs and provide a seamless user experience. This trend bodes well for AppInnovate Solutions, as their focus on creating customized mobile apps for customers in Miami, FL aligns perfectly with this growing demand for personalized solutions.

Another trend in the Mobile App industry is the rise of mobile commerce, with more and more consumers using apps to make purchases and manage their finances. This presents a great opportunity for AppInnovate Solutions to tap into this market and offer innovative solutions for businesses looking to capitalize on the mobile commerce trend. By staying ahead of industry trends and providing top-notch mobile app development services, AppInnovate Solutions is well-positioned to thrive in the competitive Mobile App industry.

Below is a description of our target customers and their core needs.

Target Customers

AppInnovate Solutions will target local residents in its initial market penetration strategy. These customers are the backbone of the application’s user base, seeking innovative solutions to enhance their daily lives. The app will tailor its features to meet the specific needs and preferences of Miami’s diverse population, covering a wide range of functionalities from local service recommendations to event discovery.

The company will also focus on Miami’s vibrant tourist population. Visitors to the city are always in need of reliable, easy-to-use tools that can help them navigate the local scene, discover hidden gems, and manage their travel logistics effortlessly. By integrating features that cater to this segment, AppInnovate Solutions is set to become an indispensable travel companion for those exploring Miami.

Furthermore, AppInnovate Solutions will extend its reach to local businesses looking for innovative ways to connect with customers. By offering advertising opportunities and business tools within the app, it will create a symbiotic relationship that benefits both the businesses by increasing their visibility and the app users by providing them with tailored, local offers and services.

Customer Needs

AppInnovate Solutions meets the growing demand for high quality and functional mobile apps among Miami residents. Customers expect seamless, intuitive user experiences from their applications, which can range from everyday utility tools to complex business solutions. Our commitment to excellence ensures that each app we develop not only meets but exceeds these expectations, providing users with reliable, cutting-edge technology at their fingertips.

In addition to quality and functionality, there is a significant need for apps that are tailored to the specific lifestyles and interests of Miami’s diverse population. AppInnovate Solutions addresses this by offering customized apps that cater to various demographics, including tourists seeking to explore the city, locals in need of convenient service apps, or businesses looking to enhance their operational efficiency. By focusing on the unique needs of each segment, we ensure our apps provide relevant and valuable solutions for all users.

Moreover, with the increasing concern for digital security, AppInnovate Solutions prioritizes the protection of user data and privacy. Customers can trust that the apps they use are not only efficient and personalized but also secure against digital threats. This commitment to security fosters a trustworthy relationship between AppInnovate Solutions and its users, making it a go-to source for mobile app solutions in Miami.

AppInnovate Solutions’s competitors include the following companies: Pixels Media Inc, SDSol Technologies, and Business Site Designer.

Pixels Media Inc offers a wide range of digital services, including mobile app development, web design, and digital marketing. Their products target small to medium-sized businesses looking for comprehensive digital solutions. The price points for their services vary depending on the complexity and scope of the project, with custom quotes provided to prospective clients. Pixels Media Inc generates revenue primarily through project-based work and ongoing support contracts, with annual revenues estimated in the mid-range for the industry. The company operates primarily in the Miami area but has also served clients across the United States. Key strengths include a strong portfolio of successful projects and a multidisciplinary team. A potential weakness is their focus on a broad range of services, which might dilute their expertise in mobile app development specifically.

SDSol Technologies specializes in custom software and mobile app development. They offer solutions tailored to the needs of startups, small businesses, and large corporations. Their pricing model is project-based, with costs reflecting the complexity and custom requirements of each project. SDSol Technologies has a notable presence in Miami, Florida, but also caters to clients nationally and internationally. The company boasts significant annual revenues, indicating a robust client base and a successful business model. A key strength of SDSol Technologies is their extensive experience in developing innovative technology solutions. However, their high focus on custom projects may result in higher price points, which could be a barrier for smaller businesses with limited budgets.

Business Site Designer provides website design and development, mobile app development, and e-commerce solutions. They cater to small and medium-sized businesses, offering competitive pricing for their services. The company’s revenue comes from a mix of project-based fees and ongoing maintenance contracts. Business Site Designer operates primarily in Miami, FL, serving clients both locally and across various regions in the United States. Their strength lies in offering affordable solutions for businesses looking to establish or enhance their online presence. However, their focus on affordability might impact the customization and advanced features available in their mobile app development services.

Competitive Advantages

At AppInnovate Solutions, we understand the critical role that mobile applications play in today’s digital-centric world. Our core competitive advantage lies in our ability to create superior applications at a price point that is highly affordable for our clients. This unique positioning allows us to cater to a broad spectrum of businesses, from startups to established enterprises, ensuring that every organization can leverage the power of mobile technology without breaking the bank. Our commitment to quality and affordability does not mean a compromise on features or functionality; instead, we use innovative development techniques and efficient project management to deliver top-notch applications that meet our clients’ specific needs.

Beyond our competitive pricing and high-quality development, another of our key advantages is our deep understanding of the local market dynamics in Miami, FL. This localized insight enables us to design and develop applications that resonate well with our target audience, fostering greater user engagement and satisfaction. We also place a high emphasis on user experience (UX) design, ensuring that our apps are not only functional but also intuitive and enjoyable to use. This focus on UX is complemented by our dedication to incorporating the latest technological advancements, such as AI and machine learning, to enhance app functionality and provide a more personalized user experience. Through these concerted efforts, we ensure that our clients stay ahead of the curve in a highly competitive digital landscape.

Our marketing plan, included below, details our products/services, pricing and promotions plan.

Products and Services

AppInnovate Solutions emerges as a comprehensive service provider in the realm of mobile application development, catering to the diverse needs of businesses aiming to enhance their digital footprint. Through a blend of technical expertise and innovative strategies, AppInnovate Solutions offers a range of services designed to bring ideas to life and ensure their successful implementation in the competitive market.

At the core of its offerings, Mobile App Development stands out as a pivotal service. AppInnovate Solutions specializes in creating custom mobile applications tailored to the specific requirements of each client. Whether for iOS, Android, or cross-platform solutions, the team leverages the latest technologies and methodologies to deliver robust, scalable, and high-performing apps. Clients can expect to invest an average of $20,000 to $50,000 for a comprehensive mobile app development project, depending on the complexity and features required.

User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Design services are critical to ensuring that the applications not only perform well but also offer an intuitive and engaging user experience. AppInnovate Solutions places a strong emphasis on designing interfaces that are visually appealing and user-friendly. By understanding the target audience and business goals, the team crafts UI/UX designs that enhance user satisfaction and drive engagement. These services are typically priced from $5,000 to $15,000, reflecting the scope of the design work and the intricacies involved in creating a seamless user experience.

Ensuring the quality and reliability of mobile applications is paramount, which is why App Testing and Quality Assurance form an essential part of the service lineup. AppInnovate Solutions employs a rigorous testing methodology to identify and rectify any issues, ensuring that the final product is of the highest quality. This process includes functional testing, performance testing, usability testing, and security audits. The cost for app testing and quality assurance services ranges from $3,000 to $10,000, varying with the application’s complexity and the depth of testing required.

App Maintenance and Updates are crucial for keeping applications relevant and functioning optimally post-launch. AppInnovate Solutions provides ongoing support to address any technical issues, incorporate new features, and adapt to evolving user needs or technological advancements. Clients can expect maintenance and update services to cost between $1,000 and $4,000 per month, depending on the level of support and frequency of updates needed.

Lastly, Consultation and Project Management services are offered to guide clients through the development process, from conceptualization to launch and beyond. AppInnovate Solutions acts as a strategic partner, offering expert advice on market trends, technology selection, and project execution. This holistic approach ensures that projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the client’s satisfaction. Consultation fees are typically charged on an hourly basis, with project management services priced between $10,000 and $25,000, based on the project’s scale and complexity.

Through its comprehensive suite of services, AppInnovate Solutions positions itself as a key player in the mobile app development industry, committed to delivering high-quality solutions that meet the evolving needs of businesses in today’s digital landscape.

Promotions Plan

AppInnovate Solutions, focusing on captivating the mobile app market in Miami, FL, embarks on a strategic journey to draw customers through a blend of innovative promotional methods. Online marketing stands at the forefront of these strategies, leveraging the power of social media, search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing campaigns to create a robust digital presence. AppInnovate Solutions will utilize social media platforms to engage with the community, share insights about the app’s features, and provide value to potential users. By crafting content that resonates with the target audience, the company expects to foster a loyal following that eagerly anticipates app updates and releases.

In addition to social media, AppInnovate Solutions will employ SEO techniques to ensure that its website ranks highly in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to discover their app. This approach includes optimizing website content with relevant keywords, improving site speed, and ensuring mobile-friendliness, all critical factors in enhancing online visibility.

Email marketing campaigns will serve as another pillar in AppInnovate Solutions’ promotional strategy. By collecting email addresses from interested users, the company will send out regular newsletters that provide exclusive insights, tips, and offers related to their mobile app. This direct line of communication will help in building a community of engaged users who are more likely to advocate for the app within their circles.

Beyond online marketing, AppInnovate Solutions will tap into local events and partnerships within Miami, FL. Participating in tech expos, local meetups, and community events will allow the company to demo their app directly to potential users, gather instant feedback, and enhance brand visibility. Collaborating with local businesses and influencers who share a similar target audience will amplify the app’s reach and credibility through co-marketing efforts.

Referral programs will also play a crucial role in attracting new customers. By incentivizing current users to refer friends and family, AppInnovate Solutions expects to grow its user base organically. These programs will not only increase the number of app downloads but also foster a sense of community among users.

In conclusion, AppInnovate Solutions embarks on a comprehensive promotional journey, leveraging online marketing, local engagement, and referral programs to attract customers in Miami, FL. Through these methods, the company expects to establish a strong digital presence, build a loyal community, and drive app downloads, ensuring its success in the competitive mobile app market.

Our Operations Plan details:

  • The key day-to-day processes that our business performs to serve our customers
  • The key business milestones that our company expects to accomplish as we grow

Key Operational Processes

To ensure the success of AppInnovate Solutions, there are several key day-to-day operational processes that we will perform.

  • Market Analysis: Conduct continuous market research to stay updated on industry trends, customer needs, and competitor activities. This ensures that AppInnovate Solutions can adapt and evolve to meet market demands.
  • Customer Support: Provide exceptional customer service, including a responsive help desk, FAQs, and troubleshooting guides. This helps to resolve user issues promptly and maintains high customer satisfaction.
  • App Development and Updates: Regularly update the app for performance improvements, new features, and bug fixes, based on user feedback and technological advancements.
  • Quality Assurance: Implement rigorous testing processes for every update and new feature release to ensure the app remains reliable, user-friendly, and free of bugs.
  • User Feedback Collection: Actively seek and analyze user feedback through surveys, app reviews, and social media engagement to understand user needs and preferences better.
  • Marketing and Promotion: Execute targeted marketing campaigns to attract new users and retain existing ones. This includes social media marketing, email campaigns, and local advertising in Miami, FL.
  • Financial Management: Monitor and manage the company’s finances, including budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting, to ensure sustainable business operations and profitability.
  • Partnership Management: Cultivate and maintain partnerships with other businesses, such as tech suppliers, marketing agencies, and other relevant stakeholders, to enhance service offerings and expand market reach.
  • Compliance and Security: Ensure the app and its operations comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including data protection laws. Implement robust security measures to protect user data and privacy.
  • Team Collaboration and Communication: Foster a collaborative work environment with regular meetings, clear communication channels, and team-building activities. This ensures that all team members are aligned and motivated.
  • Performance Monitoring: Use analytics tools to monitor app performance, user engagement, and operational efficiency. This data will guide strategic decisions and operational adjustments.

AppInnovate Solutions expects to complete the following milestones in the coming months in order to ensure its success:

  • Secure Initial Funding : Acquire seed funding or early-stage investment to cover initial operational costs, including development, marketing, and staffing. This is critical for getting the business off the ground and to support activities leading up to and following the launch.
  • Finalize Product Development : Complete the development phase of the mobile app with all intended features functioning as planned. This involves iterative testing, user feedback incorporation, and ensuring the app is fully operational for public use.
  • Acquire Necessary Licenses and Permissions : Depending on the nature of the app, certain permissions or licenses may be required. Ensuring all legal and regulatory compliance is met before launch is crucial to avoid any operational hiccups.
  • Launch the Mobile App : Officially release the app on relevant platforms (e.g., Apple App Store, Google Play Store). This milestone marks the transition from development to operational status and begins the process of user acquisition.
  • Implement a Marketing Strategy : Develop and execute a comprehensive marketing plan that includes social media, content marketing, paid advertising, and possibly influencer partnerships to increase app visibility and attract users in Miami, FL.
  • Achieve Operational Stability : Ensure that all backend systems (e.g., server infrastructure) are robust and can handle increasing loads. Operational stability also involves establishing customer support channels to handle queries and feedback.
  • Reach 1,000 Active Users : Achieve a user base of at least 1,000 active users. This milestone is critical for validating the app’s market fit and serves as a foundation for scalability.
  • Establish Partnerships with Local Businesses or Organizations : For an app serving customers in Miami, FL, partnerships with local businesses or community organizations can enhance the app’s value proposition and drive user growth.
  • Get to $15,000/Month in Revenue : This financial milestone is crucial for proving the business model’s viability. Achieving this level of revenue signifies a healthy demand for the app’s offerings and supports further investment in growth.
  • Expand the Team : As the business grows, expanding the team to include roles critical for scaling, such as sales, marketing, and product development, is necessary to support and sustain growth. These milestones are designed to systematically reduce the risks associated with starting and scaling a new mobile app business, ensuring a stable foundation for future success.

AppInnovate Solutions management team, which includes the following members, has the experience and expertise to successfully execute on our business plan:

Dylan Torres, CEO

Dylan Torres brings to AppInnovate Solutions a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success in the mobile app industry. As a seasoned entrepreneur, Torres has previously spearheaded a mobile app business, demonstrating not only his capability to navigate the complex landscape of app development but also his skill in leading a tech company to achieve its strategic goals. His experience is vital in guiding AppInnovate Solutions through the various phases of growth, from product development to market penetration. Torres’s leadership is foundational to the company’s ambitions, ensuring that the team stays focused on innovation, user experience, and scalability to achieve lasting success.

To achieve our growth objectives, AppInnovate Solutions requires $316,000 in funding. This investment will be allocated towards capital investments such as location buildout, equipment, and initial working capital, covering essential operational costs like staff salaries, marketing, and insurance. This strategic financial planning is crucial for supporting our activities from development through to launch, ensuring a smooth trajectory towards profitability and long-term success.

Financial Statements

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Mobile App Business Plan Example PDF

Download our Mobile App Business Plan PDF here. This is a free mobile app business plan example to help you get started on your own mobile app plan.  

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Business News Daily

6 Tips for Creating a Great Business Marketing Plan

E very successful company needs a well-thought-out business plan to outline its course of action. A marketing strategy is one key part of that plan: It spells out critical information, including how a business will distinguish itself from competitors and what the team will aim to achieve.

While marketing plans don't always produce immediate results, they are still a crucial aspect of a business plan and should be given a considerate amount of attention. A complete and effective marketing strategy can reveal opportunities through new audience segments, changes in pricing strategy or by differentiating the brand from the competition.

Here's how to create an effective marketing plan for your business. 

How to develop a business marketing plan

A focused marketing plan sets two goals. The first is to maintain engagement and customer loyalty , and the second is to capture market share within a specific audience segment of your target audience.

Your marketing plan outlines the strategies you'll use to achieve both goals and the specific actions your marketing team will employ, such as the specific outreach campaigns, over which channels they will occur, the required marketing budget and data-driven projections of their success.

Marketing is a science-driven commitment that typically requires months of data to refine campaigns, and an interconnected marketing plan keeps your business committed to its long-term goals. 

All marketing guidelines will circle back to the four P's: product, price, place and promotion. The following tips are starting points that will ingrain the habit of continually returning to these four P's.

1. Create an executive summary.

Marketing campaigns should not be considered individual functions. Marketing is the story of your brand as told to customers; like any narrative, its tone and characters should remain consistent. An executive summary details your marketing goals for the next year and helps tie each campaign together. 

When establishing your marketing goals, they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound – or SMART. These goals should work together to achieve both internal and external harmony, telling a consistent story that informs customers of your exact message while building on its previous chapters. 

For example, you may set a SMART goal to increase your company's social media traffic by 15% in a 90-day time frame, and plan to achieve this by creating four relevant, informative and high-quality posts per week on each platform, using your company's brand kit. 

2. Identify your target market.

Before you write a marketing plan, you need to find and understand your niche. Ask yourself who the specific demographic is that you're targeting. For example, if your business sells 30-minute meals, then those who work traditional 9-to-5 jobs are likely in your market. Study that group of individuals to understand their struggles and learn how your business can solve the problem.

FYI: Targeting your audience can drastically improve the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and help you avoid wasting resources on fruitless campaigns.

3. Differentiate your brand with inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing utilizes internal tools – such as content marketing, social media activity and search engine optimization (SEO) – to attract a customer's attention primarily through online communication. Content marketing can include informative blog posts, interviews, podcasts with relevant industry figures or supplementary guides on how to best use your product. For example, if you sell cooking supplies, consider posting several fun recipes around the holidays that your tools can help prepare.

Each of these strategies empowers the others in a loop to achieve greater customer attention. A strong content offering can improve your search engine ranking, which brings more people to your website and social pages. You can then share those developed content pieces to that wider audience, who will again improve your search engine rankings. All of this can be done without the expense of a famous endorser or commercial advertising campaign. 

4. Identify competitors that also target your customers.

No matter how original your product or service may be, there is always competition for your target customer's dollar. Small business personnel seldom take the time to study their competitors in-depth or pinpoint companies outside their industry that are just as capable of luring customers away. Knowing who your competitors are, their core competitive advantages, and how they might respond to your offerings – like price cuts or increased communication – helps you devise strategies to combat such losses. 

By seeking out these competitors, you can develop ways to differentiate your business by providing consumers with the things they may be lacking from your competition. Observe how your competitors operate to find ways in which you can stand out and steer your target audience toward your business. 

Did you know? According to SmallBizGenius, 19% of small businesses fail because of their competitors. 

5. State your brand position for your target customers.

Ultimately, your brand – and what it symbolizes for customers – is your strongest advantage. You should be able to write a simple declarative sentence of how you will meet customer needs and beat the competition. The best positioning statements focus on solving a problem for the customer in a way that promotes the best value.

6. Budget the plan. 

When implementing a strategy, consider the marketing budget you will allot. Marketing requires money for various reasons, including paid promotions, marketing software, events and outsourced costs. Consider your budget when creating the plan so that there is money available to spend on marketing tactics to achieve your goals. 

While drafting the plan and evaluating your course of action, note the estimated cost, assets, and time required to achieve the stated goals; this will help when it comes time to set the actual calculated budget. Any goals that you create should be realistically achievable within the budget you have set. 

Key takeaway: When developing your marketing plan, you should know why a customer would use your product, differentiate your brand from competitors, and audit your product offering and message to ensure consistency.

Channels to include in your marketing plan

Once you know the elements of your plan, the next step is to develop the blueprint of how you will reach your target customers. Aside from traditional print and broadcast media, here are three digital marketing channels that many business owners utilize.

Social media

Social media is an essential part of businesses' marketing plans, because every type of customer is on some type of platform – such as Facebook , Twitter or LinkedIn . You may feel overwhelmed at the possibilities, but focus on the sites that can benefit your business the most.

Brett Farmiloe, founder of internet marketing company Markitors, advised companies starting out in social media to get to know their customers and the platforms they use.

"Figure out where your customers are spending their time, and set up shop on those platforms," he told Business News Daily. "Develop a content strategy that can be executed internally, [and then] execute your strategy by posting branded content on your selected platforms."

Though email marketing is not as new as social media marketing, it is an effective and popular choice for small business owners. Companies can implement email marketing techniques in many ways, including newsletters, promotional campaigns and transactional emails. For instance, Mailchimp and Constant Contact help companies manage their email drip campaigns .

Farmiloe added to set your email marketing efforts apart from the others by segmenting your markets.

"Not all subscribers want to receive the same blast," he said. "Smart email marketers take the time to segment subscribers at the outset, and then continue to segment based on subscriber activity. Through segmentation, companies reduce the amount of unsubscribes, increase open rates and, most importantly, increase the amount of actions taken from an email send."

The popularity of smartphones and tablets has changed how companies target consumers. Since people have these devices with them nearly all the time, companies are looking to implement strategies that reach customers on their gadgets.   

"Mobile marketing is interruptive," Farmiloe said. "It's because of this power that a marketer has to let the consumer determine how and when to receive marketing material. That's why almost every app comes with the option to turn notifications on or off. The consumer has to hold the power with mobile marketing."

Key takeaway: Use digital marketing channels – such as social media, email and mobile – to reach customers, but only after researching each channel in depth and developing a strategy to capture consumers' interest. 

Monitoring results

Well-defined budgets, goals and action items – with appropriate personnel assigned to each – can make your marketing plan a reality. Think about how much you're willing to spend, the outcomes you expect and the necessary tasks to achieve those outcomes.

Analytical tools that track customer behavior and engagement rates can serve as a helpful guide for your marketing strategy . Unlike billboards or commercials, digital channels allow you to assess each step of the customer journey and gain insights on the individual patterns and intent of prospects. Intention can soon develop into prediction, empowering your marketing team to develop campaigns that consistently reach target audiences at the right time. 

You can find more tips for measuring your marketing ROI here.

Jordan Beier and Adryan Corcione contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

Every successful company needs a well-thought-out business plan to outline its course of action. A marketing strategy is

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executive summary for a business plan

  • Government efficiency, transparency and accountability
  • Government spending
  • Spring Budget 2024
  • HM Treasury

Spring Budget 2024 (HTML)

Updated 6 March 2024

executive summary for a business plan

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] .

