UK Government could spend nearly £1bn on paid media

The UK Government could spend up to a maximum of £930m over the next three years on media.

This maximum amount is almost double the typical budget over the previous four years, according to a report in The Guardian based on data compiled by Labour.

Most of the spend would have been previously agreed under Boris Johnson’s administration, but the increase comes as Liz Truss was reportedly preparing an ad campaign to highlight the £150bn intervention in the freezing the energy price cap.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will have its proposed maximum media-buying budget increased from £9.65m to £36m, while the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will go from £4.7m to £21.6m.

A government spokesperson told The Media Leader: “It is misleading to characterise the figures as planned advertising spend. They reflect the maximum threshold for buying media space, with several departments spending less than the projected threshold over the past four years.

“Departments have learned lessons from crises such as Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine to build substantial contingency into their contracts so that we can act swiftly and deliver timely public information when necessary. We keep spending under continuous review to ensure we deliver value for money for the taxpayer.”

The Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office, Department for Work & Pensions, HMRC and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities all spent less on advertising than their planned spend over the past four years.