Government Outlines £6.2bn NHS Funding in Spending Review
Chancellor Sajid Javid today outlined the Government’s spending plans for 2020-21. Supporting what he dubbed the "infrastructure revolution", an extra £13.8bn of day-to-day funding was announced to boost public services.
The review, which historically covers a three-year period for department budgets, was curtailed to just 12 months due to ongoing Brexit uncertainty. Unsurprisingly then, the Chancellor began his speech addressing the topic, with a £2bn pledge to support additional border staff, transport upgrades and business readiness.
The NHS is set to receive a funding increase of £6.2bn next year. As previously trailed by the Prime Minister, £2bn of new capital funding will begin with upgrades to 20 hospitals and £250m for new artificial intelligence technologies. Councils will also have access to £1.5bn of new funding for social care.
Responding to today's announcement, ABHI Director, Policy & Communications, Richard Phillips, said: "Whilst any new money committed to the NHS is welcome, people are naturally suspicious that announcements amount to no more than a restatement of what has already been agreed, with the Nuffield Trust describing the review as an opportunity missed. The recent £1.8bn of capital spending, for example, was not new money, but merely a green light to go ahead with planned activity that might have otherwise breached the Department’s capital expenditure limit. The other issue is, of course, that the delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan is dependent on improvements, and investment, into the social care sector. Not, perhaps understandably, a nettle that has been grasped here."
We will consider the detail of today's spending review in due course.