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2024/spring-budget-2024-html

1. Executive summary

The last few years have been tough for the UK economy, which has faced unprecedented shocks from the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, an energy price spike driven by Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and globally high inflation.

At the beginning of 2023 the Prime Minister set out five priorities, three of which were economic: to halve inflation, grow the economy and get debt falling. At Spring Budget the government is delivering on these priorities: inflation has fallen, growth has been more resilient than expected, and debt is forecast to fall.

Inflation has more than halved from its recent peak and the government is continuing to support the Bank of England, with policy decisions at this event directly reducing inflation in 2024-25. The OBR forecasts inflation to fall to its 2% target in Q2 2024, a year earlier than in their November 2023 forecast.

As a result of falling inflation, real wages are rising. The OBR now expects living standards, as measured by real household disposable income (RHDI) per person, to grow by 0.8% in 2023-24 and continue to grow in each year of the forecast. In the latest data, people’s real incomes were around £1,100 higher than the OBR expected in their March 2023 forecast.

In November 2022, the OBR forecast a year-long recession and for the economy to contract by 1.4% in 2023. Similarly, the Bank of England forecast a contraction of 1.5% in December 2022. The UK economy, supported by government policy, has proved much more resilient.

GDP grew by 0.1% in 2023 and the unemployment rate has remained low by historical standards at 3.8% in Q4 2023, below the OBR’s November 2022 forecast of 4.6%. Growth is now forecast to pick up from the first half of 2024 and the IMF is forecasting that the UK will have the third fastest cumulative growth in the G7 over the 2024-2028 period.

The government is on track to meet both its debt and borrowing fiscal rules, with underlying debt falling as a share of GDP to 92.9% in 2028-29. The wider measure of headline debt falls in every year from 2024-25 to reach 94.3% in 2028-29. Borrowing is forecast to fall in every year, reaching £39.4 billion or 1.2% of GDP by 2028-29. This would be the lowest level of borrowing as a share of GDP since 2001-02. Total borrowing from 2023-24 to 2028-29 is forecast to be £0.3 billion lower than at Autumn Statement 2023.

The economy is now beginning to turn a corner and because the government is sticking to the plan it can now make further tax cuts for working people, boosting growth whilst keeping the public finances on a sustainable path.

The tax system should be fair, simple, and reward hard work. At the moment, if you are of working age and get your income from having a job, you pay both National Insurance contributions (NICs) and income tax. If you get your income from other sources you only pay income tax. Reducing employee and self-employed National Insurance is the best way to target working people, supporting growth and making the tax system fairer.

That is why the government cut NICs for 29 million workers at Autumn Statement 2023. The government is building on this by making a further cut worth over £10 billion a year for workers across the UK.

The government is cutting the main rate of employee National Insurance by 2p from 10% to 8% from 6 April 2024. Combined with the 2p cut announced at Autumn Statement 2023, this will save the average worker on £35,400 over £900 a year.

The government is also cutting a further 2p from the main rate of self-employed National Insurance on top of the 1p cut announced at Autumn Statement 2023. This means that from 6 April 2024 the main rate of Class 4 NICs for the self-employed will now be reduced from 9% to 6%. Combined with the abolition of the requirement to pay Class 2, this will save an average self-employed person on £28,000 around £650 a year.

The combined effects of these reductions to National Insurance also means that a person on the average wage now has the lowest effective personal tax rate since 1975.

The OBR forecast that, as a result of the reductions to NICs at Spring Budget, total hours worked will increase by the equivalent of almost 100,000 full-time workers by 2028-29. Combined with the impact of the NICs cuts announced at Autumn Statement 2023 the OBR expects that total hours worked will increase by the equivalent of around 200,000 full-time workers by 2028-29.

Accounting for policies announced at Spring Budget and the previous two fiscal events, the OBR forecasts that tax and labour market measures will increase total hours worked by the equivalent of more than 300,000 full-time workers by 2028-29.

The High Income Child Benefit Charge is another part of the tax system the government wants to make fairer. Child Benefit is crucial to help parents pay for the costs associated with having children, helping them to balance work with looking after their children. It is not fair that a household with two parents each earning £49,000 a year will receive Child Benefit in full, while a household earning less overall but with one parent earning over £50,000 will see some or all of the benefit withdrawn.

The government is committed to removing this unfairness and moving to a system based on household rather than individual incomes by April 2026, and will consult in due course.

In the meantime, to further support those in work, from April 2024 the government will raise the threshold for the High Income Child Benefit Charge to £60,000 taking 170,000 families out of paying this tax. The rate of the charge will also be halved so that Child Benefit is not repaid in full until you earn £80,000. The government estimates that nearly half a million families will gain an average of £1,260 in 2024-25 as a result.

To support people with the cost of living, the government is maintaining the rates of fuel duty at the current levels for a further 12 months, through extending the temporary 5p cut and cancelling the planned increase in line with inflation for 2024-25, saving the average car driver £50 in 2024-25. The government is also extending the alcohol duty freeze from 1 August 2024 until 1 February 2025, resulting in 2p less duty on an average pint of beer than if the planned increase had gone ahead. Together these measures come at a cost of over £8 billion across the forecast period.

The government is providing an additional £500 million (including Barnett impact) to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England from April to September 2024, to continue providing targeted support to vulnerable households with the cost of essentials such as food and utilities, as inflation continues to fall.

The government is reforming how it delivers key public services and boosting public sector productivity to ensure that every pound of taxpayers’ money is well spent. Departmental spending has increased significantly over this parliament to support public services in the face of unprecedented economic and geopolitical shocks. Total departmental spending has grown by 3.2% a year in real terms with a 2.3% increase in day-to-day spending and a 7.0% increase in capital. Total departmental spending will be £86 billion higher in real terms by 2028-29 than it was at the start of this Parliament (2019-20).

Despite this increase in funding, the average productivity of public services is estimated to be 5.9% below pre-pandemic levels. Returning productivity to pre-pandemic levels would deliver up to £20 billion of benefits a year.

To address this the government is announcing the next steps in the Public Sector Productivity Programme, including a comprehensive NHS productivity plan backed by £3.4 billion of funding. This will double investment in NHS technological and digital transformation, including to upgrade vital MRI scanners, roll out universal electronic patient records and reduce the time frontline workers spend on administrative tasks. This will help unlock £35 billion in cumulative productivity savings from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

As part of the Programme, the government is also investing £800 million in wider public services which will deliver up to £1.8 billion worth of benefits over the forecast period. In the run up to the next Spending Review, relevant departments will develop detailed productivity plans, building on their work to date and the funding announced at Spring Budget.

The government is also announcing an additional £2.5 billion of day-to-day funding for the NHS in England in 2024-25, protecting funding levels in real terms and supporting the NHS to continue to improve performance and reduce waiting times.

The government is bringing forward a series of reforms to ensure the tax system remains fair, keeps pace with developments in the economy, and supports sustainable public finances.

To help reduce taxes on working people the government will ensure that those with the broadest shoulders pay a bit more, by abolishing the tax rules for non-UK domiciled individuals, or non-doms, and replacing them with a residence-based regime. This will ensure that all UK residents who stay in the UK for over four years will pay the same tax on their foreign income and gains, regardless of their domicile status, creating a modernised regime that is simpler, fairer and more competitive.

The government is making the property tax system fairer and more efficient by abolishing the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime to level the playing field between short-term and long-term lets and support people to live in their local area; reducing Capital Gains Tax on residential properties to raise revenue and boost the availability of housing by encouraging residential disposals; and abolishing Multiple Dwellings Relief which has seen incorrect and abusive claims. These measures raise over £600 million a year in total in 2028-29.

The government is extending the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) by an additional year until March 2029, raising £1.5 billion. To put beyond doubt that the EPL is temporary, the government will include legislation in the Spring Finance Bill to disapply the levy when prices return to normal.

The government is committed to creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping. To support this the government is introducing a new duty on vaping and increasing tobacco duty from October 2026, raising revenue to support public services like the NHS.

The government is continuing to tackle tax non-compliance by making further investments, including in HMRC’s capacity to collect tax debts. These measures are forecast to raise over £4.5 billion of tax revenue by 2028-29.

Spring Budget sets out the government’s progress in delivering the growth package from Autumn Statement 2023, including outlining next steps on the £4.5 billion funding package for strategic manufacturing sectors and announcing new measures including introducing a new UK ISA to channel more investment into UK equities.

The government is committed to supporting small businesses and at Autumn Statement 2023 announced an extension to the 75% business rate relief for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties for 2024-25, a tax cut worth £2.4 billion. Spring Budget goes further to support SMEs by increasing the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £90,000 to cut their taxes and help them grow.

The government is also announcing over £1 billion of new tax reliefs for the UK’s world-leading creative industries. This includes introducing a 40% relief from business rates for eligible film studios in England for the next 10 years; introducing a new UK Independent Film Tax Credit; and increasing the rate of tax credit by 5% and removing the 80% cap for visual effects costs in the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit. A permanent extension will be made to tax relief for theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries, and £26 million of funding will be provided to upgrade the National Theatre’s stages and infrastructure.

The OBR expects that policies announced at Spring Budget and the previous two fiscal events will increase the size of the economy by 0.7% by 2028-29. This is through increasing total hours worked by the equivalent of over 300,000 full-time workers and boosting business investment by £14 billion. Together, this Spring Budget and Autumn Statement 2023 deliver a total tax cut of £20 billion for workers, the largest ever cut to employee and self-employed NICs, as well as making full expensing permanent – with the combined impact of government policy from Autumn Statement 2022 reducing the tax burden by 0.6 percentage points.

The economy is beginning to turn a corner and the government is sticking to its plan: inflation is down, growth is forecast to improve and debt is on track to fall. The government is taking long-term decisions to cut taxes further for working people, reform how it delivers public services, and build a stronger economy and a brighter future for the UK.

2. Economic and fiscal outlook

In the last four years, the economy has been buffeted by external shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. These shocks have made life tough for people in the UK, but the economy is beginning to turn a corner.

In January 2023 the Prime Minister set out five priorities. Three of them were economic: to halve inflation in 2023, grow the economy and reduce debt. Since then, there has been good progress:

  • Inflation has more than halved, falling from its peak of 11.1% to 4.0%. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that inflation will return to the 2% target next quarter, a year earlier than forecast in November 2023. [footnote 1]
  • Growth has been stronger than expected at the start of 2023. GDP is forecast to grow in every year of the OBR’s forecast.
  • Debt is forecast to fall as a proportion of GDP in the medium term.

Spring Budget builds on measures taken at Spring Budget 2023 and Autumn Statement 2023 to deliver long-term growth. Measures announced at Spring Budget reduce taxes for 29 million people, increasing total hours worked in the economy by the equivalent of more than 100,000 additional full-time workers by 2028‑29. This means that government policy announced at the past three fiscal events is expected to increase the size of the economy by 0.7% by 2028-29, by increasing total hours worked by the equivalent of more than 300,000 full-time workers, and boosting business investment by £14 billion.

The government is taking a responsible fiscal approach, cutting taxes for hard-working people while reducing borrowing. The government is on track to meet its debt and borrowing fiscal rules. Public sector net debt excluding the Bank of England (PSND ex BoE, or ‘underlying debt’, the target metric of the fiscal mandate) falls as a share of GDP in 2028-29 with £8.9 billion headroom. Public sector net debt (‘headline debt’), a broader measure, falls in every year from 2024‑25.

2.1 Economic and fiscal context

Over recent years the economy has faced unprecedented shocks.

Since 2010 the UK has had the third-fastest GDP growth and third-largest fall in the unemployment rate in the G7. Like many other advanced economies, productivity growth since the global financial crisis has been slower than in previous decades.

In the last four years, the economy has been buffeted by external shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The direct effects of the virus and the measures necessary to control it led to a steep fall in output and risked reducing the economy’s productive capacity over the longer term. The government responded swiftly, providing support worth £373 billion to the economy during the pandemic, including through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which reduced economic scarring and directly protected around 4 million jobs. [footnote 2] , [footnote 3] The increase in government spending during the pandemic, necessary to protect jobs and livelihoods, left debt levels at a historic high.

As set out in Box 1.A, the external shocks the UK has faced have led to a worsening in the country’s terms of trade. This reflects the impact of rising imported goods and energy prices, with the latter reaching record levels following Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The terms of trade shock led to higher inflation and lower growth, but the economy has been more resilient than expected.

The shock to energy prices has subsided, but they remain elevated: Ofgem’s energy price cap will be 39% above its pre-invasion level in April 2024. [footnote 4] Firms raised prices in response to higher energy costs. Increased labour market inactivity and record levels of vacancies led to increased competition among firms for jobseekers, increasing wages. As a result, inflation became increasingly domestically generated. The independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England responded to high inflation by tightening monetary policy: raising Bank Rate to 5.25%, from 0.1% in December 2021. [footnote 5] As a result of lower import prices, the MPC’s actions and the government’s fiscal policy, inflation has fallen from its peak of 11.1% in October 2022 to 4.0% in January 2024.

In autumn 2022, anticipating the effect of the terms of trade shock, many independent forecasters expected substantial falls in economic output. In November 2022, the OBR forecast a year-long recession and for the economy to contract by 1.4% in 2023. Similarly, in November 2022 the Bank of England forecast the longest recession in 100 years and for the economy to contract by 1.5% in 2023. [footnote 6]

The government cushioned the effect of the rising cost of living, introducing support worth £94 billion over two years and paying almost half of households’ energy bills from October 2022 to June 2023. [footnote 7] , [footnote 8] The UK economy, supported by government policy, has proved much more resilient than forecast in autumn 2022. GDP grew in 2023, albeit modestly by 0.1%, and unemployment has remained low by historic standards at 3.8% in Q4 2023. Across many advanced economies, weak growth has been a common challenge: the UK and Japan entered recession in the second half of 2023, and Germany’s economy contracted last year.

Box 1.A The impact of worsening terms of trade on the UK economy

The terms of trade are measured by the ratio of an economy’s export prices to its import prices. The UK is a net importer of energy and goods, so as global shocks pushed their prices up in recent years, its terms of trade weakened, which contributed to a rise in inflation and slower growth. In the medium term, high energy prices may reduce the volume of goods and services it is profitable to supply, reducing potential output. The UK’s terms of trade shock over 2021 and 2022 was the largest seen since the 1970s (Chart 1.1). Import price growth reached a peak of 15% in Q3 2022. Other European economies experienced a large terms of trade shock. In France and Germany import prices rose by between 15-20% in Q3 2022.

Chart 1.1: Import price growth across selected advanced economies

Source: OECD, HMT calculations and Office for National Statistics.

In November 2022, the OBR, Bank of England and most external forecasters expected the terms of trade shock to lead to a recession. Since then, the economy has performed better than expected. Households’ real incomes fell by less than expected, reflecting government support, and stronger-than-expected nominal wage growth. Households and firms adjusted to higher energy prices, changing consumption patterns and inputs to production. Firms have been resilient, with the Bank of England judging there has been no significant evidence of the global energy price shock having negatively affected firms’ productivity. [footnote 9]

The negative terms of trade shock has unwound more quickly and fully than expected. Wholesale energy prices have fallen quickly and global supply chain disruption has eased, helping to bring inflation down quicker than expected in the OBR’s November 2023 forecast. The OBR’s estimate of the drag on potential output in the medium term from higher energy prices has been cut as a result. However, second-round effects from the terms of trade shock are contributing to domestically generated inflation remaining elevated. This reinforces the importance of fiscal policy remaining responsible and supporting monetary policy to bring inflation to its 2% target sustainably.

The economy is beginning to turn a corner

Inflation has fallen faster than expected since the OBR’s November 2023 forecast, supported by the MPC’s actions and the government’s fiscal policy. The OBR now forecasts inflation to return to the 2% target in Q2 2024, around a year earlier than it had expected. Falling wholesale gas prices have led to the Ofgem price cap falling by over £200 in April 2024 to £1,690, helping to bring inflation down in Q2. [footnote 10] Nominal pay growth is easing but remains elevated. With inflation falling, real wages have risen for the past six months.

Real-time indicators suggest that output has started to increase since Q4 2023. Retail sales grew by 3.4% in January, fully recovering the decline in December. The S&P Global/CIPS Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), an indicator of private sector activity, showed the fourth consecutive month of growth in February, supported by an improvement in consumer demand. In the last four months the Lloyds Business Barometer has shown the three highest readings for overall business confidence since February 2022. [footnote 11] Growing optimism is present in the consumer sector, where GfK’s measure of consumer confidence was 17 points higher in February than a year earlier. [footnote 12]

The OBR forecasts GDP growth to return in Q1 2024 and strengthen over the year. The Governor of the Bank of England has said that the economy is already showing “distinct signs of an upturn”. [footnote 13]

Business investment has recovered strongly from the pandemic. Real business investment grew by 6.1% in 2023, faster than expected in the OBR’s November 2023 forecast. Business investment has been supported by reforms to capital allowances that have made the UK’s capital allowances regime one of the most generous in the world. [footnote 14] This includes the super-deduction announced in March 2021 and full expensing (announced as a temporary measure in March 2023 and then made permanent in November 2023). [footnote 15] , [footnote 16]

The unemployment rate remains low by historic standards at 3.8% in Q4, and has fallen since the summer of 2023. Recruitment difficulties have eased, with the number of vacancies now 28% below the peak level reached in mid-2022. Set against this, inactivity remains elevated. Inactivity due to long-term sickness remains historically high, at 2.8 million in the final quarter of 2023 and making up 30% of the inactive population. The OBR expects rising health-related inactivity to continue weighing on the participation rate. Data on the labour market has been subject to significant revision and remains subject to a high degree of uncertainty, as discussed in more detail in Box 1.B.

Box 1.B The impact of recent changes to the Labour Force Survey

In February the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reintroduced the Labour Force Survey (LFS) after it was suspended in October 2023. The suspension followed concerns over the quality of the data, after falling response rates to the survey. While the LFS was suspended the ONS produced experimental estimates based on administrative data sources.

To address data quality concerns the ONS implemented measures to improve data collection and survey methodology. The ONS reweighted the labour market data to the latest population estimates to better account for demographic changes since 2011, which implied an upward revision to the adult population of around 700,000 in Q3 2023. These changes led to a number of substantive revisions to recent labour market data, including an upward revision to the inactivity rate and level of employment (Chart 1.2). The higher inactivity rate reflected increases in the estimated population shares of under 25s and women, who have above-average inactivity rates. The reintroduced survey data led to revisions to unemployment. The unemployment rate is now estimated to be 3.8% in the three months to November, compared with 4.2% on the basis of the experimental data.

LFS data remains subject to a high degree of uncertainty. The ONS is developing the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) that will aim to increase the sample size and improve the overall quality of labour market statistics; it plans to adopt the TLFS estimates as the lead measure of the labour market in September 2024.

Chart 1.2: Labour market data

Source: Office for National Statistics.

Borrowing this year is lower than expected

Since Autumn Statement 2023, borrowing has been lower than the OBR forecast. Public sector net borrowing (PSNB) is estimated to be £96.6 billion to the end of January, £9.2 billion lower than the OBR anticipated in November. Inflation has fallen faster than expected resulting in lower debt interest costs and driving the fall in borrowing. This is only partially offset by lower-than-forecast central government receipts.

2.2 Finishing the fight against inflation

Responsible decisions have supported the bank in its fight against inflation.

Inflation has fallen but – at 4.0% in January – it remains double the 2% target. The OBR forecasts inflation to fall to 2.0% in Q2 2024, around a year earlier than forecast in November 2023. Inflation is expected to fall below target and then gradually increase to settle at 2.0% in 2028. Measures at Spring Budget, including freezing alcohol and fuel duties, reduce inflation by 0.2 percentage points in 2024‑25.

High inflation creates uncertainty for households and businesses, and is a barrier to stable, long-term growth. The government continues to support the MPC as it brings inflation back to 2%. The reduction in inflation has been supported by the government’s responsible decisions on the public finances, shown through the fiscal stance (Box 1.C). The government has prioritised boosting non-inflationary growth by incentivising work and business investment, with measures in the last three fiscal events boosting the level of GDP by 0.7% by 2028-29.

Box 1.C Fiscal stance

Fiscal policy influences growth and inflation by adding or withdrawing demand to and from the economy. The ‘fiscal stance’ measures the effect of fiscal policy on the economy and can be assessed by several metrics.

Fiscal stance measures are usually based on borrowing. PSNB is forecast to fall across the forecast at a similar pace to Autumn Statement 2023 as part of the government’s commitment to fiscal sustainability. It is customary to subtract net debt interest costs from borrowing when examining the fiscal stance, giving the figure for the primary deficit. The primary deficit reduces over the forecast period, withdrawing support to the economy gradually (Chart 1.3).

The cyclically-adjusted primary deficit (CAPD) removes the impact of the economic cycle from the primary deficit and is therefore a widely accepted measure of discretionary fiscal support for the economy. The CAPD is forecast to fall steadily in coming years – by an average of 0.6% of GDP per year – as support is withdrawn at a pace well matched to the outlook for the economy. This gradual withdrawal of fiscal support for demand is helping the MPC to bring inflation sustainably back to target.

Chart 1.3: Fiscal stance

Source: Office for National Statistics and Office for Budget Responsibility.

2.3 Prioritising long-term growth

The government is focused on delivering sustainable growth.

Falling inflation is providing the foundation for the government to deliver its plan for sustainable, long-term growth. The government has already announced policies to boost the supply side of the economy by increasing business investment and encouraging people into work. [footnote 17] The government is going further at Spring Budget by introducing measures to reward work, which in turn will drive growth. This includes a further cut to NICs and reforms to the High Income Child Benefit Charge. The OBR estimates these measures will increase total hours worked in the economy by the equivalent of more than 100,000 additional full-time workers, boosting the size of the economy by 0.2% in 2028-29.

