Tough Choices The 2004 spending review

The 2004 spending review in July will effectively set the priorities for policy and for public spending for the next Parliament. This makes the 2004 review at least as important as the contents of Labour's future election manifesto and far more important than the 2004 Budget.

This pamphlet reviews the tough choices the government will have to make in the review. Giving certain policies priority will inevitably mean de-emphasising others and in the context of relatively tight constraints on overall spending, the relative losers in the 2004 review will be all too apparent.