Full list of everything Rachel Reeves is scrapping in bid to save £22 billion

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed the winter fuel payment will be scrapped for ten million pensioners.

Ms Reeves said it will now become "means tested" and the bombshell announcement was one of numerous changes confirmed to Parliament on Monday.

The Labour Chancellor has also scrapped the planned cap on care costs to help tackle a black hole in the public finances it claimed was left by the Conservatives.

She announced to MPs on Monday that the adult social care charging reforms, due to be implemented next October, would be cancelled, saving £1.1bn by the end of 2025-26.

Responding to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech, Sam Richards, CEO of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, said: “It’s absolutely right that the new Chancellor wants to check every infrastructure project is delivering value for money for taxpayers, but cutting capital spending isn’t risk free.

"There are some projects in the Restoring our Railways fund - like the Tavistock railway line - that are vital to delivering prosperity in parts of the country that don’t get the same focus as London and the South East.

"As the Government reviews these projects, we’ll be making the case for those that we think are best value for money.

“Keir Starmer made kickstarting economic growth and making Britain a clean energy superpower the top two missions for his government, but neither of these will be achieved if economy boosting clean infrastructure projects are delayed or cancelled."

Read below for everything the Chancellor has axed today.

Winter fuel payment

Chancellor Rachel Reeves sparked groans from the opposition benches as she announced the "difficult decision" to make changes to winter fuel payment eligibility.

Ms Reeves said the previous Tory government "repeatedly, knowingly and deliberately" made spending commitments without knowing where the money was coming from.

She told the House of Commons: "This level of overspend is not sustainable. Left unchecked, it is a risk to economic stability and, unlike the party opposite, I will never take risks with our country's economic stability.

"So, it therefore falls to us to take the difficult decisions now to make further in-year savings. The scale of the situation we are dealing with means incredibly tough choices.

"I repeat today the commitment that we made in our manifesto to protect the triple-lock but today I am making the difficult decision that those not in receipt of pension credit or certain other means-tested benefits will no longer receive the winter fuel payment from this year onwards.

"The Government will continue to provide winter fuel payments worth £200 to households receiving pension credit or £300 to households in receipt of pension credit with someone over the age of 80. Let me be clear, this is not a decision I wanted to make, nor is it the one I expected to make - but these are the necessary and urgent decisions that I must make."

Social care cap review

The Government has scrapped the planned cap on care costs to help tackle a black hole in the public finances it claimed was left by the Conservatives.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced today that the adult social care charging reforms, due to be implemented next October, would be cancelled, saving £1.1bn by the end of 2025-26.

The Treasury said that the Conservatives had committed to introducing the adult social care charging reforms in October 2025 – two years later than originally planed – “but did not put money aside for them”.

“The reforms are now impossible to deliver in full to previously announced timeframes,” it added.

The decision to cancel the reforms will save £30m in 2024-25 and £1.075bn in 2025-26, the document said.

Stonehenge Road Tunnel

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has scrapped a £1.7 billion tunnel near Stonehenge.

It would have gone for eight miles alongside the existing dual carriageway, and would also reduce noise pollution for visitors to the globally-famous spot.

It has been persistently tied up in legal action since being announced, with the Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site arguing it would permanently disfigure the important landscape.

Unesco officials have also warned that the tunnel could “compromise the integrity” of Stonehenge.

45 new railway lines

Boris Johnson’s dream of reversing the Beaching cuts of the 1960s is over.

Announced in 2019, the Government pledged to restore a number of abandoned railway lines and stations to improve connectivity.

£500 million was earmarked for the project, with 44 lines being granted funding.

Since 2020, just one line has been opened - the Dartmoor line from Exeter to Okehampton.

In 2022, 23 of the lines had been funded with a further 13 being developed.

Among those set to be scaled back could be new Lins in Dartmoor, Birmingham New Street to Kings Norton and the Northumberland line.

Arundel bypass

Labour had already pledged to scrap the A27 Arundel bypass in their manifesto, in order to fund the filling of 1 million potholes across England each year.

Labour claimed the project is “poor value for money”, despite hopes it would ease congestion in the area.

The Sussex Wildlife Trust has led the charge against its construction, with claims it could cause irreversible environmental damage.

The Chancellor said: "The spending audit has revealed nearly £800m of unfunded transport projects that have been committed next year.

"So my RHF the Transport Secretary will undertake a thorough review of all these commitments.

"As part of that work, she has agreed not to move forwards with projects that the previous government refused to publicly cancel, despite knowing full well they were unaffordable.

"That includes proposed work on the A303 and the A27…

… and my RHF will also cancel projects in the “Restoring our Railways” programme which have not yet commenced.

"If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it."

The Rwanda deportation plan

Chancellor Rachel Reeves launched a blistering attack on the Conservatives’ record on asylum, claiming they were £6.4 billion over budget.

And she insisted Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plan to allow migrants to claim asylum – even if they crossed the Channel in a small boat – will save cash.

The Treasury said allowing tens of thousands of people to claim asylum and scrapping the Rwanda will save £800m this year and £1.4 billion next year.

Rishi Sunak's education plans

Rishi Sunak's proposed new qualification, due to bridge the gap between A-levels and T-levels, will not go ahead.

Ms Reeves said the former prime minister "didn't put aside a single penny to pay for it" as she said the plan would be scrapped.

40 new hospitals

Another of Boris Johnson’s legacy projects set to be abandoned, Wes Streeting has now said that the £20 billion programme is unachievable by the current 2030 deadline.

Last year the National Audit Office said that just 11 of the 32 announced projects qualified as “whole new hospitals”, and the scheme was failing to deliver value for money.

Amid concerns the project will now be paused, Wes Streeting has said: “I want to see the new hospital programme completed but I am not prepared to offer people false hope about how soon they will benefit from the facilities they deserve”.

Sale of land

Ms Reeves also confirmed she wants to sell off some Government land and property in order to raise hundreds of millions.

Ministry of Defence sites, along with NHS property and Network Rail land are all in the Government’s eyesights.

The Investment Opportunity Fund

This was announced at Autumn Statement 2023 but has yet to support any projects.

Whitehall consultants

The Chancellor also announced a crackdown on the use of private, third party consultants across Whitehall.

It will come alongside a new Office of Value for Money that will see civil servants ordered to find new cost and efficiency savings.

Outlining the changes, Ms Reeves told MPs: "So, the first difficult choice I am making is to ask all departments to find savings to absorb as much of this as possible…

… totalling at least £3bn.

"To support departments as they do this, I will work with them to find savings ahead of the Autumn budget…

… including through a series of measures to reduce unnecessarystop all non-essential spending, such as stopping all non-essential spending on consultancy and government communications.

"And I am asking departments to find 2% savings in their back-office costs."