The OBR estimates that the labour supply measures announced at the last three fiscal events will increase total hours worked by the equivalent of more than 300,000 additional full-time workers by 2028-29. Combining this with the effect of permanent full expensing, which is forecast to increase business investment by £14 billion by 2028-29, government policy announced since Spring Budget 2023 is expected to add 0.7% to the size of the economy by 2028-29.

To help address the leading driver of increased economic inactivity, the government has already taken steps at Autumn Statement 2023 to support the long-term sick and disabled into work. This includes expanding the Individual Placement and Support scheme that supports people with severe mental illness into employment, expanding and digitising mental health services including the NHS Talking Therapies programme, and doubling the yearly places on the Universal Support programme to support employment for people with a disability or health condition.

The combination of frozen income tax thresholds and wage inflation increases some individuals’ taxable income – an effect known as fiscal drag – and therefore affects labour supply. Even allowing for the effect of fiscal drag still to come, the OBR forecast that the government’s labour market and tax policies will raise labour supply. Summing the effect of policy across Spring Budget, Autumn Statement 2023 and Spring Budget 2023, they will boost total hours worked by the equivalent of more than 250,000 full-time workers by 2028-29.

The OBR forecasts the economy to grow by 0.8% in 2024, with growth then increasing to 1.9% and 2.0% in 2025 and 2026. Growth then returns towards the OBR’s estimate of its potential rate, averaging 1.8% in 2027 and 2028. GDP per capita is forecast to grow in every year from 2025.

Households benefit from improving macroeconomic performance. The OBR has revised up the level of real household disposable income (RHDI) per capita throughout the forecast. It now expects RHDI per capita to rise in every year, and to return to pre-pandemic levels two years earlier than forecast in November. RHDI per capita is a more comprehensive measure of living standards than GDP per capita, since GDP per capita includes income that does not flow directly to households.

The unemployment rate is forecast to peak at 4.4% in 2024 and 2025, lower than the 4.6% in the OBR’s November 2023 forecast. The unemployment rate is then forecast to fall gradually to 4.1% in 2028.

Global developments represent risks to the outlook for growth and inflation. Particular risks arise from any further escalation of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine or the conflict in the Middle East, including the attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. Any consequential increased risk of disruption to energy and goods trade could have material economic impacts. Box 2.2 in the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) sets out the potential economic implications of an adverse scenario for the conflict in the Middle East.

2.4 Managing the public finances sustainably

Sustainable public finances support the stability and confidence that underpin long-term economic growth. Reducing government debt will lessen the burden on future generations, provide space for the government to support households and businesses in case of future shocks, and reduce debt interest costs. This is why it is a government priority to get debt falling as a share of GDP.

At Spring Budget, the government’s decisions cut taxes, boost growth and support working people, while meeting the debt and borrowing fiscal rules. This requires a continued responsible approach to public spending, ensuring that the government will get the most out of every pound spent while delivering the outcomes the public expects. The government is reimagining how it delivers public services, by committing an additional £4.2 billion to support the next steps of the Public Sector Productivity Programme.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that, in 2023, UK general government gross debt as a share of GDP was lower than all G7 peers other than Germany and the level of UK general government net borrowing as a share of GDP was the third-lowest in the G7. [footnote 18] The UK’s focus on reducing debt is in line with other G7 countries, such as Canada and Japan, and the reintroduction of the Stability and Growth Pact in the European Union (EU). [footnote 19] , [footnote 20] , [footnote 21]

Getting debt and borrowing falling

PSNB is forecast to be £114.1 billion in 2023-24, down from the peak of £314.7 billion in 2020-21, during the COVID-19 pandemic (Chart 1.4). This is £9.8 billion lower than in the OBR November 2023 forecast. Borrowing is forecast to fall in every year, reaching £39.4 billion, 1.2% of GDP, by 2028-29. This would be the lowest level of borrowing as a share of GDP since 2001-02. The current budget deficit (the difference between receipts and spending, excluding capital expenditure) is forecast to be balanced by 2027-28, at which point the government will only be borrowing for investment.

Chart 1.4: Public sector net borrowing

The forecast for debt interest costs is lower than at Autumn Statement 2023. This is partly offset by a lower forecast for receipts, due to slightly weaker-than-expected outturn this year, a weaker nominal economy in the medium term, and the government’s decision to cut taxes to support hard-working people.

After forecast and policy changes, borrowing is forecast to fall in every year (Table 1.1). Total borrowing from 2023-24 to 2028-29 is forecast to be £0.3 billion lower than at Autumn Statement 2023.

Table 1.1: Changes in borrowing since November 2023

The net financing requirement for the Debt Management Office in 2024-25 is forecast to be £265.3 billion, which will be financed through gilt sales. National Savings and Investments will have a net financing target of £9.0 billion in 2024‑25, within a range of ± £4.0 billion. The government’s financing plans for 2024‑25 are summarised in Annex A and set out in full in the ‘Debt Management Report 2024‑25’, published alongside the Budget.

Underlying debt, the metric used in the government’s fiscal mandate and which excludes the Bank of England, is forecast to be lower in 2023-24 than the OBR anticipated in their November 2023 forecast. It is then forecast to rise, peaking at 93.2% of GDP before it falls in the final year to 92.9%. The OBR’s forecast for the UK’s underlying debt as a percentage of GDP is lower in every year than at Autumn Statement 2022, supported by government policy (Chart 1.5).

Chart 1.5: Public sector net debt excluding the Bank of England

Headline debt, a broader measure which accounts for the public sector’s total stock of debt liabilities (net of liquid assets), including those of the Bank of England, is forecast to fall every year from 2024-25, reaching 95.1% in 2027-28 and 94.3% in 2028-29 (Chart 1.6). Before the Prime Minister took office, headline debt was forecast to reach almost 100% of GDP by 2027-28 (99.6%); it is now forecast to be 4.5 percentage points lower in that year.

Public sector net worth, the total value of the public sector’s assets and liabilities, is expected to strengthen from –70.2% of GDP in 2024-25 to –63.9% of GDP in 2028-29. Public sector net financial liabilities, a measure of the financial balance sheet, is forecast to improve from a peak of 83.6% of GDP in 2024‑25 to 78.7% in 2028-29.

Chart 1.6: Four measures of the public sector balance sheet

1 Government Finance Statistics Manual.

Meeting the fiscal rules

The OBR has confirmed that the government is on track to meet both its debt and borrowing fiscal rules. The rules require underlying debt as a percentage of GDP to be falling and PSNB to not exceed 3% of GDP, both by the fifth year of the rolling forecast (2028-29 in this case). [footnote 22]

Underlying debt falls in the final year with a £8.9 billion buffer (‘headroom’). This compares to headroom of £13.0 billion at Autumn Statement 2023 and £6.5 billion headroom at Spring Budget 2023. The borrowing rule is met with headroom of £56.8 billion in the final year, and the rule itself is achieved three years early, when borrowing falls to 2.7% of GDP in 2025-26.

The OBR forecasts that the welfare cap will be breached by £7.4 billion in 2024‑25. This is a £1.1 billion improvement on the Autumn Statement forecast breach of £8.6 billion.

Contingent liabilities

Best practice in fiscal transparency means reporting those obligations that taxpayers may have to meet in the future, due to policy decisions today. There has been one new significant contingent liability taken on since the last update at Autumn Statement. This is an extension to the Recovery Loan Scheme, which has been renamed the Growth Guarantee Scheme and supports UK small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access the finance they need. The scheme has £229 million of expected loss partially offset by £76 million of expected income.

Table 1.2: Overview of the OBR’s economic forecast(1)

Table 1.3: overview of the obr’s fiscal forecast (% gdp), 3. reforming public spending.

The government is maintaining a disciplined approach to public spending. Spring Budget continues to deliver the spending plans agreed at Spending Review 2021, supporting key public services with targeted additional funding, whilst driving efficiencies to strengthen the public finances and get the most out of every pound spent. This approach, alongside reforms to make the tax system simpler, fairer and up to date with today’s economy has enabled the government to continue to deliver tax cuts for working people.

The government is reimagining how it delivers public services through the Public Sector Productivity Programme, ensuring the public sector achieves the outcomes that matter most to the public while keeping costs under control. This programme recognises that simply providing more money is not always the answer. Instead, the focus should be on targeted investment that helps reform the government public services so that they deliver value to the taxpayer. This programme will ensure the long-term sustainability of public services.

3.1 Public spending

Spending Review 2021 set UK government departments’ resource and capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budgets and the devolved administrations’ block grants from 2022-23 to 2024-25. Since the Spending Review, the government has provided additional support to departments to ensure key public services continue to deliver in the face of inflation and other pressures.

The government has provided significant additional funding to the NHS and adult social care in England including up to £8 billion of additional funding which was made available for 2024-25 at Autumn Statement 2022.

Additional funding for schools announced since Spending Review 2021 totalled more than £2.4 billion in 2023-24 and will be more than £2.8 billion in 2024-25. This will bring per pupil funding for 5-16 year olds to its highest ever level in real terms in 2024-25 – and represents a cash increase in average funding per pupil from £5,920 in 2019-20 to £7,690 in 2024-25. [footnote 23]

The government has also provided additional funding to support other departments and key priorities, including:

  • £11 billion for defence between 2023-24 and 2027-28 to improve the resilience and readiness of the UK’s conventional and nuclear forces.
  • £3.5 billion a year by 2024-25 to support more people into employment.

The government is committed to providing full and fair financial redress, at pace, to the victims of the Horizon IT Scandal and will introduce new primary legislation to ensure those convicted are swiftly exonerated and compensated. Around £1 billion has been committed to date to ensure postmasters are compensated fairly. This will be increased if needed.

Spring Budget builds on this by:

  • Announcing an additional £2.5 billion of funding for the NHS in England in 2024-25, protecting day-to-day funding levels in real terms and supporting the NHS to continue to improve performance and reduce waiting times.
  • Confirming that the hourly rate childcare providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers for children aged nine months to four years will increase in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 for the next two years. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years. This will give childcare providers the confidence to expand and support delivery of the government’s landmark expansion of free childcare.
  • Confirming an additional £500 million of new funding for councils to support the provision of adult and children’s social care, announced on 24 January.

As a result, total government spending (including welfare and debt interest) is around £340 billion higher in cash terms by 2024-25 than at the start of this Parliament (2019-20), and around £480 billion higher in cash terms than 2010-11. Total departmental spending (DEL) will grow in real terms at 3.2% a year on average over this Parliament. Day-to-day spending has increased by an average of 2.3% per year in real terms over this Parliament, and capital spending by 7%.

Beyond 2024-25 planned departmental day-to-day spending will grow at 1% a year on average in real terms and planned departmental capital spending will follow the cash profile set at Autumn Statement 2023, adjusted where new commitments on productivity are funded in addition. This means total departmental spending will be £86 billion higher in real terms by 2028-29 than at the start of this Parliament (2019-20).

The government continues to invest in infrastructure and will deliver over £600 billion of planned public sector investment over the next five years, underpinning future growth and supporting energy security, Net Zero and the UK’s vital public services. This builds on the record £30 billion real terms increase in capital budgets over this Parliament – an average increase of 7% per year.

Table 2.1: Resource Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) excluding depreciation

Table 2.2: capital departmental expenditure limits (del), chart 2.1: total departmental spending (del).

Source: HMT Calculations, Office for Budget Responsibility.

As a result of decisions at Spring Budget, the devolved administrations are now receiving £560 million in additional funding in 2024-25 through the Barnett formula on top of record settlements. The Scottish Government is receiving around £295 million extra; Welsh Government around £170 million; and the Northern Ireland Executive around £100 million.

Chart 2.2: Total Managed Expenditure (TME)

Source: Office for Budget Responsibility and Office for National Statistics.

Table 2.3: Total Managed Expenditure (TME)(1,2)

Box 2.a support for ukraine.

Two years on from Putin’s illegal invasion, the UK remains resolute in its unwavering support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. In January 2024, the Prime Minister announced an additional £2.5 billion of military assistance for 2024-25, an increase of £200 million on the previous two years that will leverage the best of the UK’s military expertise and defence production. [footnote 24] This brings the UK’s total military support to £7.1 billion.

The UK’s total committed support to Ukraine across military, humanitarian and economic lines now amounts to almost £12 billion since February 2022. [footnote 25] This includes £4.1 billion of fiscal support via World Bank loan guarantees, supporting the inception of Ukraine’s IMF programme and bolstering Ukraine’s economy.

In addition, the UK, along with our partners, has implemented one of the most severe packages of sanctions on a major economy, undermining Putin’s ability to fund his illegal war.

3.2 Improving public sector productivity

The government has maintained a consistent focus on rooting out wasteful spending and ensuring the public sector is as efficient as possible. Spending Review 2021 set a commitment to make efficiency savings of 5% in departmental day-to-day budgets by 2024-25.

The government must go further to ensure every pound of taxpayers’ money is well spent. Without reform, the size of the state is forecast to grow in the long-term due to demographic and wider pressures. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR’s) latest projections show that between 2027-28 and 2050-51 public spending – excluding debt interest – will grow at 2.2% per year if the government does not take action, which is faster than projected economic growth of 1.7% per year. [footnote 26] That points to ever higher borrowing and debt or ever higher taxes, whereas the government is committed to controlling the size of the state and sustainable public finances.

Public service productivity is currently estimated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to be 5.9% below pre-pandemic levels. [footnote 27] OBR analysis suggests that raising public sector productivity by 5% would be the equivalent of around £20 billion extra in funding. [footnote 28]

The government has delivered a step-change in public service productivity growth before. It stood at 0.7% per annum, on average, between 2010 and 2019, compared to -0.2% per annum, on average, between 1997 and 2009. [footnote 29] To ensure that the government can achieve this ambition, the Chancellor announced a Public Sector Productivity Programme in June 2023. This is led by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and has the objective of accelerating productivity growth in the public sector.

In order to better measure public service productivity and identify opportunities for improvement, the Chancellor commissioned the National Statistician to review how relevant measures could be improved. This review is on track, with indicative sector-by-sector baselines delivered before Autumn Statement 2023. [footnote 30]

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) highlighted [footnote 31] that the National Audit Office’s work shows that the government could deliver “tens of billions” of pounds worth of savings by becoming more productive, managing projects more effectively, catching fraudsters, and modernising government technology. Alongside Spring Budget, the government has published a separate document that outlines the progress made in addressing these opportunities and how future plans will deliver ongoing savings.

The government has already made significant progress in driving greater productivity and efficiency across the public sector, including:

  • Implementing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan – investing in the largest ever expansion in recruitment and training of NHS staff. The plan sets out a path to double medical school places to 15,000, create 24,000 more nursing and midwifery training places by 2031, and measures to significantly improve NHS productivity growth over the next 15 years.
  • Rolling out Pharmacy First – enabling patients to get treatment for seven common conditions directly from their local pharmacy, without the need for a GP appointment or prescription, which could free up 10 million GP appointments.
  • Opening new Community Diagnostic Centres – which have already delivered six million checks, scans and tests as of November 2023 to help patients to access care more quickly. [footnote 32]
  • Undertaking the Policing Productivity Review – identifying reforms that could save up to 1,000,000 police officer hours in England each year through improving how police and health agencies respond to health incidents.
  • Radically improving passport processing time – before the autumn of 2023 people were asked to allow ten weeks to get their passport, but service improvements mean customers are now advised to expect their passport within three weeks.
  • Capping Civil Service headcount over the rest of this Spending Review period – this is the first step towards the government’s target of bringing headcount back down to pre-pandemic levels over the long-term. The government is also undertaking a radical overhaul of Civil Service recruitment processes, which will be streamlined and opened up so the government can hire a broader range of talent.
  • Allocating £45 million since 2022 from the Shared Outcomes Fund (SOF) – this ensures the government can continue testing and evaluating new ways of delivering public services through innovative approaches. This brings the total amount of SOF allocated funding to £525 million and includes further funding for pilots that take preventative action, such as reducing drug-related harms, improving data links to better support people with complex needs, addressing growing inequalities in digital and data, and increasing surveillance of foodborne disease.

Spring Budget marks the next step of the Public Sector Productivity Programme. The government will provide an additional £4.2 billion of targeted funding that will start to deliver the next phase of reform of public services, funding the strongest productivity releasing projects that departments have identified through the programme to date, including £3.4 billion for the NHS.

Box 2.B NHS productivity plan and funding

The government has provided significant additional funding to the NHS and adult social care in England. Measures introduced at Spring Budget will protect levels of funding for the NHS in England in real terms in 2024-25 by providing an extra £2.5 billion for 2024-25 meaning a total budget of £164.9 billion.

The government is building on this by taking steps to unlock greater productivity across the health system and ensure that the NHS can continue to deliver for patients.

Technological and digital transformation

While this additional spending is needed, the government recognises that more money can not always be the answer to improving outcomes for patients. Alongside this £2.5 billion of extra funding for day-to-day activities the government will invest £3.4 billion to reform the way the NHS works.

This funding will significantly reduce the 13 million hours of time [footnote 33] doctors spend on poor IT, freeing up significant capacity and revolutionising treatment for a range of illnesses such as cancer and strokes. This will double the investment in technological and digital transformation in the NHS in England and turn the NHS into one of the most digitally enabled, productive healthcare systems in the world.

This investment in NHS technology will be central to a wider NHS productivity plan including workforce productivity improvements set out in the long term workforce plan. It will mean the NHS can commit to 1.9% average productivity growth from 2025-26 to 2029-30, rising to 2% over the final two years. This delivers at the upper end of the 1.5-2% ambition over 15 years set out in the Long Term Workforce Plan last year. It will enable delivery of £35 billion of cumulative savings by 2029-30. This represents a substantial increase on historical NHS productivity growth, enabling the NHS to treat patients more quickly and effectively.

The £3.4 billion additional funding will deliver improvements for patients and staff across the following three areas.

£430 million will be invested to transform access and services for patients, giving them more choice and the ability to manage and attend appointments virtually, and enabling £2.5 billion savings over five years. This will not only make it easier for people to access the NHS, but it will also help to tackle waiting lists, reduce waiting times and ensure patients get the care they need more quickly. These transformations include:

  • Making the NHS App the single front door through which patients can access NHS services and manage their care, saving patient time when ordering repeat prescriptions, managing appointments, and providing more patient choice and instant access to their own health information. This will save NHS staff time by reducing up to 500,000 missed appointments.
  • Digitally-enabled prevention and early intervention services , through the NHS App, introducing a new digital health check, which will enable individuals at high risk of early onset conditions to be identified early, as well as creating easy access to vaccination or screening appointments.
  • Delivering a radically improved online experience for patients, giving citizens a single digital access point for information about NHS services, including which services are available, opening times, and contact details. This will make it easier for patients to navigate services, improving the patient experience and freeing up staff time.

£1 billion will be invested to transform the use of data to reduce time spent on unproductive administrative tasks by NHS staff, enabling more than £3 billion of savings over five years. This funding will help scale up and accelerate the use of technologies to automate these processes, so staff can instead use this time to deliver better care for patients. This includes:

  • Pilots to test the ability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate back-office functions. By automating the writing and clinical coding of notes, discharge summaries and GP letters, clinicians will be able to spend more time with patients at more appointments. Pilots in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital have found that this technology can reduce time spent on discharge summaries by more than 50%. If rolled out across the NHS, this could unlock an annual productivity benefit of £500-850 million.
  • Providing all NHS staff with digital passports and access to a new NHS Staff App. This will significantly reduce the bureaucracy involved in moving between different parts of the NHS, and eliminate the need to redo training courses, meaning more time can be spent on patient treatment and care.
  • An acceleration of the Federated Data Platform (FDP) to bring together operational and ICS data currently stored on separate systems to every trust in the country by the end of 2026-27 so staff can access the information they need in one safe and secure environment. Amongst other benefits, the NHS estimates the FDP could enable a 10% improvement in theatre utilisation, freeing up consultants to do an extra 200,000 operations procedures a year.

£2 billion will be invested to update fragmented and outdated IT systems across the NHS, reducing 13 million hours wasted by doctors every year and enabling up to £4 billion of savings over five years. This will also lay the groundwork for cutting-edge technologies such as AI, enabling the NHS to become a world leader in using technology. These steps include:

  • Upgrading IT systems, scaling up existing use of AI and ensuring all NHS staff are equipped with modern computing technology. This will reduce time spent on non-clinical work and set the foundation for other technology investment to be effective. Highly digitised ICSs have 27% lower A&E wait times and 14% lower referral to treatment times, while also delivering care at lower cost.
  • Ensuring all NHS Trusts have Electronic Patient Records by March 2026, ending reliance on outdated physical paper records across the system and ensuring patients can easily access records across all NHS systems.
  • Upgrading over one hundred MRI scanners with AI , enabling scans to be delivered up to 35% more quickly. When combined with best practice on booking and scheduling approaches, this would mean up to 130,000 patients a year, including those waiting for cancer results, will receive their test results sooner.
  • Digitising transfers of care. This will ensure patients can move more quickly and easily between care settings and would reduce the time primary care staff spend on each referral by up to 15 minutes.

The government and NHS England will convene an external expert advisory panel to ensure that the programme has the support and challenge to deliver its goals, including making the best use of new and emerging technologies.

A step change in the timeliness of data and reporting will also enable the NHS to identify and adapt the best policies for improving productivity more quickly. NHS England will start reporting against new productivity metrics regularly from the second half of 2024-25, at a national, Integrated Card Board (ICB) and Trust level. New incentives will be introduced to reward providers that deliver productivity improvement at a local level, including through effective investment helping to deliver better outcomes. Further detail will be set out in the summer.

Building on the progress already made, the government will work with NHS England to reduce the costs of agency staffing, including ending the use of expensive “off-framework” agency staffing from July 2024, while ensuring that emergency cover can continue.

