The Government has confirmed it is scrapping a planned multi-year spending review, and instead holding a one-year review at the end of November.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the decision was taken to prioritise the response to Covid-19 and focus on supporting jobs, setting departmental resources and capital budgets for 2021-22, and the devolved administrations’ block grants for the same period.

Funding for the NHS and schools will remain multi-year, along with priority infrastructure projects.

The Government had kept an open mind on scrapping the multi-year spending review but has come under pressure from economists in recent months, who pointed out that the uncertainty of the pandemic meant setting longer-term spending targets would prove difficult.

In a statement, the Treasury said: “While the Government would have liked to outline plans for the rest of this Parliament, the right thing today is to focus entirely on the response to Covid-19 and supporting jobs – that’s what the public would expect.”

It outlined three areas of support including supporting employment, funding public services in the fight against the virus and investment to unite and level up the country, it said.

The Chancellor, Mr Sunak, added: “In the current environment it’s essential that we provide certainty.

“So we’ll be doing that for departments and all of the nations of the United Kingdom by setting budgets for next year, with a total focus on tackling Covid and delivering our Plan for Jobs.

“Long-term investment in our country’s future is the right thing to do, especially in areas which are the cornerstone of our society, like the NHS, schools and infrastructure.

“We’ll make sure these areas crucial to our economic recovery have their budgets set for further years so they can plan and help us Build Back Better.”