The Budget will revive a ‘broken but not defeated’ NHS, Labor ministers say, with billions of pounds of funding set to be announced in a bid to reduce record waiting lists.
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the measures announced on Wednesday would put an end to the neglect of the health service, delivering more surgical centers and radiotherapy machines in a bid to deliver an extra 40,000 appointments a week.
The government is expected to provide a boost of at least 4% to annual funding for the NHS, sources have previously told the Guardian, which could translate into a cash injection of around £7 billion for England’s healthcare budget.
In a speech on Monday to underline how steep tax rises would fund government spending, Keir Starmer said this would be the biggest budget of the next five years, with the toughest decisions, setting the direction for the whole parliament.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to “take the tough decisions in advance here and now” to create the conditions for improving public services, investment and growth.
“We’re laying the foundations in this budget… That’s the approach… you can expect to see all of that quite well in this budget,” he said, although he added that he “can never completely rule out further changes to rule out”.
Treasury sources said Starmer and Reeves would this week emphasize that the budget would be “generational” and would include key decisions of parliament, barring unexpected crises.
“We don’t want to come back and make another budget of this magnitude,” one said. “This is a response to a series of once-in-a-generation crises and we have no intention of asking the country to do this again.”
Tax increases are expected to have an impact on employers’ national insurance contributions, an increase that will be directly linked to planned investment in the NHS. It is unlikely that the increases will extend to employers’ pension contributions.
The Chancellor is also expected to make changes to capital gains and inheritance tax and extend the freeze on tax thresholds, meaning more households will be dragged into paying higher tax rates as wages rise.
It comes as Reeves unveils a £240 million package to accelerate the rollout of local services to help people back into work. The ‘Get Britain Working’ program is expected to provide employment, skills and health support for people who are disabled or have long-term illness.
Treasury sources said there would be “no rabbits” – major surprise measures – and claimed they were focusing instead on the serious effort to get the national finances in order.
Reeves and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said on Monday during a visit to St George’s hospital in south London that tough choices would mean extra government spending where it was needed.
Starmer also underlined that point in his speech, drawing a distinction with the 1997 and 2010 elections, when Labor leaders pledged to match Conservative spending plans.
The Prime Minister said he had never made the same commitment because he was unwilling to tolerate significant cuts – although cabinet ministers have privately raised alarms about the prospect of tight budgets.
“The Budget the Chancellor will present on Wednesday will prevent devastating cuts to our public services and avoid a disastrous path for our public finances,” Starmer said. “That is the reality of what would have happened if we had stuck to Tory spending plans.”
He admitted there would be an end to the £2 fare cap, introduced under the Conservatives to boost the use of public transport. The cap will rise to £3 after the current funding ends at the end of the year. The decision comes despite heavy lobbying from Labor’s elected mayors to keep the cap in place, as reported by the Guardian last week.
The Prime Minister also hinted that the Chancellor could freeze fuel duty again in this week’s Budget, telling a Sun reporter who has campaigned to keep the freeze in place: “I understand how important it is for is you, your readers and others.”
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During their hospital visit, Reeves and Streeting said the NHS could not wait for future budgets to make drastic improvements.
Streeting, which has been much criticized describes the NHS as brokensaid it was “broken but not defeated” and that the budget marked a moment for rebuilding, including a focus on elective treatment.
In August, more than 7.6 million patients in England were waiting for an appointment, scan or operation, and more than 280,000 had been waiting for more than a year.
The government announced on Monday that the budget would fund £1.5 billion for more surgical hubs and scanners and £70 million for new radiotherapy machines, which Reeves said would free up thousands of extra procedures and millions of diagnostic tests in England.
Matthew Taylor, the head of the NHS Confederation, said the announcement was a “step in the right direction”, especially ahead of a “difficult” winter. He said: “We know that capital investment is critical to increasing productivity and ensuring patients receive the best possible care in a timely manner.”
The Kings Fund said capital investment “would only go so far in improving patient care as the existing backlog of NHS maintenance issues with buildings and equipment continues to grow rapidly and now stands at a staggering £13.8 billion.”
Figures from The Guardian show that the NHS would have to spend more than £240 million just to replace outdated radiotherapy equipment. According to Radiotherapy UK, an estimate 70 machines are expected to be obsolete by the end of 2024. It would cost around £3.5 million to replace each machine.
Prof Pat Price, chairman of Radiotherapy UK, said: “While £70 million is a very welcome first significant investment in new radiotherapy machines since 2016, much more needs to be done if the Government is serious about reducing waiting lists for cancer treatments. finished.
“Investing £350 million in radiotherapy by replacing outdated machines alongside new technologies could free up 87,000 cancer appointments and vastly increase the capacity of our cancer workforce.”
Mark Lawler, professor of digital health at Queen’s University Belfast and chair of the International Benchmarking Partnership, said that, combined with £400 million in funding for cancer surgery and £100 million on chemotherapy, the Government would need to spend £850 million on cancer treatments to significant reduction in cancer waiting lists, allowing more patients to be treated faster.
“Unbelievably, we have missed the target of 62 days for referral to the first treatment since 2015, a shocking indictment of a system that is failing our cancer patients,” he said. “Fast treatment is crucial for the chances of survival. An investment of just £850 million – a small proportion of the total NHS budget – would make a significant contribution to cancer treatment waiting lists and save thousands of lives.”