Alongside this, the NHS will introduce a wider set of measures to review agency price caps, tighten controls and rules around agency staffing, and improve support and transparency. Further details will be set out in the NHS’ Planning Guidance, which will be published shortly.

Maternity safety

The government and NHS England are investing £35 million over three years to improve maternity safety across England , with specialist training for staff, additional midwives and support to ensure maternity services act on women’s experiences to improve care. This package will include:

  • £9 million over three years, to roll out the Avoiding Brain Injuries in Childbirth programme across maternity units in England to provide maternity services with the tools and training to reduce avoidable brain injuries in childbirth.
  • Further investment in training to ensure the NHS workforce has the skills needed to provide ever safer care. We will train an additional 6,000 midwives in neonatal resuscitation and nearly double the number of clinical staff who have received specialist training in obstetric medicine in England.
  • Increasing the number of midwives by funding 160 new posts over three years to support the growth of the maternity and neonatal workforce.
  • Funding to support the rollout of Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships, to improve how women’s experiences and views are listened to and acted on to improve care.

Transforming other public services

The NHS productivity plan, set out at Spring Budget is just the start; it is a blueprint for other parts of the public sector to adopt. Over the coming months, the Public Sector Productivity Programme will take this reforming approach to the delivery of public services and focus on improving productivity in other frontline services across the public sector.

To drive this forward, relevant departments will develop detailed productivity plans, building on their work to date and the funding announced at Spring Budget.

These plans will be developed over the coming months ahead of the next Spending Review. That Spending Review – which will come after the General Election – will put in place a robust and comprehensive strategy for improving public sector productivity, putting these improvements at the heart of departmental settlements.

This will provide the foundation to drive significant improvements in how crucial public services operate, so that the government can deliver the outcomes the public expect while controlling levels of government spending. This continued work on the Public Sector Productivity Programme will ensure the government is more prepared than ever for the Spending Review, and the choices and opportunities it brings.

To turbocharge the development of these departmental plans ahead of the next Spending Review, the government is committing an additional £800 million of funding over the forecast period for productivity initiatives outside the NHS. These investments are part of the Public Sector Productivity Programme, as set out at Autumn Statement 2023:

1) Reducing the amount of time our key frontline workers spend on unnecessary administrative tasks. The government is:

  • Committing £230 million to deliver pilot schemes of police technology like facial recognition, automating the triage of 101 calls and deploying drones as first responders to enable police officers to spend more time on the frontline tackling crime. This will be supported by establishing a Centre for Police Productivity to improve police data quality and enable forces to implement promising technologies.
  • Committing £170 million to deliver a justice system fit for the modern era. This includes £55 million for the Family Courts to offer online targeted guidance and earlier legal advice, shortening wait times and supporting families through non-court dispute resolution; £100 million into prisons to support rehabilitative activities, reducing reoffending; and £15 million to introduce digital solutions, reducing administrative burdens in the courts.
  • Piloting the use of AI solutions to support planning authorities to streamline their local plan development processes, producing plans in 30 months rather than the current average of seven years. This builds on work to date which has already reduced planning officer processing times by up to 30% per application.

2) Embracing the opportunities presented by making greater use of cutting-edge technology, such as AI, across the public sector. The government is:

  • More than doubling the size of i.AI, the AI incubator team, ensuring that the UK government has the in-house expertise consisting of the most talented technology professionals in the UK, who can apply their skills and expertise to appropriately seize the benefits of AI across the public sector and Civil Service.
  • Committing £34 million to expand the Public Sector Fraud Authority by deploying AI to help combat fraud across the public sector, making it easier to spot, stop and catch fraudsters thereby saving £100 million for the public purse.
  • Committing £17 million to accelerate DWP’s digital transformation, replacing paper-based processes with simplified online services, such as a new system for the Child Maintenance Service.
  • Committing £14 million for public sector research and innovation infrastructure. This includes funding to develop the next generation of health and security technologies, unlocking productivity improvements in the public and private sector alike.

3) Strengthening preventative action to reduce demand on public services. The government is:

  • Committing an initial £105 million towards a wave of 15 new special free schools to create over 2,000 additional places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across England. This will help more children receive a world-class education and builds on the significant levels of capital funding for SEND invested at the 2021 Spending Review. The locations of these special free schools will be announced by May 2024.
  • Confirming the location of 20 Alternative Provision (AP) free schools, which will create over 1,600 additional AP places across England as part of the Spending Review 2021 commitment to invest £2.6 billion capital in high needs provision. This will support early intervention, helping improve outcomes for children requiring alternative provision, and helping them to fulfil their potential.
  • Committing £45 million match funding to local authorities to build an additional 200 open children’s home placements, and £120 million to fund the maintenance of the existing secure children’s home estate and rebuild Atkinson Secure Children’s Home and Swanwick Secure Children’s Home. This extra capacity will reduce local government reliance on costly emergency provision and improve outcomes for children by providing them with more suitable placements. The government will also be developing proposals on what more can be done to combat profiteering, bring down costs and create a more sustainable market for residential placements which it will publish later this year. Furthermore, it will work with the Local Government Pension Scheme to consider the role they could play in unlocking investment in new children’s homes.
  • Committing £75 million over three years from 2025 onwards to expand the Violence Reduction Unit model across England and Wales, supporting a prevention-first approach to serious violence. Violence Reduction Units enable local public services such as health boards, schools and police leaders to coordinate their joint strategy to tackle serious violence among young people, preventing violent crime and reducing burdens on healthcare, schools and criminal justice.
  • Funding the Changing Futures programme, which is using locally led pilots in fifteen areas to test a person-centred approach to improving outcomes for adults facing multiple disadvantages. Emerging findings show a range of positive impacts, such as fewer visits to A&E and improvements to mental and physical wellbeing.
  • Backing Open Referral UK to streamline administrative processes for councils. This will set up an Open Referral UK cross-government advisory group and drive further adoption of the Open Referral UK data standard [footnote 34] as part of a three-year plan. Benefits of adoption for councils could include residents receiving information more quickly and improved service connection.

This investment is expected to deliver up to £1.8 billion of productivity benefits over the forecast period and is just the first step in the government’s plan to transform public service delivery and generate significant benefits in future years. Further funding will be considered at the Spending Review, subject to the development and agreement of robust and detailed productivity plans.

In developing these plans, the government will continue to focus on reducing time spent on administrative activity, use of AI and digitisation, and upstream prevention to boost public sector productivity.

These plans will provide a clear vision for how public sector productivity can and will be improved for each key public service area. They will be supported by a robust delivery plan for how benefits will be realised.

The Cabinet Office will also set out how the Civil Service and wider public sector can take advantage of the opportunities of AI through a strategic vision, building on the establishment of the Incubator for AI. The Cabinet Office is also working with departments to finalise AI adoption plans, which will be ready in time for the Spending Review, and will continue to expand the application of automation and AI across the range of priority areas.

As part of this effort the government will also continue to focus on driving productivity in the Civil Service through its ongoing programme of modernisation and reform. Improving productivity will enable the Civil Service to deliver more with less, maintain and improve public services and unlock change across the wider public sector. This work will draw on functional expertise to drive ambition in the priority areas set out by the C&AG, which the government has provided more detail on in the separate plan published alongside Spring Budget, and will focus on:

  • Simplicity – streamlining, simplifying and rewiring the operation of government.
  • Technology – transforming government by harnessing the potential of automation and new technologies.
  • People – unlocking the potential of the Civil Service workforce.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office has also announced he will publish guidance on how staff networks operate across the Civil Service, building on the audit of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion spending, as well as setting out impartiality commitments under the Civil Service Code.

To continue to take a whole-of-government approach, local authorities have also been asked to produce plans by July 2024 setting out how they will improve service performance, utilise data and technology, and reduce wasteful spend. DLUHC will also set up a productivity panel to support the long-term sustainability of the sector, which will discuss the key themes emerging from the plans and offer advice to both councils and government that will be considered going forward.

3.3 A fair and sustainable tax system

The government is bringing forward a series of reforms to ensure the tax system remains fair, keeps pace with developments in the economy, and supports sustainable public finances. It is by doing this, continuing to control public spending, and boosting growth, that the government can cut taxes for working people in a sustainable and responsible way.

Therefore, after careful consideration of the best approach to make the tax system fairer while maintaining the UK’s international competitiveness, the government is abolishing the current outdated tax regime for non-UK domiciled individuals and replacing it with a modernised residence-based regime that is simpler, fairer and more competitive. Under the new regime anyone who has been tax resident in the UK for more than four years will pay UK tax on their foreign income and gains, as is the case for other UK residents. This measure raises £2.7 billion in the year 2028-29.

This represents a significant change for those medium and long-term residents who will be affected. Transitional arrangements for existing non-doms claiming the remittance basis will include an option to rebase the value of capital assets to 5 April 2019 and a temporary 50% exemption for the taxation of foreign income for the first year of the new regime (2025-26). The government will also offer a two-year Temporary Repatriation Facility for individuals who have paid tax on the remittance basis prior to 6 April 2025 to bring previously accrued foreign income and gains into the UK at a 12% rate of tax. This facility is expected to bring in an additional £15 billion of foreign income and gains onshore to the UK and raise over £1 billion in additional tax receipts.

From 6 April 2025, the government will introduce a new residence-based regime specifically designed to make the UK more competitive. Individuals will not pay UK tax on any foreign income and gains arising in their first four years of tax residence, provided they have been non-tax resident for the last 10 years. Eligible employees will also be able to claim Overseas Workday Relief in their first three years of tax residence for income from employment duties carried out overseas. This represents a competitive offer for international talent to live, work and invest in the UK.

The government is also announcing the intention to move to a residence-based regime for Inheritance Tax (IHT) and will consult in due course on the best way to achieve this. No changes to IHT will take effect before 6 April 2025.

Further information on these changes can be found in a technical note published on GOV.UK.

The Tackling the Tax Gap package announced at Autumn Statement 2023 was the largest since 2016, raising £5 billion of tax revenue over the five-year Autumn Statement 2023 forecast period. The government is building on this with a new package of measures that will raise over £4.5 billion by 2028-29, including by ensuring taxpayers are supported out of tax debt faster. The government is also implementing international standards to close gaps in the tax transparency system that have emerged as a result of recent developments in financial technology and the global crypto-asset market.

The government is building on strong actions at recent fiscal events, including measures to clamp down on promoters of tax avoidance, and is now going further to strengthen taxpayer protections, making it harder for bad actors to provide tax advice that could cause harm. The government is consulting both on options to strengthen the regulatory framework in the tax advice market, and on requiring tax advisers to register with HMRC if they wish to interact with HMRC on a client’s behalf. Following consultation in 2023, the government will set out next steps for tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market shortly.

The Energy Profits Levy was introduced in 2022 to ensure that oil and gas producers in the UK pay their fair share of tax from extraordinary profits. Gas prices are forecast to remain abnormally high until at least 2028-29. The government is therefore extending the Energy Profits Levy by an additional year to 2028-29. The government is also bringing forward legislation to put beyond doubt that the Energy Profits Levy will end if oil and gas prices drop below the levels set by the Energy Security Investment Mechanism before then.

Health advice is clear that vaping is not risk free and those who do not smoke should not vape. A new duty on vaping, introduced from October 2026, will discourage non-smokers from taking up vaping and raise revenue to help fund public services like the NHS. This new duty will raise £445 million in 2028-29.

Last year, the government announced ambitious plans to protect future generations from the harms of smoking and create the first smokefree generation. To ensure vapes continue to play a role in helping smokers give up cigarettes, tobacco duty will also be increased from October 2026 to maintain the current financial incentive to choose vaping over smoking. This will raise a further £170 million in 2028-29.

The government is making a one-off adjustment to rates of Air Passenger Duty (APD) on non-economy passengers to account for high inflation in recent years and help to maintain the value of APD in real terms. For those in economy on domestic or short-haul flights, rates will remain frozen, benefitting more than 70% of passengers and keeping the cost of flying down.

In December 2023, the government confirmed that it would introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. This will be introduced from 1 January 2027 and will apply to relevant goods imported in the aluminium, cement, ceramics, fertiliser, glass, hydrogen and iron & steel sectors. The details will be subject to public consultation later in 2024. This will give industry the confidence to invest in the knowledge their decarbonisation efforts will not be undermined.

Box 2.C Tax simplification

The government wants the tax system to be simple, fair and support growth. To make progress on its tax simplification objectives the government is delivering changes both to how taxpayers interact with the tax system and to the underlying tax rules.

This is why the government is announcing four metrics to track progress being made in simplifying the tax system, especially for small businesses and individuals, with a view to reducing business burdens over time. From HMRC’s annual customer survey, the government will track the views of small businesses and individuals on the ease of dealing with tax issues, and the ease of finding information. The government will also measure how easy taxpayers found it to deal with HMRC from a survey offered after using HMRC’s telephony or digital services. Lastly, following representations from the Federation of Small Business, the government will monitor HMRC’s estimate of the net change in cost to businesses of meeting tax obligations from fiscal event measures. These metrics will be kept under review and enhanced, taking into account feedback from stakeholders.

At Spring Budget, the government is delivering further administrative reforms to make it easier for individuals and sole traders to meet their tax obligations by:

  • Easing the payment of inheritance tax before probate or confirmation: From 1 April 2024, personal representatives of estates will no longer need to have sought commercial loans to pay inheritance tax before applying to obtain a “grant on credit” from HMRC.
  • Investment in HMRC digital services: The government is removing confusion for Income Tax Self-Assessment customers by simplifying access to digital services for customers who want to pay in instalments in advance via a Budget Payment Plan, or in arrears via a Time to Pay Arrangement from September 2025.

At Spring Budget, the government is also simplifying underlying tax rules, including:

  • Abolishing the current tax regime for non-UK domiciled individuals , replacing the outdated concept of domicile with a simpler residence-based regime. Under the new regime, anyone who has been tax resident in the UK for more than four years will pay UK tax on foreign income and gains, as is the case for other UK tax residents. This is a much simpler and clearer test, with less scope for ambiguity than the current system. The new regime will no longer rely on the remittance basis, removing a source of complexity that incentivises individuals to keep income and gains offshore in the current system.
  • Announcing the end of the Alcohol Duty Stamps scheme following a review by HMRC. Removing the scheme represents a simplification for the spirits industry which has faced associated cost burdens and complexity.
  • Abolishing the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) tax regime from 6 April 2025, meaning short-term and long-term lets will be treated the same for tax purposes. Individuals with FHL and non-FHL properties will no longer need to calculate and report income separately.
  • At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced the removal of the requirement to pay Class 2 NICs and committed to abolishing Class 2 entirely. The government will consult on the details of the reform later this year.

4. Rewarding work

At Autumn Statement 2023 the government delivered on its commitment to ensure work always pays and reformed the welfare system to help people work, where they are able to. The government is building on this commitment and announcing further tax cuts for 29 million working people. The government is taking a responsible approach by delivering tax cuts within the fiscal rules, with underlying debt falling as a share of GDP in 2028-29.

The NICs cuts announced at Spring Budget reduce taxes for 29 million workers, increasing total hours worked in the economy by the equivalent of almost 100,000 additional full-time workers by 2028-29. Together with cuts announced at Autumn Statement, this is an overall tax cut worth over £20 billion per year, the largest ever cut to employee and self-employed National Insurance – and means the combined impact of government policy from 2022 reduces the tax burden by 0.6 percentage points. [footnote 35] The OBR expects that policies announced at Spring Budget and the previous two fiscal events will increase the size of the economy by 0.7% by 2028‑29, by increasing total hours worked by the equivalent of over 300,000 full-time workers, and boosting business investment by £14 billion.

To support working parents, Spring Budget 2023 announced a significant expansion of childcare support in England by providing 30 hours a week of free childcare to eligible working parents. Spring Budget 2024 announces plans to end the unfairness for single earner families in the Child Benefit system by administering the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) on a household rather than individual basis by April 2026, and the government will consult in due course. The government will also raise the HICBC threshold to £60,000, meaning more hard-working families across the United Kingdom will be supported to balance work with looking after their children.

The government is also building on its record of housebuilding and is on track to deliver one million homes within this Parliament, helping more people across the country to own their own home. In 2022-23, 234,400 net additional dwellings were delivered, and since 2018 there have been the four highest annual housebuilding rates in the last 30 years. [footnote 36] The government is also reforming the property tax system – making the system fairer by levelling the playing field between short and long-term lets, encouraging residential disposals to boost the availability of housing, and raising funds to support the public finances.

4.1 Rewarding working people

The tax system should be fair, simple, and reward hard work. Rewarding those in work is the best way to get the economy growing and reducing employee and self-employed NICs makes the tax system fairer by targeting working people.

At Autumn Statement 2023 the government announced NICs cuts for 29 million people. The government is now building on this, announcing further NICs cuts, with an additional 2p reduction to the main rates of employee and self-employed NICs from 6 April 2024. This is a tax cut worth over £10 billion per year, and the OBR expect that as a result total hours worked will increase by the equivalent of almost 100,000 full-time workers by 2028-29, of which the majority is a further increase in hours worked by those already in work. The average worker on £35,400 will receive a tax cut of over £450 per year from April 2024. Alongside the cuts from Autumn Statement, this is a total annual tax cut of over £900. [footnote 37]

Following the changes at Autumn Statement 2023, the combined rate of income tax and NICs for employees paying the basic rate decreased from 32% to 30% from 6 January 2024. The government is cutting the main rate of Class 1 employee NICs further from 10% to 8%, making the combined basic rate 28%. Together with cuts announced at Autumn Statement 2023 this provides an overall 4p tax cut for 27 million working people. The personal taxes paid by a median earner as a proportion of their income in 2024-25, are the lowest they have been since 1975. [footnote 38] This is also the lowest combined basic rate of income tax and NICs since the introduction of the modern structure of National Insurance in 1975. [footnote 39]

Taken together these cuts mean:

  • an average full-time nurse on £38,900 will receive an annual gain of over £1,000 [footnote 40]
  • an average teacher on £44,300 will receive an annual gain of over £1,250 [footnote 41]
  • an average police officer on £44,300 will receive an annual gain of over £1,250 [footnote 42]
  • a typical junior doctor on £65,000 will receive over £1,500 [footnote 43]
  • and working families with two earners each on the average salary will receive a gain of over £1,800.

The government will also support the self-employed by cutting the main rate of Class 4 self-employed NICs to 6%. This will benefit over 2 million individuals, recognising the contribution of the self-employed and ensuring work pays for all. Taking this together with changes from Autumn Statement 2023, this will mean a 3p reduction in the main rate of Class 4 and the abolition of the requirement to pay Class 2 from April 2024. This will save an average self-employed person on £28,000 £650 a year. [footnote 44]

These further cuts will take effect from 6 April 2024, meaning workers will see a one third reduction in their main rate of National Insurance contributions compared to April 2023. This is the largest ever cut to employee and self-employed National Insurance. [footnote 45]

Finally, the government will launch a consultation later this year to deliver its commitment to fully abolish Class 2 National Insurance. This follows the announcement at Autumn Statement 2023 that from April 2024 no self-employed person will be required to pay Class 2, whilst those who pay voluntarily will continue to be able to do so to build entitlement to contributory benefits. The government remains committed to reforming this complex part of the tax system while ensuring that low-income self-employed individuals will not pay more.

Together, the government’s changes to NICs across Autumn Statement 2023 and Spring Budget have reduced and simplified taxes for working people by;

  • abolishing an entire class of NICs to cut taxes and free up time for the self- employed, and
  • making the tax system fairer by cutting taxes for hard-working families.

The NICs cuts at Autumn Statement and Spring Budget and above inflation increases to thresholds since 2010 mean that an average worker on £35,400 will pay over £1,500 less in personal taxes in 2024-25 than they otherwise would have done. [footnote 46]

The government is committed to supporting working families. At Spring Budget 2023, the government announced a significant expansion of childcare support in England by providing 30 hours a week of free childcare for 38 weeks a year, for eligible working parents of children aged nine months to three years which will remove barriers to work for over 400,000 parents. The first stage of this offer is being rolled out in April 2024, when eligible working parents of two year olds will be entitled to 15 hours of childcare a week.

To support the sector to deliver the expansion of childcare support, the government is confirming that the hourly rate providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers will increase in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 for the next two years. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years. Along with planned reforms to local funding rules, whereby Local Authorities (LAs) will have an eight week window to communicate final hourly funding rates to providers and will soon have to pass through at least 97% of funding to providers, this gives providers more certainty on future funding so they invest in expanding their business.

The government will reform Child Benefit to support working families. Child Benefit helps parents pay for the costs associated with having children, meaning they can better balance work with looking after their children. However, the administration of the HICBC is unfair towards single earner families. The government plans to end this unfairness by administering the HICBC on household basis rather than an individual basis by April 2026, and the government will consult in due course.

From April 2024, the government is also increasing the HICBC threshold from £50,000 to £60,000, taking 170,000 families out of paying this tax charge. [footnote 47] The rate at which the HICBC is charged will also be halved so that Child Benefit is not withdrawn in full until individuals earn £80,000 or more, thereby improving people’s incentives to continue working or take up more hours. This will reduce the marginal tax rate resulting from HICBC – for example, from 64% to 53% for someone with two children. [footnote 48] Overall, the government estimates 485,000 families will gain an average of £1,260 in Child Benefit in 2024-25 as a result of these changes. [footnote 49]

4.2 Supporting people into work

Alongside rewarding those already in work, the government remains committed to removing the barriers that people face when entering the labour market. Inactivity remains elevated, and inactivity due to long-term sickness remains historically high.

