Spending Review fails women and leaves survivors at risk

Today (11th June 2025), Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves presented the government’s Spending Review which sets out the budget for all government departments over the next few years.

Today’s Spending Review once again prioritises short-term infrastructure gains over long-term sustainable investment needed to tackle the epidemic of violence against women and girls (VAWG). We are particularly concerned by cuts of 1.4% to the Home Office budget, the department responsible for delivering the government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls.

The review announced increases for defence, housing, prisons and transport, including:

● £7 billion to fund 14,000 new prison spaces
● £700 million to reform probation system
● Increased police spending power by 2.3%
● £1.2 billion a year to support a million young people into training and apprenticeships
● £2 billion AI Action Plan

Reforms to tackle gender inequality require a whole-society approach, so we welcome some spending increases in health and education following chronic underfunding of public services. However there is a glaring absence of any new funding for specialist support services for survivors of violence against women and girls.

Survivors of VAWG left without support

Chronic underspending on VAWG has real-term consequences for survivors. Between 2021 and 2023, the Home Office under-spent an average of 15% of its allocated budget on VAWG. Meanwhile survivors continued to face overwhelming delays when seeking out support, with far too many victims and survivors turned away and stuck on excruciating waiting lists, whilst many specialist services simultaneously struggle to recruit and/or retain specialist staff.

We know the dire impact of underfunding. Earlier this month the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, and the Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, warned that without urgent investment the government will miss its pledge to halve VAWG in the next decade. Yet once again their calls have gone unanswered.

Funding shortfalls undermine halving VAWG mission

The ‘whole-society approach’ set out in our VAWG manifesto needs targeted investment across government departments. Yet the current budget set out in the Spending Review reveals a disconnect between government rhetoric and reality.

In a letter signed by 25 VAWG services, we outlined the scope of financial investment needed – including £516 million annually for specialist domestic abuse services, with £178m ring-fenced funding for specialist services led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women, migrant women, d/Deaf and disabled women and the LGBT+ community, and approximately £127.9 million annually to existing sexual abuse services. Stalking services have calculated a total of £243 million needed to meet the needs of victims and increasing demand, whilst an estimated £46 million children and young people support fund is needed, with wider research to identify unmet need amongst this cohort.

There is an urgent need for investment to address the persistent funding issues facing our frontline support services, especially those run ‘by and for’ minoritised survivors. To create lasting change, we need multi-year, ring-fenced funding for specialist services, including by and for services, and prevention programmes. We need to see a clear funding pipeline with transparent allocations through to 2029, aligned with the pledge to halve VAWG in a decade.

Andrea Simon, Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition said:

“The government’s long-awaited Spending Review has failed to provide the critical funding needed to address the systemic causes of violence against women and girls or help survivors to heal and access support. We urgently need sustainable, multi-year funding for specialist support services, including services led by and for Black and minoritised women.

2.3% funding increases in police budgets reflect a narrow focus on the criminal justice response, when in fact, the vast majority of those subjected to forms of violence against women and girls don’t report to the police and only a small percentage of perpetrators of rape and domestic abuse are ever charged, let alone convicted. We can not afford to short-change life-saving specialist support for victims and survivors – and without the injection of additional funding for these services, this spending review does not credibly deal with the national emergency of violence against women and girls that we face.”

ENDS

Media contact

Sinéad Geoghegan, Head of Communications, media@evaw.org.uk