At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced a new Back to Work Plan to expand employment support for the long-term sick and disabled, and the long-term unemployed. Reforms to the Work Capability Assessment announced at Autumn Statement 2023 will reduce by 66% the net flow of people forecast over five years to be assessed to have no work requirements as a result of their health condition, ensuring that more individuals receive the right work and health support at the right time. [footnote 50] The Autumn Statement measures built on the comprehensive employment package from Spring Budget 2023, which focused support on groups where inactivity levels were high or where employment support is most needed, including the long-term sick and disabled, welfare recipients, and people aged over 50.

The government is extending the duration of the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot across England and Scotland for a further 12 months. This pilot will continue to test how intensive support at specific points in a Universal Credit claimant’s journey can help support them into employment or higher earnings. As part of the pilot extension, claimants will also be required to accept a new claimant commitment at 6, 13 and 26 weeks, agreeing to more work requirements or have their claim closed.

The government is also providing additional funding to support the processing of disability benefit claims. The funding will increase system capacity to meet increased demand, enabling people to get the right support in a timely manner.

4.3 Housing

The government is committed to building more homes and supporting more first-time buyers onto the housing ladder. At Spring Budget the government takes action to boost housing supply now, sets out real progress on the government’s Long-Term Plan for Housing, and proposes long-term changes to help the market bring forward new houses.

Following on from the £188 million allocated to housing projects in Sheffield, Blackpool and Liverpool at the Convention of the North on 1 March 2024, Spring Budget allocates over £240 million to housing projects in London, unlocking up to 7,200 homes in Barking and a new life sciences hub and up to 750 homes in Canary Wharf. Additionally, a new £20 million investment in social finance will build up to 3,000 new homes and improve capacity of local community groups to deliver housing.

The government is delivering on the Long-Term Plan for Housing announced in July 2023, which offers targeted support to Cambridge, London and Leeds. Alongside Spring Budget, the government is setting out its ambitious vision for Leeds to unlock 20,000 homes, and in London, the government is establishing the Euston Housing Delivery Group with £4 million to support plans to deliver up to 10,000 new homes.

Spring Budget confirms that the future development corporation in Cambridge will receive a long-term funding settlement at the next Spending Review, to start delivering on the government’s plan to unleash the economic potential of the city, including building new homes and increasing the amount of lab space.

In addition, £10.2 million is being invested to support the development of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Europe’s leading centre for medical research and health science. £7.2 million of this will unlock improvements to local transport connections for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and the city, and £3 million is for Cambridge University NHS Trust to support plans for growth.

The government is launching round 2 of the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund, which will support delivery of 30,000 homes by 2030 that would otherwise be stalled due to high levels of nutrient pollution. To boost capacity in the planning system, the government is committing £3 million to match industry-led funding for a skills and education programme to attract more people to take up roles as local planners in planning authorities.

The government will implement a change to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to support the housing market. The higher rate of CGT for residential property disposals will be cut from 28% to 24%. The lower rate will remain at 18% for any gains that fall within an individual’s basic rate band. This will encourage landlords and second home-owners to sell their properties, making more available for a variety of buyers including those looking to get on the housing ladder for the first time, while also raising revenue over the forecast period. Private Residence Relief will remain in place, meaning the vast majority of residential property disposals will pay no CGT.

The government will remove the current incentive for landlords to offer short‑term holiday lets rather than longer-term homes by abolishing the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) tax regime. This will level the playing field between short- term and long-term lets and support people to live in their local area. This will take effect from April 2025 and draft legislation will be published in due course.

From 1 June 2024, the government is abolishing Multiple Dwellings Relief, a bulk purchase relief in the Stamp Duty Land Tax regime. This follows an external evaluation which showed no strong evidence the relief is meeting its original objectives of supporting investment in the private rented sector. Property transactions with contracts that were exchanged on or before 6 March 2024 will continue to benefit from the relief regardless of when they complete, as will any other purchases that are completed before 1 June 2024. The government will engage with the agricultural industry to determine if there are any particular impacts for the sector that should be considered further.

4.4 Supporting households

In response to the energy crisis, the government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable by providing one of the largest support packages in Europe. [footnote 51] The total support in 2022-23 and 2023-24 to help households with the cost of living is £94 billion – an average of £3,300 per UK household. [footnote 52]

At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced benefits uprating and further cost of living support for 2024-25, building on the substantial package of support already provided since 2021. Working age benefits will be uprated by September 2023 CPI of 6.7% from April 2024. This is 3.6 percentage points higher than forecast earnings for 2024-25 and will help support the most vulnerable whilst inflation continues to fall. As a result, 5.5 million households on Universal Credit will gain £470 on average in 2024-25. [footnote 53]

The government is also committed to supporting pensioner incomes by maintaining the triple lock. In 2024-25, the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension will be £3,700 higher, in cash terms, than in 2010. [footnote 54] That’s £990 more than if it had been uprated by prices, and £1,000 more than if it had been uprated by earnings (since 2010). [footnote 55]

To support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the government announced that Local Housing Allowance rates will rise to the 30th percentile of local market rents from April 2024. This will benefit 1.6 million low‑income households, who will be around £800 a year better off on average in 2024‑25. [footnote 56]

The government is continuing to provide targeted support for the most vulnerable as inflation continues to fall. To help households with the cost of essentials such as food and utilities, the government is providing an additional £500 million (including Barnett impact) to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund (HSF) in England from April to September 2024.

Beyond this, the government is continuing to support motorists and industry by maintaining rates of fuel duty at the current levels for a further 12 months, through extending the temporary 5p fuel duty cut and cancelling the planned inflation-linked increase for 2024-25. This support is being maintained at a time where many other European countries have ended their fuel duty cuts: it represents around £13 billion of support over the three years from the cut being introduced, and is worth around £50 for the average car driver in 2024-25. [footnote 57]

To further support alcohol producers, pubs, and the hospitality sector, and to help consumers with the cost of living, the government will freeze alcohol duty from 1 August 2024 until 1 February 2025. This extends the six-month freeze announced at Autumn Statement 2023. This will result in 2p less duty on an average pint of beer, 1p less duty on an average pint of cider, 10p less duty on an average bottle of wine, and 33p less duty on an average bottle of spirits, than if the planned duty increase had gone ahead. [footnote 58]

The outlook for living standards has improved since Autumn Statement 2023 due to lower-than-expected inflation and stronger labour and non-labour incomes. The OBR now expects living standards, as measured by real household disposable income (RHDI) per person, to grow by 0.8% in 2023-24 and continue to grow in all years of the forecast. In the latest year of data (year to Q3 2023), RHDI per person was around £1,100 higher than the OBR expected in their Spring Budget 2023 forecast. [footnote 59]

However, despite the overall improved living standards picture, certain groups will continue to experience pressure on their living standards. In this context, the government is taking further steps at the Spring Budget to support the most vulnerable whilst ensuring that decisions are fiscally sustainable.

Since July 2023, the government has removed the premium paid by over 4 million households using prepayment meters (PPMs) bringing their charges into line with comparable direct debit customers and saving them around £25, via the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG). [footnote 60] [footnote 61] The government also committed to remove the PPM premium on a permanent basis, following the end of the EPG in March 2024. As announced by Ofgem, we are delivering on this commitment – removing the PPM standing charge premium on an enduring basis and saving PPM customers £50 a year. This will end the inequity of people with prepayment meters, many of whom are vulnerable, being charged more up-front for their energy than other consumers.

To support households struggling with problem debts, the government is making it easier to access a Debt Relief Order (DRO). DROs are a personal insolvency debt solution for individuals who cannot pay their debts. At Spring Budget, the government is removing the £90 administration fee from 6 April 2024. The government is also raising the maximum debt value threshold from £30,000 to £50,000 and increasing the maximum value of motor vehicle that an individual can retain from £2,000 to £4,000, from 28 June 2024. These changes build on government’s record levels of funding for debt advice in England, meaning that more people can access debt relief and get a fresh start with their finances.

Alongside this, the government is increasing the repayment period on budgeting advance loans taken out by claimants on Universal Credit from 12 months to 24 months. This will apply to new Budgeting Advances taken out from December 2024 and will reduce the monthly repayments on these loans, relieving financial pressure on low-income households on Universal Credit.

5. Delivering our plan for growth

The government is focused on taking long-term decisions to strengthen the economy, by boosting productivity and increasing the number of people in good jobs. Building on the Prime Minister’s 2022 Mais lecture and the Chancellor’s 2023 Bloomberg speech, the government set out its plan to drive growth at Spring Budget, the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech, and Autumn Statement in 2023. Across these events, the government has taken significant action to increase labour market participation and business investment, directly addressing key drivers of long-term economic growth.

In particular, the government’s ambitious growth agenda includes:

  • a £7 billion package to increase the number of people in work
  • a £2.5 billion Back to Work Plan to expand employment support for the long-term sick and disabled and the long-term unemployed
  • making full expensing permanent, a tax cut to companies worth over £10 billion a year
  • removing barriers to investment by reforming the UK’s inefficient planning system and speeding up electricity grid connection times
  • backing the UK’s high growth industries by making £4.5 billion available for strategic manufacturing sectors over the five years to 2030 and
  • boosting local growth through the Investment Zones programme.

Spring Budget builds on measures taken in Spring Budget 2023 and Autumn Statement 2023 to deliver long-term growth. Measures announced at Spring Budget reduce taxes for 29 million people, increasing total hours worked in the economy by the equivalent of more than 100,000 additional full-time workers by 2028-29. This means that government policy announced at the past three fiscal events is expected to increase the size of the economy by 0.7% by 2028-29, by increasing total hours worked by the equivalent of more than 300,000 full-time workers, and boosting business investment by £14 billion.

At Spring Budget, the government is setting out its next steps in delivering its plan for growth.

  • The government began by cutting National Insurance for 29 million workers at Autumn Statement 2023. Spring Budget goes further by cutting the main rate of employee National Insurance by 2p from 10% to 8%. The government will also make a further 2p cut to the main rate of self-employed National Insurance on top of the 1p cut announced at Autumn Statement. This means that from April 2024 the main rate of Class 4 NICs for the self-employed will now be reduced from 9% to 6%.
  • In 2024, the year of the SME, the government continues to back UK SMEs as the lifeblood of the economy and the beating heart of local communities. The government will increase the VAT registration threshold to £90,000 from 1 April 2024 and is extending the Recovery Loan Scheme to support SMEs to access finance, renaming it the “Growth Guarantee Scheme”.
  • The government will seek to extend full expensing to assets for leasing when fiscal conditions allow and will publish draft legislation shortly.
  • The government is announcing the next steps in removing barriers to investment within the infrastructure and commercial planning system and can confirm that, since Autumn Statement 2023, government reforms to the grid system have accelerated offered connection dates for projects totalling 40GW, equivalent to £40 billion of investment.
  • Following the ambitious Edinburgh and Mansion House reforms, the government will go further to improve the competitiveness of the UK’s capital markets and unlock more private capital for the UK’s growth industries, including through launching a UK ISA to support savers and open up new investment opportunities for individuals.
  • The government is going further in backing the UK’s high growth sectors, announcing significant new support for creative industries including over £1 billion in additional tax relief over the next five years.
  • To deliver sustainable growth and productivity right across the country, the government is providing further detail on Investment Zones and is continuing to empower local leaders by extending and deepening devolution across England.
  • To ensure that people can live where they want to and meet the needs of the UK’s growing, cutting-edge industries, Spring Budget allocates over £260 million to build more homes now, and sets out the government’s commitment to growth in Cambridge, which will be supported by long-term funding at the next Spending Review.

5.1 Creating the right environment to boost growth, productivity and investment

Boosting investment.

At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced that full expensing would be made permanent, along with the 50% first-year allowance for special rate assets. This represents a tax cut for companies of over £10 billion a year and is forecast to generate £3 billion of additional investment each year; and £14 billion over the course of the next five years. [footnote 62] [footnote 63] The government also announced that the extension of full expensing to assets for leasing would be kept under review. To progress this work, the government will publish draft legislation shortly, and seek to extend full expensing to assets for leasing when fiscal conditions allow.

Foreign direct investment is vital for the UK economy and a key driver of productivity growth and job creation. The Harrington Review on foreign direct investment was published at Autumn Statement 2023. [footnote 64] The government accepted its recommendations in principle and boosted the resources available for delivery, including for the Office for Investment. Since then, the government has hosted the Global Investment Summit in November 2023 which unveiled £29.5 billion of new investment for thriving UK sectors. [footnote 65]

In collaboration with HM Treasury, the Office for Investment is launching a pilot programme working with departments to explore the creation of new government asset-backed investment opportunities, where this represents good value for money for the taxpayer. This has the potential to improve the usage of underutilised government assets and inject new funding into dormant assets across the country.

Planning and grid connection reforms

At Autumn Statement 2023 the government announced a range of reforms to the planning system to support business investment and the delivery of infrastructure. The government has made progress with implementing these, including through publishing the consultation on permitted development rights. [footnote 66] At Spring Budget, the government is publishing the consultation on a new accelerated planning service for major commercial applications; a response to the consultation on operational reforms to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime; and the updated National Networks National Policy Statement. [footnote 67]   [footnote 68]   [footnote 69]

The government is working with industry and Ofgem to implement electricity grid reforms announced at Autumn Statement 2023. Since November, over 40GW of energy projects have been offered earlier grid connection dates, accelerating up to £40 billion of investment. [footnote 70] The Electricity System Operator is inserting delivery milestones into over 1,000 connection contracts to remove stalled projects from the queue from this autumn. In addition, network companies have announced investment programmes, framework agreements and tenders worth up to £85 billion. [footnote 71]

The government has delivered, or set a date for delivery of, actions including:

  • Bringing into force in January 2024 updated Energy National Policy Statements, including designating low carbon infrastructure such as networks as a critical national priority.
  • Launching at Spring Budget 2024 a taskforce, to be chaired by the Rt Hon Julian Smith CBE MP, to explore Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms for disputes on compensation between landowners and electricity network operators.
  • The Electricity System Operator publishing later this month the transitional Centralised Strategic Network Plan which is expected to stimulate up to £60 billion additional investment in the GB network.
  • The establishment of a new National Energy System Operator in 2024, critical for the delivery of grid reforms and better system coordination, including through the new Strategic Spatial Energy Plan.
  • Publishing new community benefits guidance by June 2024 and developing a new public register of community benefit packages.
  • The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero consulting to introduce full cost recovery for planning casework it undertakes under the Electricity Act 1989 and Planning Act 2008, helping to boost capacity and ensure timely decisions as the volume of applications increase.

The government has tasked industry to bring forward a plan to further cut connection times which delivers for all viable projects, building on the announcements at Autumn Statement 2023. The government will:

  • Implement a new stringent connections process from January 2025 so that projects are only offered a specific connection date when they are ready to progress. The System Operator will set out further details this autumn.
  • Work with the Electricity System Operator to outline further reforms by summer 2024, raising barriers to entering and remaining in the queue. This will build on Ofgem’s decision later this month on whether to introduce a requirement for a landowner letter of authority to join the queue.
  • Ensure strong incentives for network companies. Ofgem will review the regulatory framework for connections and make recommendations by June 2024, including considering if changes are needed to make sure that connection offers reflect the reduction in transmission infrastructure delivery times from 14 years to 7 years.

The government is committed to ensuring that the UK has the right transport infrastructure to drive economic growth. In October 2023, the government announced an ambitious plan to redirect savings from the cancellation of HS2 Phase 2 into alternative transport projects through Network North. [footnote 72] Delivery is progressing, including through productive engagement with local leaders to take forward the £12 billion investment to enable Northern Powerhouse Rail, improving connections between Liverpool and Manchester. [footnote 73] To support local transport priorities, Spring Budget confirms £4.7 billion in long-term funding settlements for places outside city regions in the North and Midlands. This is in addition to the £8.3 billion the government has announced it will be investing in local roads over the next 11 years to fill millions of potholes and resurface roads, repair bridges, and deliver vital local road upgrades across England.

The government is committed to delivering a privately financed HS2 Euston station. The government is working with Lendlease, the Euston Master Development Partner, and the London Borough of Camden to identify parts of the station site for early release and development in coming months, and progressing plans to realise the vision for an internationally-leading life sciences hub at the heart of the Euston Quarter. The government is establishing a Ministerial Taskforce to oversee the next stages of delivery, set strategic direction and facilitate decision making, as well as a Euston Housing Delivery Group to explore options to deliver ambitious housing opportunities and regeneration in the Euston area.

At Spring Budget, the government is giving the green light to the next section of East West Rail, accelerating works to allow services from Oxford to Bedford to run by the end of the decade. It is also upgrading the timetable on the East Coast mainline from December 2024, delivering the benefits from £4 billion of government investment by providing faster and more frequent services between London and Yorkshire, Newcastle, the North East, and Edinburgh.

Science and innovation

Science and innovation are powerful drivers of economic growth. That is why the government is providing record levels of investment in research and development (R&D), including a £750 million package at Autumn Statement 2023. To maximise the impact of the package, the flagship Faraday Discovery Fellowships and Green Future Fellowships will be funded through endowments. New announcements at Spring Budget will support UK strategic advantage, with £14 million to boost the UK’s public sector research and innovation infrastructure, up to £100 million support for future satellite communications, and £1.6 million to progress the quantum computing mission.

As part of the Autumn Statement 2023 package, the government announced reforms worth £280 million a year to simplify and improve R&D tax reliefs, helping to drive innovation in the UK. To improve the functioning of the R&D tax reliefs system, HMRC will establish an expert advisory panel to support the administration of R&D reliefs.

At Autumn Statement 2023, the government accepted the recommendations in Professor Irene Tracey’s and Doctor Andrew Williamson’s independent review of university spin-outs. [footnote 74]  To help boost commercialisation across the UK’s university sector, the government is driving forward implementation of the review’s recommendations. The government has asked universities to report on their spin-out policies by the end of May and has also begun consulting on the design of the new £20 million proof-of-concept fund to support universities and future founders to de-risk technology, and on a pilot approach to supporting the establishment by universities of shared Technology Transfer Offices.

The government recognises that SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy and the beating heart of local communities. That is why at Autumn Statement 2023 the government announced measures to support SME leaders to acquire vital skills and seize opportunities to increase productivity and grow their businesses. This was in addition to a business rates package to support small businesses and the high street, and action to encourage prompt payments.

Spring Budget builds on this, continuing the government’s momentum in making 2024 the year of the SME by extending the Recovery Loan Scheme to support SMEs to access the finance they need and renaming it as the “Growth Guarantee Scheme”, and publishing updated HMRC guidance on the tax deductibility of training costs for sole traders and the self-employed to provide certainty to those that want to invest in boosting their productivity.

The government recognises the contribution made by the self-employed to the economy. To reward hard work and ensure that the self-employed are able to keep more of their hard-earned money, the government will cut taxes again for the self-employed. There will be a further 2p cut to the main rate of self-employed National Insurance on top of the 1p cut announced at Autumn Statement 2023. This means that from April 2024 the main rate of Class 4 NICs for the self-employed will now be reduced from 9% to 6%. Combined with the abolition of the requirement to pay Class 2 NICs announced at Autumn Statement 2023, this will save an average self-employed person on £28,000 £650 a year. [footnote 75] The government will consult later in the year on abolishing Class 2 NICs while ensuring that low-paid self-employed people do not pay more.

The government recognises that VAT can be a burden for some small businesses, and will therefore increase the VAT registration threshold to £90,000 from 1 April 2024. This will ensure that the UK continues to have one of the highest thresholds in the OECD. [footnote 76] Over 28,000 businesses will benefit in 2024-25 from no longer being VAT registered. [footnote 77]

The government will also legislate to reinstate the previous eligibility criteria to qualify as a high net worth or sophisticated investor, and will also carry out further work to review the scope of the exemptions.

The government understands the importance of businesses having access to appropriate energy advice. The government is closely examining the findings from the SME Business Energy Advice Service pilot in the West Midlands to inform future policy in this area, including the potential to expand support nationwide.

Agriculture

In 2024, the farming sector will benefit from the largest-ever round of grants on offer to support investment in agricultural productivity and innovation, with £427 million of government funding crowding in additional private sector investment. [footnote 78] The government is also providing £75 million to Internal Drainage Boards to bolster investment in water and flood management assets which are vital to protect agricultural land from the impact of floods and storms.

5.2 Unlocking investment in growth through the financial system, savings, pension funds, and our international investment offer

The UK’s capital markets play a key role in the economy, allocating capital and facilitating investment for growth and job creation. The government is already implementing reforms to boost the UK’s competitiveness via the Lord Hill UK Listing Review and the Chancellor’s Edinburgh and Mansion House reforms.

Spring Budget builds on those policies and the measures announced at Autumn Statement 2023, to channel more capital into equity markets in the UK and improve the competitiveness of the UK as a listing destination. The government also continues to work with regulators and industry to ensure the UK’s corporate governance environment is supporting sustainable growth.

As part of these reforms, the government is consulting on the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES), a new innovative market that will allow private companies to scale and grow, and will boost the pipeline of future IPOs in the UK.

Across the pensions industry as a whole, the best data suggests investment into UK equities has fallen to around 6%. [footnote 79] To improve data on current holdings, the government intends to bring forward requirements for Defined Contribution pension funds to publicly disclose the breakdown of their asset allocations, including UK equities, working closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) who share responsibility for setting requirements for the market. The FCA will consult in the spring. [footnote 80] The government will introduce equivalent requirements for Local Government Pension Scheme funds in England & Wales as early as April 2024. The government will review what further action should be taken if this data does not demonstrate that UK equity allocations are increasing.

The government is working with the FCA and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) on the upcoming Value for Money (VFM) pensions framework. [footnote 81] , [footnote 82] The framework will highlight where schemes are focusing on short-term cost savings at the expense of long-term investment outcomes, and where schemes’ current scale may be preventing them from offering value to savers. Where schemes are persistently offering poor outcomes for savers, the FCA and TPR will have the full range of regulatory powers available, and the government expects them to use the powers; these include closing a scheme to new employer entrants and, where necessary, winding up a scheme.

The Mansion House reforms announced in 2023 also sought to support and encourage a savings culture across the UK. That is why the government is announcing the launch of a new UK ISA and British Savings Bonds, which provide opportunities to save whilst supporting investment in the UK.

The UK ISA will support savers and open up UK retail investment opportunities for individuals. The UK ISA will be a £5,000 allowance in addition to the existing ISA allowance and will be a new tax-free product for people to invest in UK-focused assets. The government will consult on the details.

The British Savings Bonds will be delivered through National Savings and Investments and will be launched in April 2024. This product will offer a guaranteed interest rate, fixed for three years, increasing the savings opportunities available to consumers. The government welcomes recent market-led initiatives that open up new access routes to government financing for retail investors and will continue to examine ways in which it can support retail customers’ investment in gilts.

The government is committed to ensuring people have the opportunity to invest in a diverse range of investment types through their ISAs. As previously announced at Autumn Statement 2023 this includes certain fractional share contracts, and the government is working as quickly as possible to bring forward legislation by the end of the summer following detailed engagement with industry and the FCA.

The government continues to make strong progress on its commitment to fully exit the NatWest shareholding subject to market conditions and sales representing value for money, and intends to do so by 2025-26 utilising a range of disposal methods. The ongoing trading plan is making good progress against this objective, having now generated over £5.2 billion of proceeds since launch and reduced the government’s shareholding to below 33% on 23 February 2024. In total, the government has raised over £14.5 billion of proceeds from sales of the NatWest shareholding to date.

As part of its long-standing ambition to return NatWest to private ownership, and to support the development of a savings and investment culture as well as the UK’s wider capital markets, the government intends to deliver a sale of part of its NatWest shareholding to retail investors. A sale would take place this summer at the earliest, subject to supportive market conditions and achieving value for money for the taxpayer. Further information will be made available on gov.uk.

This package also confirms the winners of the Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) competition as Schroders and Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), supported by pensions capital from Phoenix Group. Together with the government’s £250 million, this is intended to generate over a billion pounds of investment into UK science and technology companies.

The government will also continue to examine, and will be engaging with firms on, the possible applications and benefits of applying Distributed Ledger Technology to a sovereign debt instrument.

5.3 Catalysing the growth sectors of the future

Since 2010, the government has provided targeted support to priority growth sectors which are helping to turn the UK in to the world’s next Silicon Valley: creative industries; advanced manufacturing; green industries; digital technology and AI; and life sciences.

Creative industries

The government is committed to the success of creative industries, a sector that contributed £125 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022 and employs 2.4 million people across the UK. [footnote 83] [footnote 84] In June 2023, the government published the sector vision setting out ambitions to grow the sector by a further £50 billion in GVA and support an additional 1 million jobs. [footnote 85]

At Spring Budget, the government is going further still, announcing a package that will provide over £1 billion in additional tax relief over the next five years. The government is providing support across the whole UK screen industry ensuring it remains competitive internationally and realises its true potential.

British independent film has consistently produced global hits for up-and-coming talent. To further support the sector, the government is introducing a new UK Independent Film Tax Credit at a rate of 53% for films with budgets under £15 million that meet the conditions of a new British Film Institute test.

To promote investment in new studio space, and ensure that the UK continues to be a world leader in producing film and high-end TV, the government will introduce a 40% relief on gross business rates bills for eligible film studios in England, until 2034.

The government will boost the competitiveness of its offer for visual effects by providing a 5% increase in tax relief for UK visual effects costs in film and high-end TV, under the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC). UK visual effects costs will be exempt from the AVEC’s 80% cap on qualifying expenditure.

The government is committed to developing the emerging talent of the British film industry and will fund the National Film and Television School (NFTS) proposal for an extension subject to a business case demonstrating value for money. This extension would allow the school to offer up to 200 new apprenticeship places per year; new cutting edge courses including the use of AI; and improve facilities for students with physical disabilities.

To further strengthen the UK’s cultural sector, the government will set permanent higher rates of tax reliefs for theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries to continue the government’s support for world-class productions. From 1 April 2025 these rates will be permanently set at 45%/40% for theatres, museums and galleries’ touring/non-touring productions, and at 45% for orchestras.

The National Theatre has, for 60 years, been a centre piece for the UK’s wider performing arts sector. The government is providing £26.4 million to upgrade the National Theatre’s stages and infrastructure. The government will consider the wider approach for funding cultural infrastructure at the next Spending Review.

Advanced manufacturing

As set out in the Advanced Manufacturing Plan in November 2023, the government is committed to ensuring the UK is the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in a manufacturing business. [footnote 86] The government is delivering this plan, including setting out at Spring Budget next steps on the £4.5 billion funding package announced at Autumn Statement 2023 to unlock investment in strategic manufacturing sectors – auto, aero, life sciences and clean energy.

This funding includes over £2 billion for the automotive industry and £975 million for aerospace, available for five years from 2025. This builds on the strong track record of the government’s established auto and aero programmes, as part of which the government recently announced over £270 million of combined government and industry investment into cutting edge R&D projects, harnessing the UK’s world-class innovation capabilities and helping to anchor manufacturing in the UK. [footnote 87]

The government has confirmed that the aerospace funding announced at Autumn Statement 2023 will be allocated to the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) programme, which includes R&D support for small businesses through the ATI SME competition. The government will also ensure a seamless transition to the Auto2030 programme, aimed at zero emission vehicles manufacturing and their supply chains.

Spring Budget also announces further measures supporting the UK advanced manufacturing sector, building on wider Autumn Statement 2023 commitments such as expanding Made Smarter Adoption. This includes confirming plans for the £50 million Apprenticeship Growth Sector pilot, which will boost funding for eligible providers delivering 13 high-value apprenticeship standards in advanced manufacturing, green and life sciences sectors.

Green industries

The UK is the first major economy to halve its emissions – cutting them by 50% between 1990 and 2022, whilst growing the economy by 79%. [footnote 88] Building on the series of measures to super-charge the growth of the UK’s green industries announced at Autumn Statement 2023, the government is announcing up to a further £120 million for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator (GIGA), to support expansion of low carbon manufacturing supply chains across the UK. Of the over £1 billion of total funding available, up to £390 million is expected to support supply chains of offshore wind & electricity networks and the same amount for supply chains of Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and hydrogen.

In addition, at Spring Budget the government is providing clarity and certainty for investment into the UK’s renewables sector, publishing the full parameters for the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 (AR6), including setting the largest ever budget for a single round of over £1 billion. [footnote 89]

The UK’s civil nuclear programme is a critical part of the government’s plan for delivering energy security and a decarbonised power sector. In addition to Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, the government is committed to exploring a further large- scale reactor project, and Great British Nuclear is running a competitive process for the selection of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). The government is now moving to the next stage of the SMR process, with six companies invited to submit their initial tender responses by June this year. Given the importance of securing nuclear sites for the success of the nuclear programme, the government has reached agreement on a £160 million deal with Hitachi to purchase the Wylfa site in Ynys Môn and the Oldbury-on-Severn site in South Gloucestershire, though no decisions have been taken on projects.

Digital technology and AI

The UK has Europe’s leading tech ecosystem, valued at over $1 trillion. [footnote 90] The government has consistently backed the sector’s potential and has announced over £3.5 billion of public investment in the AI ecosystem since 2014, including the announcement last year of over £1.5 billion of planned investment in compute. [footnote 91]

Later this year, the government will set out how access to the UK’s cutting edge public compute facilities will be managed, so that both researchers and innovative companies are able to secure the computing power they need to develop world-class AI products. In addition, the AI Safety Institute (AISI) has reached a pivotal milestone in its journey to shape the future of AI. 30 of the world’s leading AI safety experts have been recruited to the Technical Research Unit and AISI has now conducted the world’s first evaluations by any government of frontier AI models before and after release.

The government is also announcing a new £7.4 million upskilling fund pilot that will help SMEs develop AI skills of the future, unlocking the new opportunities that AI brings. This will complement the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce, which the government will shortly be launching. The taskforce will investigate how best to support the adoption of digital technology by SMEs to boost their productivity. The work of the taskforce will support that of the AI Opportunity Forum, which brings pioneering companies together to encourage AI adoption across the private sector to boost productivity, fuel innovation, and deliver growth in all areas of the economy.

As the UK’s national institute for AI and data science, the Alan Turing Institute drives economic and scientific advancements, impacting millions through its cutting edge research. That is why the government is announcing that it will invest up to £100 million in the Institute over the next five years.

Life sciences

The Life Sciences Vision set out the government’s commitment to grow the UK’s life sciences sector and establish the UK as a leading global hub. [footnote 92] Through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund the government is supporting over £430 million of company investment in high value manufacturing and 1,100 jobs. [footnote 93]

At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced £520 million of new funding for life sciences manufacturing to build resilience for future health emergencies and capitalise on the UK’s world-class R&D. At Spring Budget, the government can confirm that competitions for large scale transformational investments will open for expressions of interest this summer with a separate competition for medium and smaller sized companies opening in the Autumn.

The UK’s world-class science base underpins the success of the sector, including through the UK’s skilled workforce. To support the next generation of early career medical researchers the government is also announcing £45 million of additional funding to bolster medical charities’ life-saving research agendas. Plans include funding of £3 million for Cancer Research UK to support their fight against cancer.

5.4 Boosting growth and investment right across the country

Levelling up is at the core of the government’s long-term vision to grow the economy: ensuring the benefits of economic development are felt everywhere.

The refocused Investment Zones programme, launched at Spring Budget 2023, gives areas a £160 million envelope to catalyse local growth and investment. The government has announced details of how the Investment Zones in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East of England, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire will use the funding envelope available. This includes offering tax reliefs to attract businesses to these areas, and initial investments in a range of interventions including on skills, research and innovation, and infrastructure.

The Investment Zones programme continues to attract investment into local areas. The Tees Valley Investment Zone will focus on the digital and creative sectors, and local partners expect it to leverage £175 million in private investment and help to support over 2,000 jobs over the next ten years. The government will announce further details about the East Midlands and Tees Valley Investment Zones shortly, and details on the shape and make up of Welsh and Scottish Investment Zones later this year. As announced, as part of the package agreed to restore the Northern Ireland Executive, the government will establish an Enhanced Investment Zone offer in Northern Ireland with £150 million in funding, able to be used flexibly across spending and tax levers. The government will also extend the Investment Zones programme from five to ten years in Scotland and Wales.

The government is also confirming the extension to Freeport tax reliefs to September 2031 that was announced at Autumn Statement 2023 will apply across English Freeport tax sites. The 10-year window to claim reliefs has also been agreed with the Scottish and Welsh Governments, meaning tax reliefs will be available until September 2034 in tax sites in Scottish Green Freeports and Welsh Freeports.

To catalyse further investment from the private sector in high potential clusters across the UK, the government is today publishing the prospectus for the Investment Opportunity Fund.

The government is continuing to empower local leaders by extending and deepening devolution across England. The government is announcing a new Level 4 “trailblazer” devolution deal with the North East Mayoral Combined Authority, which will provide a package of new funding potentially worth over £100 million, including a new Growth Zone to support the region’s growth ambitions. The government is also extending devolution powers through new Level 2 devolution agreements with Buckinghamshire Council, Surrey County Council, and Warwickshire County Council and has recently announced Level 4 deeper devolution deals with West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region, and South Yorkshire Combined Authorities, as well as granting additional Level 4 powers to the West Midlands Combined Authority. Taken together, these deals will increase the proportion of the population of England benefitting from devolved powers to almost two-thirds. [footnote 94]

The government has also published further details on how the single settlements in Greater Manchester and West Midlands will operate, following the publication of the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ at Autumn Statement 2023.

The government is also pressing ahead with measures to spread prosperity beyond the UK’s largest cities, building on the £15 billion of local growth commitments already made over this Spending Review period. Spring Budget provides £400 million in new investments to extend the 10-year Long-Term Plan for Towns to 20 more places, including Darlington, Rhyl, Carlton (in Gedling), Peterhead, Coleraine and Eastbourne, and injects over £30 million into capital and regeneration projects across the UK, including in Bradford and Ashfield. Spring Budget also confirms the allocation of £100 million of funding for culture projects (subject to business cases), recognising the important role that culture and pride in place have to play in levelling up. This will support a combination of nationally-significant cultural investments such as the British Library North in Leeds, National Railway Museum in York, and National Museums Liverpool, as well as the development of cultural projects in places previously prioritised for levelling up investment but which have not to date received levelling up funding, including in High Peak, Redditch and Erewash. The government is seeking to agree a methodology for the selection of Levelling Up Partnerships in Wales with the Welsh Government, and aims to work with the Welsh Government to roll this programme out to Wales.

6. Policy decisions

This chapter sets out all Spring Budget 2024 policy decisions. Unless stated otherwise, the decisions set out are ones which are announced at the Budget. Table 5.1 shows the cost or yield of all government decisions accounted for at Spring Budget 2024 which have a direct effect on Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB) in the years up to 2028-29. This includes tax measures, changes to aggregate Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) and measures affecting annually managed expenditure (AME). The government is also publishing the methodology underpinning the calculation of the fiscal impact of each policy decision. This is included in ‘Spring Budget 2024: policy costings’ published alongside the Spring Budget.

Where measures set out in Spring Budget do not apply UK-wide, the government will provide the devolved administrations with funding through the Barnett formula in the usual way. The Scottish and Welsh Governments’ funding will also be adjusted in relation to tax and welfare devolution as set out in their respective fiscal frameworks.

Table 5.1: Spring Budget 2024 policy decisions (£)(1)

6.1 reforming public spending.

DEL Spending Assumption from 2025-26 to 2028-29 – Planned departmental resource spending for the years beyond the current Spending Review period (2025‑26 to 2028-29) will continue to grow at 1% a year on average in real terms. Departmental capital spending will follow the cash profile set at Autumn Statement 2023, adjusted where new commitments on productivity are funded in addition.

Public Sector Productivity Programme – The government is committing £4.2 billion of funding at Spring Budget 2024 to improve the productivity of the public sector. This includes £3.4 billion of additional CDEL over three years from 2025‑26 as part of the NHS’s productivity plan in England, investing in technological and digital transformation to help unlock £35 billion cumulative savings by 2029‑30, and £0.8 billion to wider public services to deliver up to £1.8 billion of benefits over the same period.

Additional funding for the NHS – The government is allocating an additional £2.5 billion to the NHS in England for 2024-25, protecting day-to-day funding in real terms and supporting the NHS to continue to improve performance and reduce waiting times.

Police Productivity and Technology – The government is giving police forces £230 million to pilot or roll out cutting-edge technology such as live facial recognition, automation and the use of drones as first responders. The government will establish a Centre for Police Productivity to support police forces’ use of data and deliver this technology, maximising productivity and the use of AI.

Expanding counter fraud capability through deploying AI – The government is announcing £34 million to expand the Public Sector Fraud Authority by deploying AI to help combat fraud across the public sector, making it easier to spot, stop and catch fraudsters thereby saving £100 million for the public purse.

Service Modernisation – The government is committing £17 million to accelerate DWP’s digital transformation, replacing paper-based processes with simplified online services, such as a new system for the Child Maintenance Service.

Reforming Communications from HM Courts & Tribunal Service – The government will modernise communications from HM Courts & Tribunal Service by bringing forward digital reforms and reducing spend on first class post.

Private Law Pathfinder Pilot – The government will improve the experiences of the courts for victims and survivors of domestic abuse through the Private Law Pathfinder Pilot. This will identify needs earlier and provide specialist support to victims and survivors of domestic abuse.

Early Legal Advice Pilot – The government is investing £12 million to expand the scope of Legal Aid to encompass early legal advice in private family law proceedings for parties considering an application to the family court for child arrangements.

Bail Information Service – The government will introduce the Bail Information Service (BIS) to all courts. This will help to remove barriers to bail and reduce the remand population held in custody.

Growing Prison Productivity – The government is investing £16 million to increase prison workshop activity to boost employability and focus resources on rehabilitative activities.

AI Document Processing – The government will utilise Artificial Intelligence to reduce the need for manual scanning of paper documents through the introduction of Intelligent Document Processing technology in the administration of court cases.

Digitising Services in Prisons – The government will invest a further £6 million of additional funding to speed up digitisation of key services in prisons.

Assessing Risks, Needs and Strengths – The government will introduce a new offender risk management tool to provide more robust, data-driven decisions on whether offenders are safe to release, helping better protect the public and free-up probation staff capacity to focus on rehabilitative activities.

Digital Jury Bundles – The government will provide the Crown Prosecution Service with £10 million additional funding for digitising jury bundles in the criminal courts, reducing paper wastage and unnecessary trial delays. This will save up to 55,000 hours a year in court preparation time to enable reducing the length of trials.

One Stop Shop – The government will introduce a new online information and guidance tool to support earlier resolution of family disputes and divert cases away from the family courts, where appropriate. The tool will help families navigate the range of options available by suggesting suitable interventions based on need and provide early legal advice.

Children’s Social Care reform – The government will provide £45 million match funding to local authorities to build an additional 200 open children’s home placements and £120 million to fund the maintenance of the existing secure children’s home estate, and rebuild Atkinson Secure Children’s Home and Swanwick Secure Children’s Home. The government will also develop proposals on what more can be done to combat profiteering, bring down costs and create a more sustainable market for residential placements which it will publish later this year. Furthermore, it will work with the Local Government Pension Scheme to consider the role they could play in unlocking investment in new children’s homes.

New special free schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – The government is announcing £105 million as initial investment to fund an additional wave of 15 special free schools. This builds on the significant levels of capital invested at Spending Review 2021 to create additional places for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Alternative Provision free school locations – The government is confirming the location of 20 alternative provision free schools in England as part of the Spending Review 2021 commitment to invest £2.6 billion capital in high needs provision.

Violence Reduction Units (VRU) – The government is spending £75 million to expand the VRU model across England and Wales, supporting a prevention-first approach to serious violence. Building on the success of VRUs, this additional investment will be used to upscale existing VRUs and expand the VRU model across the country.

Digital Planning – Building on work to digitise the planning system, a new pilot will use Artificial Intelligence to help speed up development of local plans. In addition, new software will be explored to streamline key processes for planning officers.

Maternity care – The government and NHS England will invest nearly £35 million over three years from 2024-25 to 2026-27 to improve maternity safety across England, with specialist training for staff, additional midwives and support to ensure maternity services listen to and act on women’s experiences to improve care.

NHS agency staffing – The government will work with NHS England to reduce the costs of agency staffing including ending the use of expensive “off-framework” agency staffing from July 2024, while ensuring that emergency cover can continue. NHS England will also introduce measures to review agency price caps, tighten controls and rules around agency staffing, and improve support and transparency.

Injured Service Person and Veterans Support: Invictus Games 2027 bid – The government, through the Office of Veterans’ Affairs, is supporting the UK’s bid to host the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham with a £26 million underwrite to enable the bid. These Games will ensure that injured service personnel and veterans are not forgotten, and will showcase the power of sport in recovery and rehabilitation demonstrating that there is life beyond disability.

Support for D-Day 80 National Commemoration – The government is hosting a D-Day 80 National Commemoration Event and will be funding the policing and security costs to ensure the event is safe for all attendees.

War memorial to recognise Muslim soldiers who fought for the British Armed Forces – The government will be providing up to £1 million support, subject to business case, for a new war memorial to recognise the sacrifice and duty of Muslim soldiers who fought and died for this country in both world wars.

6.2 A fair and sustainable tax system

Replacing Non-UK Domicile tax rules with a residence-based regime – This measure abolishes the remittance basis of taxation for non-UK domiciled individuals and replaces it with a simpler residence-based regime. Individuals who opt into the new regime will not pay UK tax on any foreign income and gains arising in their first four years of tax residence, provided they have been non-tax resident for the last 10 years. This new regime will commence on 6 April 2025 and applies UK-wide. The government will introduce the following transitional arrangements for existing non-doms claiming the remittance basis:

an option to rebase the value of capital assets to 5 April 2019

a temporary 50% exemption for the taxation of foreign income for the first year of the new regime (2025-26)

a two-year Temporary Repatriation Facility to bring previously accrued foreign income and gains into the UK at a 12% rate of tax.

The government will also reform Overseas Workday Relief (OWR). Eligible employees will be able to claim OWR for the first three years of tax residence, benefitting from income tax relief on earnings for employment duties carried out overseas but with current restrictions on remitting these earnings removed. Further detail on eligibility criteria will be set out in due course following engagement with stakeholders.

The government is also announcing the intention to move to a residence-based regime for Inheritance Tax (IHT) and will consult in due course on the best way to achieve this, including consulting on a 10-year exemption period for new arrivals and a 10-year ‘tail-provision’ for those who leave the UK and become non-resident. No changes to IHT will take effect before 6 April 2025.

Energy Profits Levy extension and price floor legislation – The government is extending the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) to the end of March 2029. At the same time, to give the oil and gas sector certainty that the EPL will not apply if prices fall below the levels set by the Energy Security Investment Mechanism, the government is delivering on its commitment to provide for the mechanism in legislation through the Spring Finance Bill 2024.

Vaping Products Duty – The government will introduce a new duty on vaping products from 1 October 2026, with registrations for the duty opening from 1 April 2026. The rates will be £1.00 per 10ml for nicotine free liquids, £2.00 per 10ml on liquids that contain 0.1-10.9 mg nicotine per ml, and £3.00 per 10ml on liquids that contain 11mg or more per ml. A 12-week consultation will be published on the policy design and technical details alongside the Spring Budget. The government will also introduce a one-off tobacco duty increase of £2.00 per 100 cigarettes or 50 grams of tobacco from 1 October 2026.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates – The 2025-26 APD rates for economy passengers will increase in line with forecast RPI, rounded to the nearest pound. Rates for those flying premium economy, business and first class and for private jet passengers will also increase by forecast RPI and will be further adjusted for recent high inflation to help maintain their real terms value.

2025-26 Landfill tax rates – Landfill tax rates for the year 2025-26 will be adjusted to better reflect actual RPI and ensure the tax continues to incentivise investment in more sustainable waste management infrastructure. The standard rate of Landfill tax will increase to £126.15 per tonne and the lower rate will increase to £4.05 per tonne.

VAT Retail Export Scheme – The government is grateful to the OBR for their review of the original costing of the removal of tax-free shopping. The government will consider these findings alongside industry representations and broader data, and welcomes any further submissions in response to the OBR’s findings.

Fuel duty on road fuel gases – Following review, the government will maintain the difference between road fuel gas and diesel duty rates until 2032.

Business Rates: Avoidance and Evasion – The Empty Property Relief “reset period” will be extended from six weeks to thirteen weeks from 1 April 2024 in England. The government will also consult on a “General Anti-Avoidance Rule” for business rates in England, and has published at Spring Budget a summary of responses to the Business Rates Avoidance and Evasion Consultation.

Starting rate for savings – The government will maintain the starting rate for savings, the 0% band for savings income, at £5,000 from 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025.

Amending Gift Aid legislation due to implications of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill – The Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Bill is introducing new protections for consumers who take out subscription contracts. The government will amend existing Gift Aid legislation by Statutory Instrument so that charities can continue to claim Gift Aid while complying with these new protections. The government’s intention is that these amendments to the Gift Aid regime will be in place by the time the relevant provisions of the Bill come into force.

Investment in HMRC debt management capability – The government is investing a further £140 million to improve HMRC’s ability to manage tax debts. This will expand HMRC’s debt management capacity to support both individual and business taxpayers out of debt faster and collect tax that is due.

Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework – The government is launching a consultation to seek views on how best to implement the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and Amendments to the Common Reporting Standard. As announced on 10 November 2023, these changes will be made in time to ensure that information exchanges take place from 2027.

Transfer of Assets Abroad – The government will legislate in the Spring Finance Bill 2024 to ensure individuals cannot use a company to bypass anti-avoidance legislation, known as Transfer of Assets Abroad (ToAA) provisions, in order to avoid UK income tax. The changes will take effect for income arising to a person abroad from 6 April 2024.

Tackling non-compliance in the Umbrella Company Market – The government is committed to protecting workers employed by umbrella companies, ensuring fair, genuine competition in the market and preventing significant Exchequer losses caused by tax non-compliance. The government will provide an update on the recent consultation on tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market at Tax Administration and Maintenance Day. In summer 2024 the government will also publish new guidance to support workers and other businesses who use umbrella companies.

Raising standards in the tax advice market: strengthening the regulatory framework and improving registration – The government is publishing a consultation both on options to strengthen the regulatory framework in the tax advice market, and on requiring tax advisers to register with HMRC if they wish to interact with HMRC on a client’s behalf. The government will also explore making it quicker and easier for tax advisers to register with HMRC.

Economic Crime Levy adjustment  – From 1 April, the rate at which entities with UK annual revenue greater than £1 billion, and which are regulated for Anti-Money Laundering purposes, will pay the Economic Crime (anti-money laundering) Levy will increase from £250,000 to £500,000 per annum. This is a response to lower-than-expected receipts, and additional revenue will be used to deliver existing commitments on economic crime.

VAT Treatment of Private Hire Vehicles – The government will launch a consultation on the impacts of the July 2023 High Court ruling in Uber Britannia Ltd v Sefton MBC in April. The government is committed to exploring a range of viable options to ensure that this court ruling does not have any undue adverse effects on the private hire vehicle sector and its passengers.

6.3 Tax simplification

Administrative change to ease the payment of inheritance tax before probate or confirmation – From 1 April 2024, personal representatives of estates will no longer need to have sought commercial loans to pay inheritance tax before applying to obtain a “grant on credit” from HMRC.

Investment in HMRC Digital Services – The government will improve and simplify HMRC’s digital services to support Income Tax Self Assessment taxpayers seeking to pay tax in instalments. These changes will be implemented from September 2025.

Alcohol Duty Stamps Scheme – The government will close the Alcohol Duty Stamps Scheme following a review by HMRC. The government will publish legislation later in the year for an orderly wind-down of the Scheme.

Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) – At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced the removal of the requirement to pay Class 2 NICs from 6 April 2024 and committed to abolishing Class 2 entirely. The government will consult later in 2024 on how it will deliver Class 2 abolition.

Suite of Simplification Metrics – The government is announcing metrics to measure progress against tax simplification. These will be drawn from HMRC’s annual customer survey, a survey offered after using HMRC’s telephony or digital services, and will include HMRC’s estimate of the net change in cost to businesses of meeting tax obligations from tax measures.

Tax Administration and Maintenance Day – The government will bring forward a further set of tax administration and maintenance announcements on 18 April 2024 at a Tax Administration and Maintenance Day

6.4 Rewarding working people

National Insurance contributions (NICs) rates – The government will cut the main rate of Class 1 employee NICs from 10% to 8%. This will take effect from 6 April 2024. The government will also make a further 2p cut to the main rate of self-employed National Insurance on top of the 1p cut announced at Autumn Statement. This means that from 6 April 2024 the main rate of Class 4 self-employed NICs will now be reduced from 9% to 6%.

Childcare future funding – The government is confirming that the hourly rate providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers for children aged 9 months to 4 years will increase in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 for the next two years. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years.

High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) reform – The government will increase the HICBC threshold to £60,000 from April 2024. The rate at which HICBC is charged will also be halved so that Child Benefit is not fully withdrawn until individuals earn £80,000 or higher. The government plans to administer the HICBC on a household rather than an individual basis by April 2026, and will consult in due course.

Exploring options to better target support to households – The government will consult shortly on options to enable better targeting of economic support to households. This will improve the fairness of policies such as HICBC, by allowing it to move to a system based on household income, and the targeting of future economic support including in times of crisis.

6.5 Supporting people into work

Extending Additional Jobcentre Support (AJS) pilots and introduction of new claimant commitments – The government is extending the duration of the current AJS pilot, currently live in 90 Jobcentres in England and Scotland, for a further 12 months. As part of the pilot extension, claimants will also be required to accept a new claimant commitment at 6, 13 and 26 weeks, agreeing to more work requirements or have their claim closed.

Additional funding to support the processing of increased volumes of disability benefit claims – The government is providing additional funding that will increase system capacity to meet increased demand, and therefore enable people to get the right support in a timely manner.

6.6 Housing

Barking – The government is announcing investment of £124 million at Barking Riverside to unlock 7,200 homes.

Canary Wharf – The government is announcing investment of £118 million to accelerate delivery of the Canary Wharf scheme. This will deliver a life sciences hub, commercial and retail floor space, a healthcare diagnostic facility and up to 750 homes.

Community Housing – The government is announcing investment of £20 million in a social finance fund to support the development of community-led housing schemes over ten years, subject to a business case.

Leeds Vision Document – Alongside Spring Budget, the government is publishing its vision for transforming Leeds, to unlock 20,000 new homes.

Euston Housing Delivery Group – The government is establishing the Euston Housing Delivery Group with £4 million to support plans to deliver up to 10,000 new homes.

Cambridge – The government is setting out its ambitious plan to grow the economy of the city and deliver new homes by 2050. Alongside this, Spring Budget confirms the future development corporation in Cambridge will receive a long-term funding settlement at the next Spending Review. The government is providing an additional £7.2 million to unlock improvements to local transport connections between the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and the city, and making £3 million available for Cambridge University NHS Trust to support plans for growth. The government is also on track to deliver a set of water saving measures which if delivered as planned could unlock more than 9,000 homes in the Cambridge area, as confirmed in the Joint Statement from Defra, DLUHC and the Environment Agency that is published today.

Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund – The government is publishing an Expression of Interest for round two of DLUHC’s Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund.

Planning capacity – The government will match industry-led funding of £3 million for planning capacity and resourcing in the next Spending Review period.

Capital Gains Tax: Higher rate cut for residential property – From 6 April 2024, the higher rate of Capital Gains Tax for residential property disposals will be cut from 28% to 24%. The lower rate will remain at 18% for any gains that fall within an individual’s basic rate band. Private Residence Relief will continue to apply, meaning the vast majority of residential property disposals will pay no Capital Gains Tax.

Abolition of Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime – The government will abolish the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime, eliminating the tax advantage for landlords who let short-term furnished holiday properties over those who let residential properties to longer-term tenants. This will take effect from 6 April 2025 and draft legislation will be published in due course.

Stamp Duty Land Tax: Abolition of Multiple Dwellings Relief – From 1 June 2024, Multiple Dwellings Relief, a bulk purchase relief in the Stamp Duty Land Tax regime in England and Northern Ireland, will be abolished. Property transactions with contracts that were exchanged on or before 6 March 2024 will continue to benefit from the relief regardless of when they complete, as will any other purchases that are completed before 1 June 2024. The government will engage with the agricultural industry to determine if there are any particular impacts for the sector that should be considered further.

Stamp Duty Land Tax: Acquisitions by Registered Social Landlords and public bodies – Legislation will be updated to ensure that from 6 March 2024, registered providers of social housing in England and Northern Ireland are not liable for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) when purchasing property with a public subsidy and public bodies will be exempted from the 15% anti-avoidance rate of SDLT.

Stamp Duty Land Tax: First Time Buyers’ Relief for nominee purchasers – From 6 March 2024, the rules for claiming First-Time Buyers’ Relief from Stamp Duty Land Tax in England and Northern Ireland will be amended so that individuals buying a leasehold residential property through a nominee or bare trustee will be able to claim First-Time Buyers’ Relief, including victims of domestic abuse.

Allowing local authorities (LAs) additional flexibility in their use of Right to Buy receipts – The government will increase the cap from 40% to 50% on the percentage of the cost of a replacement home that can be funded from Right to Buy receipts.

Taxation of environmental land management and ecosystem service markets – Following consultation, the government will extend the existing scope of agricultural property relief from 6 April 2025 to land managed under an environmental agreement with, or on behalf of, the UK government, Devolved Administrations, public bodies, local authorities, or approved responsible bodies. The government will also establish a joint HM Treasury and HMRC working group with industry representatives to identify solutions that provide clarity on the tax treatment of ecosystem service markets.

6.7 Supporting households

Fuel duty main rates – The government is freezing fuel duty rates for 2024-25, a tax cut worth £3.1 billion over 2024-25. The temporary 5p cut in fuel duty rates will be extended until March 2025 and the planned inflation increase for 2024-25 will not take place.

Alcohol duty uprating – The government will freeze alcohol duty from 1 August 2024 until 1 February 2025. This extends the six-month freeze announced at Autumn Statement 2023, to support the hospitality sector and help consumers with the cost of living.

Prepayment meter (PPM) levelisation – As announced by Ofgem on 23rd February, the government is delivering on its commitment to remove the prepayment meter (PPM) standing charge premium on an enduring basis, saving PPM customers an average of £50 a year.

Changes to Debt Relief Orders – The government is making changes to Debt Relief Orders (DROs) in England and Wales. In April 2024, the government will remove the £90 administration fee. In June 2024, the government will amend eligibility criteria for DRO entry, raising both the maximum debt value threshold and the maximum value of motor vehicles. Scotland and Northern Ireland will receive equivalent Barnett Consequential funding.

Universal Credit: extending Budgeting Advance repayment periods – The government will increase the maximum repayment period on new budgeting advance loans from 12 months to 24 months. This will apply to Budgeting Advances taken from December 2024 onwards.

Household Support Fund Extension – To help the most vulnerable households with the cost of essentials such as food and utilities, the government is also providing an additional £500 million (including Barnett impact) to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England from April to September 2024.

6.8 Creating the right environment to boost growth, productivity and investment

Capital allowances: Technical consultation on extending full expensing to assets for leasing – Draft legislation on an extension of full expensing to assets for leasing will be published shortly. Full expensing will be extended to assets for leasing when fiscal conditions allow.

Utilisation of Government Assets – In collaboration with HM Treasury, the Office for Investment is launching a pilot programme to explore the creation of new government asset-backed investment opportunities, where this represents good value for money for the taxpayer. This has the potential to improve the usage of underutilised government assets and inject new funding into dormant assets across the country.

Bringing trades in Carbon Credits within the scope of the Terminal Markets Order (TMO) – The government will update the underpinning legislation for the VAT Terminal Markets Order (TMO). This will allow for further reform, including bringing trades in carbon credits within the scope of the TMO in due course.

Reserved Investor Fund – The government is publishing the summary of responses to a 2023 consultation on the scope and design of a tax regime for a new UK investment fund vehicle: the Reserved Investor Fund (Contractual Scheme) (RIF). The government will begin legislating for the RIF in the Spring Finance Bill 2024.

Accelerated Planning Service – The government is publishing the consultation on the proposed design of the new accelerated planning service as well as new measures to constrain the use of extension of time agreements and identifying local planning authorities who are using these excessively.

Reforms to speed up the consenting process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) – The government is publishing a response to the consultation on operational reforms to the NSIP consenting process and the updated National Networks National Policy Statement.

Electricity grid reform – The government will implement a new stringent connections process from January 2025 and work with the Electricity System Operator to outline further interim reforms to the grid queue process by summer 2024. The government will establish the National Energy System Operator in 2024, and will publish new community benefits guidance by June.

Accelerating smart data schemes in energy and transport – Following announcement at Autumn Statement 2023 that the government would seek to maximise the benefits from incoming Data Protection and Data Information Bill Smart Data powers, the government is providing targeted funding for consultations and calls for evidence to accelerate schemes in energy and transport.

Revised Growth Duty – As announced at Autumn Statement, the government will extend the Growth Duty to Ofwat, Ofcom and Ofgem and publish refreshed guidance on the Growth Duty. The government will also publish a Regulator Performance Framework in the coming months that will encourage greater regulator agility, efficiency and responsiveness.

Delivering on Network North’s vision for the Euston Quarter – The government is working to identify parts of the station site for early release and development in the coming months. The government is also establishing a Ministerial Taskforce to oversee the next stages of delivery of a privately financed HS2 Euston station.

Accelerating East-West Rail delivery – Delivery of works on the Bletchley to Bedford section of East-West Rail will be brought forward, supported by £240 million (from existing budgets), with services operating between Oxford and Bedford by the end of the decade.

Rail timetable upgrades – The government is delivering on the benefits of a £4 billion investment programme to increase capacity and improve rolling stock, by upgrading the timetable on the East Coast mainline, adding extra services with 16,000 seats and reducing journey times between London and Yorksire, Newcastle, the North East and Edinburgh. In Cambridge, timetables will be improved to reduce journey times, deliver better performance and better connect the Cambridge Biomedical Campus when the new government funded station at Cambridge South opens in 2025.

Fellowships – The £250 million Faraday Discovery Fellowships and £150 million Green Future Fellowships will be funded through endowments to the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Research and Innovation Organisation (RIO) fund – The government is allocating £14 million for infrastructure used by public sector research and innovation organisations. This builds on the £25 million allocated at Autumn Statement 2023.

Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (CLEO) – The government is confirming up to £100 million to launch the national component of the full £160 million CLEO programme, which will enable UK researchers and businesses to perform the research and development needed for the next generation of satellite constellations.

Quantum computing – The government is allocating £1.6 million in 2024-25 to an error correction programme in quantum computing.

R&D tax reliefs: Expert advisory panel – HMRC will establish an expert advisory panel to support the administration of the R&D tax reliefs. The panel will provide insights into the cutting-edge R&D occurring across key sectors such as tech and life sciences, and work with HMRC to review relevant guidance, ensuring it remains up to date and provides clarity to claimants.

Spin-outs Review – The government has asked universities to report on their spin-out policies by the end of May 2024 and has also begun consulting on the design of the new £20 million proof-of-concept fund and the pilot approach to supporting the establishment by universities of shared Technology Transfer Offices.

Space launch support – The government will make available £10 million of funding to SaxaVord Spaceport to support orbital launch in 2024, subject to due diligence.

Agri-food Launchpad – The government is investing £5 million over the next 3 years in an agri-food Launchpad in Mid and North Wales.

Extension of the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) – The Recovery Loan Scheme has been renamed as the Growth Guarantee Scheme and extended until the end of March 2026. The scheme offers a 70% government guarantee on loans to SMEs of up to £2 million in Great Britain, and £1 million in Northern Ireland.

HMRC guidance on retraining tax deductibility – HMRC has published new guidance around the tax deductibility of training costs for sole traders and the self-employed. This guidance ensures that updating existing skills, maintaining pace with technological advancements, or changes in industry practices, are allowable costs when calculating taxable profits.

VAT registration threshold: increase to £90,000 – The government will increase the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £90,000, and the deregistration threshold from £83,000 to £88,000, freezing them at these levels. These changes will apply from 1 April 2024.

Financial Promotion Exemptions – The government will legislate to reinstate the previous eligibility criteria to qualify as a high net worth or sophisticated investor. The government will carry out further work to review the scope of the exemptions.

6.9 Unlocking investment in growth through the financial system, savings, pension funds, and our international investment offer

PISCES – The government has published a consultation on a new Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES). PISCES will be a new innovative market that will allow private companies to scale and grow, and will boost the pipeline of future Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in the UK.

Local Government Pension Scheme new reporting requirements – Revised annual reporting guidance will require LGPS funds to provide a summary of asset allocation, including UK equity investment, as well as provide greater clarity on progress of pooling, through a standardised data return, taking effect from April 2024.

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Value for Money (VFM) proposals – The FCA’s spring VFM consultation will include proposals to require the publication of contract-based Defined Contribution (DC) default funds’ historic net investment returns and a breakdown of their UK investments. Proposals will require schemes to compare their performance, costs and other metrics against those of at least two schemes managing over £10 billion in assets. This is an initial level expected to increase significantly over time. In coordination with the FCA the government will legislate at the earliest opportunity to apply the VFM framework across the market and provide the Pensions Regulator with new powers, using secondary legislation if necessary to ensure key disclosures are in place by 2027.

British Savings Bonds – The government has announced that National Savings & Investments (NS&I) will launch a product which will offer consumers a guaranteed interest rate, fixed for three years. This product will increase savings opportunities available to consumers in the UK and will be brought on sale in early April 2024.

UK ISA – The government will create an additional Individual Savings Account (ISA) with a £5,000 allowance. This would be in addition to the £20,000 that can be subscribed into an ISA. The government will consult on the details.

NatWest retail offer – The government intends to deliver a sale of part of its NatWest shareholding to retail investors. A sale would take place this summer at the earliest, subject to supportive market conditions and achieving value for money for the taxpayer. Further information will be made available on gov.uk.

NatWest shareholding – The government intends to fully exit its shareholding in NatWest Group by 2025-26, subject to supportive market conditions and sales representing value for money.

Announcing the names of Long-term Investment for Science and Technology (LIFTS) winners – The government is announcing the names of the LIFTS winners as Schroders and Intermediate Capital Group (IGC) supported by pensions capital from Phoenix Group. This is subject to ongoing commercial discussions and the internal governance processes of all involved parties.

Announcing a plan to monitor Mansion House Compact – The government is working with the ABI to finalise a framework for monitoring progress on the Mansion House Compact ahead of its first anniversary.

Pensions Lifetime Provider – The government has confirmed that it remains committed to exploring a lifetime provider model for Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes in the long-term. The government will undertake continued analysis and engagement to ensure that this would improve outcomes for pension savers, and build on the foundations of reforms already underway, including the Value for Money Framework.

6.10 Catalysing the growth sectors of the future

Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit: Enhanced credit for UK independent film – A UK Independent Film Tax Credit will be introduced at a rate of 53% on qualifying film production expenditure. This enhanced Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit will be available for films with budgets under £15 million that meet the requirements of a new British Film Institute test. Productions can make claims from 1 April 2025, in respect of expenditure incurred from 1 April 2024 onwards provided that films started principal photography from 1 April 2024.

Business rates: Film Studios Relief – Eligible film studios in England will receive a 40% reduction on gross business rates bills until 2034. The relief will be implemented as soon as possible, and bills will be backdated to 1 April 2024. This is a tax cut worth around £470 million over the next 10 years. Studios will remain eligible for Improvement Relief. English Local Authorities will be fully compensated for the loss of income as a result of this relief and will receive new burdens funding for administrative and IT costs.

Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit: Additional tax relief for visual effects – Following a call for evidence at Autumn Statement 2023, the credit rate for visual effects costs in film and high-end TV will be increased to 39% from April 2025, and the 80% cap will be removed for qualifying expenditure for visual effects costs. The government will consult on the types of expenditure that will be in scope of the additional tax relief and implement the measure through a future Finance Bill.

Theatre Tax Relief (TTR), Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) and Museums and Galleries Exhibitions Tax Relief (MGETR) – From 1 April 2025, the rates of TTR, OTR and MGETR will be permanently set at 40% (for non-touring productions) and 45% for touring productions and all orchestra productions. The sunset clause for MGETR will be removed.

National Theatre funding – The government is providing £26.4 million to upgrade the National Theatre’s stages and infrastructure.

Increasing funding for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator (GIGA) and announcing sector funding splits – The government is increasing the GIGA budget by up to £120 million to further support expansion of low carbon manufacturing supply chains across the UK, lowering costs and accelerating the transition. Up to £390 million of the GIGA funding is expected to go to supply chains for offshore wind & electricity networks and up to £390 million is expected to go to supply chains for Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and hydrogen. This sits alongside the £300 million already allocated to nuclear fuels for the High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) programme.

Final parameters for the next renewable energy Contracts for Difference Allocation Round – The government has published full parameters for the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 (AR6), including setting the largest ever budget for a single round, of over £1 billion.

Nuclear Siting and SMR competition – The government has reached agreement on a £160 million (excluding taxes) deal with Hitachi to purchase the Wylfa site in Ynys Môn and the Oldbury-on-Severn site in South Gloucestershire. The government has also announced that we have moved to the next stage of the Small Modular Reactor competitive process, with six companies now invited to submit their initial tender responses by June.

Regulation of Environmental, Social and Governance Ratings – The government will regulate providers of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings to users within the UK. ESG ratings providers will be brought into the regulatory perimeter of the Financial Conduct Authority.

Compute Access – The government is confirming that it will later this year set out how access to the UK’s cutting edge public compute facilities will be managed.

AI Safety Institute Update – The government is providing a progress update on recruitment and safety testing.

AI Upskilling Fund Pilot – The government is announcing a new £7.4 million AI Upskilling Fund pilot that will help SMEs develop the AI skills of the future.

SME Digital Adoption Taskforce – The government is announcing that it will shortly be launching the Taskforce, which will investigate how best to support the adoption of digital technology by SMEs in order to boost their productivity.

Data pilots to support AI and data access – The government is introducing two new data pilots to drive high quality AI in education and improve access to data in adult social care for a total of £3.5 million, and confirming the design details of the data research cloud pilots announced last year.

Turing Institute – The government is announcing that it will invest up to £100 million in the Turing Institute over the next five years.

Life Sciences manufacturing funding competitions – Building on the Autumn Statement 2023 announcement of £520 million new funding for Life Sciences manufacturing, the government is announcing that funding competitions for large scale investments will open for expressions of interest this summer with a separate competition for medium and smaller sized companies opening in the Autumn.

Medical research charities early career researchers – The government is providing £45 million through the Medical Research Charities Early Career Researchers Support Fund.

6.11 Boosting growth and investment right across the country

Investment Zones next steps – The government has announced further details on Investment Zones in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East of England, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. The government has also confirmed that the Tees Valley Investment Zone will focus on the digital and creative sectors. Further details on the Tees Valley and East Midlands Investment Zones will be announced shortly.

Extension of Investment Zones programme – Investment Zones will be extended from five to ten years in Scotland and Wales, matching the extension announced for England at Autumn Statement 2023. Full details of the four Investment Zones in Scotland and Wales will be announced later this year. Details on the Northern Ireland Enhanced Investment Zone will be published soon.

Freeport tax reliefs sunset date extension – The tax reliefs available in Freeport tax sites are being extended from five to ten years, until September 2031 in England, and September 2034 in Scotland and Wales.

Investment Opportunity Fund prospectus – The government has published the prospectus for the Investment Opportunity Fund. The prospectus sets out the details on how the fund will support investment into Freeports and Investment Zones across the UK.

North East “Trailblazer” Devolution Deal – Following commitments in the previous North East Level 3 devolution deal announced in December 2022, the government has agreed a deeper “trailblazer” devolution deal with the North East Mayoral Combined Authority.

Boosting Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland – The government is committing £2 million to boost global investment and trade opportunities for Northern Ireland.

Level 2 Devolution Agreements – At Autumn Statement 2023, the government offered Level 2 devolution powers to some councils which cover a whole county or functional economic area. The government has finalised the first of these agreements with Surrey County Council, Buckinghamshire Council and Warwickshire County Council.

Support for culture and investment in the West Midlands – The government has announced £15 million of funding for the West Midlands Combined Authority to support culture, heritage and investment projects in the region, subject to a business case. This will provide £10 million of funding to support culture and heritage projects, and £5 million to drive inward investment in the region.

Theatr Clwyd funding – The government will provide £1.6 million for Theatr Clwyd in Wales, subject to business case approval. This is the largest producing theatre in Wales and the funding will help support a major refurbishment.

Annex to Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the “Trailblazer” Single Settlements with Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities – At Autumn Statement 2023, the government published an MoU on the single settlements for Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities, outlining how the settlements will operate and be implemented at the next Spending Review. The government has published an annex to this MoU setting out further detail on spending controls, the approach to formulae, and the outcomes framework.

Expanding the Long-Term Plan for Towns – The government is announcing £400 million of investment to extend the Long-Term Plan for Towns to a further twenty places across the UK. This provides places with ten years of endowment-style funding and support worth up to £20 million to invest in communities and regeneration. The full list of towns is: Royal Sutton Coldfield, Darlington, Runcorn, Canvey Island, Thetford, King’s Lynn, Ramsgate, Eastbourne, Harlow, Newton-le-Willows, Rawtenstall, Wisbech, Carlton (Gedling), Bedworth, Arbroath, Peterhead, Kirkwall, Rhyl, Derry/Londonderry, and Coleraine.

Village halls – The government is providing an additional £5 million for the Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund, to support local village halls across England to remain at the heart of their communities.

Capital regeneration projects – The government is investing £23.7 million across two shovel-ready capital projects in Bradford and Ashfield, to support regeneration in places across England.

Community regeneration projects – The government is providing £6 million of funding for work with the King’s Foundation to pilot how community led regeneration projects anchored around heritage assets and sustainability considerations can complement government’s wider place-based initiatives for levelling up, subject to business case approval.

Levelling up culture projects – The government is confirming the allocation of £100 million of funding for culture projects (subject to business case), recognising the important role that culture and pride in place have to play in levelling up. This will support a combination of nationally-significant cultural investments such as the British Library North in Leeds, National Railway Museum in York, and National Museums Liverpool, as well as the development of cultural projects in places previously prioritised for levelling up investment but which have not to date received levelling up funding, including in High Peak, Redditch and Erewash. DLUHC will publish a full list and explanation on gov.uk.

Scottish cultural regeneration – To ensure every city in Scotland benefits from levelling up, the government will work with the cities yet to receive an allocation – Perth and Dunfermline – to invest a shared £10 million for cultural investment.

7. Financing

This annex sets out the details of the government’s financing plans in 2024-25. Further details can be found in the ‘Debt Management Report 2024-25’, available at gov.uk.

Debt management objective

The debt management objective, as set out in the Debt Management Report 2024-25, is “to minimise, over the long term, the costs of meeting the government’s financing needs, taking into account risk, while ensuring that debt management policy is consistent with the aims of the monetary policy”.

Debt management policy

While decisions on debt management policy must be taken with a long-term perspective, specific decisions on funding the government’s gross financing requirement are taken annually. Those decisions are announced before the start of the forthcoming financial year and are typically updated in April (a technical adjustment to reflect outturn data from the previous year) and as the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) publishes subsequent fiscal projections.

Financing arithmetic

The financing arithmetic for 2024-25 is set out in Table A.1.

The OBR’s March 2024 forecast for the 2024-25 central government net cash requirement (excluding NRAM Ltd, Bradford & Bingley, and Network Rail), which is referred to as CGNCR (ex NRAM, B&B, and NR), is £142.8 billion. This measure is used in the financing arithmetic, as it reflects the forecast cash requirement of the Exchequer.

The net financing requirement (NFR) for the Debt Management Office (DMO) comprises: CGNCR (ex NRAM, B&B, and NR) plus any financing for gilt redemptions, and other adjustments, less the net contribution to financing from National Savings and Investments (NS&I) and any other in-year contributions to financing.

The NFR for 2024-25 is forecast to be £265.3 billion, reflecting:

  • the forecast for CGNCR (ex NRAM, B&B, and NR) of £142.8 billion
  • gilt redemptions of £139.9 billion
  • a planned short-term financing adjustment of -£5.9 billion resulting from projected unanticipated over funding in 2023-24
  • a net financing remit for NS&I of £9.0 billion, plus a forecast £0.5 billion from sales of NS&I retail Green Savings Bonds
  • a net contribution to financing from other financing items of £2.0 billion

As set out in Table A.1, the NFR for 2024-25 will be met by gilt sales of £265.3 billion. It is planned that there will be no net contribution to financing from Treasury bills for debt management purposes in 2024-25.

Gilt issuance by method, type, and maturity

Decisions on the skew of gilt issuance are made annually with reference to the government’s debt management objective, as set out above, and in the Debt Management Report 2024-25.

Auctions will remain the government’s primary method of gilt issuance. It is anticipated that £224.3 billion (84.5%) of total gilt sales will take place by auction in 2024-25, and around £31.0 billion (11.7%) will take place by syndication. The government will also continue to have the option to use gilt tenders to supplement issuance by auction and syndication.

Issuance by auction and syndication is planned to be split by maturity and type as follows:

  • £95.3 billion of short conventional gilts (35.9% of total issuance)
  • £82.1 billion of medium conventional gilts (30.9% of total issuance) (including green gilts)
  • £49.0 billion of long conventional gilts (18.5% of total issuance) (including green gilts)
  • £28.9 billion of index-linked gilts (10.9% of total issuance)

The DMO’s financing plans include an initially unallocated portion of issuance from which gilts of any maturity or type may be issued (excluding green gilts). This unallocated portion will initially be £10.0 billion (3.8% of total issuance) in 2024‑25. The unallocated portion is used in such a way as to respond appropriately to developments in the gilt market in-year.

Table A.1: Financing arithmetic in 2023-24 and 2024-25 (£ billion)(1)

Index-linked gilts.

The government decides index-linked gilt issuance on an annual basis, and in practice the share of total issuance will vary year-to-year depending on factors including the size of the financing requirement, demand, and market conditions. In the 2024-25 financing remit, planned index-linked gilt issuance accounts for 10.9% of total gilt issuance.

At Budget 2018 – and as part of the government’s responsible approach to fiscal risk management – the government announced that it would look to reduce the proportion of index-linked gilt issuance annually in a measured fashion over the medium term, as a means of reducing its inflation exposure in the debt portfolio. It has achieved this. In the five years prior to 2018-19, index-linked gilts accounted for around 25% of the government’s annual debt issuance, for which both the principal and coupon payments are indexed to RPI. Since then, the government has reduced inflation exposure in relative terms. Index-linked gilt issuance has accounted for around 14% (unweighted) of annual gilt issuance on average over the last six years (including 2023-24), such that the proportion of index-linked gilts in the debt stock was lower at the end of 2023 than at the end of 2018 (25.8% compared to 27.6%).

As is the case for conventional gilts of all maturity buckets, actual index-linked gilt issuance may differ from planned issuance due to transfers from the unallocated portion. Decisions on the precise levels of index-linked and conventional gilt issuance will continue to be taken as part of the annual financing remit and in consultation with market participants.

Green gilts and retail Green Savings Bonds

The government plans to raise £10.0 billion (cash) via issuance of green gilts in 2024-25, subject to demand and market conditions. The expectation is that the focus will be on further re-openings of the two existing green gilts, which will be kept under review taking into account market conditions. The planned green financing requirement is derived from eligible green expenditure in the coming financial year and adjusted for possible unallocated financing raised in previous years. All green gilt proceeds are allocated against eligible green spend as defined in the UK Government Green Financing Framework, available at gov.uk.

The retail Green Savings Bonds (GSB) were brought on sale via the NS&I website on 22 October 2021, and this product has allowed UK savers to support the government’s green spending initiatives. NS&I forecast to have raised £1.0 billion from GSB in the 2023-24 financial year and £1.9 billion since the initial October 2021 launch. NS&I forecast that they will raise an additional £0.5bn from GSB in 2024-25, subject to market conditions.

Treasury bills

It is currently planned that there will be a zero net contribution to the DMO NFR from Treasury bills for debt management purposes in 2024-25.

NS&I will have a net financing target of £9.0 billion in 2024-25 (within a range of ±£4.0 billion). This target reflects NS&I’s requirement to balance the interests of its savers, the taxpayer, and the wider financial services sector. Finance raised from the British Savings Bonds, announced at this Budget, will contribute towards NS&I’s 2024-25 net financing target.

Illustrative future gross financing requirement

Table A.2 sets out the illustrative gross financing requirement for each financial year from 2025-26 to 2028-29, using the OBR March 2024 projections for CGNCR (ex NRAM, B&B, and NR) and taking into account current planned gilt redemptions.

Table A.2: Illustrative gross financing requirement (£ billion)(1)

8. public sector receipts and spending.

Chart B.1 shows public sector receipts by main type. Public sector receipts are expected to be around £1,139 billion in 2024-25.

Chart B.1: Public sector current receipts 2024-25

Figures may not sum due to rounding.

Other taxes includes capital taxes, stamp duties, vehicle excise duties, customs duties and other smaller tax receipts.

Other non-taxes includes interest and dividends, gross operating surplus and other smaller non-tax receipts.

Source: Office for Budget Responsibility.

Chart B.2 shows public spending by main function. Total Managed Expenditure (TME) is expected to be around £1,226 billion in 2024-25.

Chart B.2: Public sector spending 2024-5

Illustrative allocations to functions are based on HMT analysis including capital consumption figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Source: Office for Budget Responsibility and HM Treasury calculations.

‘Economic and Fiscal Outlook’ , Office for Budget Responsibility, March 2024. Details of numerical references, including National Statistics, used in this chapter can be found in ‘Spring Budget 2024 data sources’.  ↩

‘2023 HM Treasury COVID-19 Cost Tracker update’ , HM Treasury, July 2023.  ↩

‘The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme final evaluation’ , HM Revenue and Customs, HM Treasury, July 2023.  ↩

HM Treasury estimate of the change in the Ofgem price cap from Winter 2021-22 to April 2024 using comparable Typical Domestic Consumption Values.  ↩

‘Monetary Policy Report’ , Bank of England, August 2023.  ↩

‘Monetary Policy Report’ , Bank of England, November 2022.  ↩

Support figure includes the Energy Price Guarantee and further direct household support announced over Autumn Statement 2023, Spring Budget 2023, Autumn Statement 2022, May 2022 Package, Spring Statement 2022 and Autumn Budget 2021.  ↩

Written statements – Written questions, answers and statements – UK Parliament , UK Parliament, February 2023.  ↩

‘Monetary Policy Report’ , Bank of England, February 2024.  ↩

‘Changes to energy price cap between 1 April to 30 June 2024’ , Ofgem, February 2024.  ↩

‘Business Barometer’ , Lloyds, February 2024.  ↩

‘UK consumer confidence down two points to -21 in February’ , GfK, February 2024.  ↩

Andrew Bailey, Treasury Committee oral evidence: ‘Bank of England Monetary Policy Reports’ , February 2024.  ↩

HMRC analysis using OECD 2022 data from Tax Foundation 2023 cost of capital recovery publication.  ↩

‘Spring Budget’ , HM Treasury, March 2021.  ↩

‘Autumn Statement’ , HM Treasury, November 2023.  ↩

‘Fiscal Monitor’ , International Monetary Fund, October 2023.  ↩

‘2023 Budget’ , Government of Canada, March 2023.  ↩

‘Japanese Public Finance Fact Sheet’ , Ministry of Finance, Japan, April 2023.  ↩

‘Economic Governance Review’ , Council of the EU, February 2024.  ↩

‘The Charter for Budget Responsibility’ , HM Treasury, January 2023.  ↩

School funding statistics, 2023-24 .  ↩

‘Press release -PM in Kyiv: UK support will not falter’ , Prime Minister’s Office, 12 January 2024.  ↩

HMT analysis using OBR – Fiscal risks and sustainability , UK, July 2023 and OBR Long-term economic determinants – March 2023 .  ↩

HMT analysis of Office for National Statistics, Public service productivity, quarterly, UK: July to September 2023.  ↩

Office for Budget Responsibility, November Economic and Fiscal Outlook, 2023.  ↩

HMT analysis of Office for National Statistics, Public Service Productivity: total, UK, 2020.  ↩

Public service productivity, UK: 1997 to 2022 article .  ↩

Improving productivity could release tens of billions for government priorities, National Audit Office, January 2024 .  ↩

Government to deliver 160 community diagnostic centres a year early – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), 2024 .  ↩

Building the future – British Medical Association .  ↩

Open Referral UK data standard , 2024.  ↩

Combined size of Spring Budget 2023, Autumn Statement 2023, and Spring Budget 2024 tax measures in 2028/29 as a % of GDP, per the OBR policy measures database, and OBR public finances databank.  ↩

Housing supply: net additional dwellings – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) November 2023.  ↩

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings , Office for National Statistics, November 2023.  ↩

New Earnings Survey and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings , Office for National Statistics, November 2023. Historic Income Tax and NICs Rates and Thresholds, HMT Analysis of Tax Liabilities. This refers to the Income Tax and NICs paid by a single full time median earner with no children and no interaction with the benefits system, as a proportion of their income. The latest earnings figures are grown in line with the OBR’s SB24 forecast in 2023-24 and 2024-25.  ↩

Tax Structure and Parameters Statistics, HMRC (GOV.UK), June 2022.  ↩

School Workforce in England survey , June 2023.  ↩

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings , Office for National Statistics, November 2023  ↩

NHS Staff Earnings Estimates , NHS, September 2023.  ↩

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) analysis of NICs liabilities.  ↩

Policy Measures Database , Office for Budget Responsibility, October 2023.  ↩

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings , Office for National Statistics, November 2023. HM Treasury analysis of tax liabilities. The calculations are on a same-year basis against a counterfactual, to isolate the effect of policy changes on tax liabilities.  ↩

HMRC calculations.  ↩

Total Marginal Effective Tax Rates from Income Tax, Employee National Insurance Contributions and HICBC.  ↩

DWP Outturn and forecast tables: Autumn Statement 2023, OBR November 2023 Economic and fiscal outlook – WCA reform Supplementary Release.  ↩

OECD Energy Support Measures Tracker – OECD .  ↩

Support figure includes the Energy Price Guarantee and further direct household support announced over Autumn Statement 2023, Spring Budget 2023, Autumn Statement 2022, May 2022 Package, Spring Statement 2022 and Autumn Budget 2021. Average support is calculated by dividing total support by the number of UK households (Office for National Statistics, May 2023).  ↩

Department for Work and Pensions analysis ( Ad hoc statistical analyses 2023 ), Department for Work and Pensions, November 2023.  ↩

The full rate of the basic State Pension was £97.65 a week in 2010-11 ( Work and Pensions – Social Security Benefit Up-rating , National Archives, archived January 2013). A full basic State Pension will be worth £169.50 in 2024-25 ( Proposed benefit and pension rates 2024 to 2025 , Department for Work and Pensions, December 2023). The full yearly amount is therefore worth over £3,700 more in cash terms in 2024-25.  ↩

Millions of renters better off with boost to Housing Support, gov.uk .  ↩

HM Treasury calculations using ‘Petroleum consumption by transport mode and fuel type: United Kingdom’ and ‘Licenced vehicles at the end of the quarter by body type and fuel type: Great Britain and United Kingdom’ Department for Transport, December 2023.  ↩

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) calculations.  ↩

‘Economic and Fiscal Outlook’, Office for Budget Responsibility, March 2024.  ↩

Ofgem data from October 2023. Figure obtained by summing the total number of single and multi-rate electricity customers. See Table 11 from Ofgem November 23 levelisation consultation: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/changes-prepayment-meter-standing-charges-and-other-debt-costs ).  ↩

Between June-September 2023, the discount was £21 per year. From 1 October 2023 onwards the discount was £40 a year: Energy Price Guarantee – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .  ↩

‘Policy Costings, Autumn Statement 2023’ , HM Treasury, November 2023.  ↩

‘Economic and Financial Outlook’ , OBR, November 2023.  ↩

‘Harrington Review’ , HM Treasury, November 2023.  ↩

‘Prime Minister unveils £29.5bn of investment at historic Global Investment Summit’ . HM Government, November 2023.  ↩

‘Changes to various permitted development rights: consultation’ , Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, February 2024.  ↩

‘An Accelerated Planning System’ , Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, March 2024.  ↩

‘Operational reforms to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) consenting process: government response’ , Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, March 2024.  ↩

‘National Policy Statement for National Networks’ , Department for Transport, March 2024.  ↩

Internal data collected by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.  ↩

‘Network North’ , Department for Transport, October 2023.  ↩

Stated in 2023 prices, as set out in the Network North command paper.  ↩

‘Independent review of university spin-out companies’ , Department for Science, Innovation and Technology & HM Treasury, November 2023.  ↩

HM Revenue and Customs analysis of NICs liabilities.  ↩

‘VAT/GST: Registration/Collection Thresholds’ , OECD, 2023.  ↩

Internal HM Revenue and Customs calculations.  ↩

‘Government underlines commitment to British farmers’ , Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, February 2024.  ↩

‘UK Capital Markets: A New Sense of Urgency’ , New Financial, September 2023.  ↩

‘Chancellor backs British business with pension fund reforms’ , HM Treasury, March 2024.  ↩

‘Value for money: A framework on metrics, standards, and disclosures’ , Department for Work and Pensions, Financial Conduct Authority, and The Pensions Regulator, January 2023.  ↩

‘DCMS and Digital Economic Estimates: Monthly GVA (to Dec 2023)’ Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, February 2024.  ↩

‘Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors and digital sector, July 2022 to June 2023’ , Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, January 2024.  ↩

‘Creative industries sector vision’ , Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, June 2023.  ↩

‘Advanced manufacturing plan’ , Department for Business and Trade, November 2023.  ↩

‘£360 million to boost British manufacturing and R&D’ , HM Treasury, March 2024.  ↩

‘UK first major economy to halve emissions’ , Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, February 2024.  ↩

Information on Contracts for Difference pot budget estimates can be found in the ‘Allocation Round 6 Budget Notice’ , Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, March 2024.  ↩

‘UK tech sector retains #1 spot in Europe and #3 in world as sector resilience brings continued growth’ , DCMS, December 2022.  ↩

Internal Department for Science, Innovation and Technology estimates.  ↩

‘Life Sciences Vision’ , HM Government, July 2021.  ↩

For example, supported by the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing fund, the government recently announced almost £92 million of combined government and industry investment into two new projects expanding pharmaceutical manufacturing plants in the UK. ‘£360 million to boost British manufacturing and R&D’ , HM Treasury, March 2024.  ↩

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities calculations based on the total population of local authorities benefiting from devolved powers, as per the 2021 Census .  ↩

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