On Wednesday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered the long-anticipated Autumn Statement, Labour’s first budget for 14 years and the first budget ever to be delivered by a woman. The Budget comes just one month after the Government-commissioned Darzi report was published, which described the NHS as in “critical condition” with over 7.6 million patients on the waiting list as of August, including more than 280,000 who have been waiting over a year.

The Chancellor announced that this Budget raises taxes by £40 billion.

When it comes to health and social care, the Chancellor stated:

• In Spring 2025, the UK Government will publish a 10 year plan for the NHS to deliver a shift from hospital to community, from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention
• Reforms are vital to enable the NHS to deliver 2% productivity growth next year but reforms must come alongside investment
• £22.6billion increase in the day-to-day health budget and a £3.1billion increase in the capital budget over this year and next – the largest real-term growth in NHS spending outside of Covid since 2010
• £1billion of health capital investment next year to address backlog of repairs and upgrades
• A further £1.5billion for new beds in hospitals across the UK, new capacity for over a million additional diagnostic tests and new surgical hubs and diagnostic centres, so that people waiting for treatment can get it as soon as possible. This forms part of Labour’s manifesto commitments to cut waiting lists and to increase the number of NHS hospital appointments and procedures in England by 40,000 per week.
• Work will continue at pace to deliver for the seven hospitals affected by the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (raac) crisis
• A significant real terms funding increase for Local Government next year, including £1.3billion of additional grant funding to deliver essential services, with at least £600 million in grant funding for social care and £230million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

Responding to the Autumn Budget, Ellie Orton OBE, CEO of NHS Charities Together, said: 

“We are pleased to see the UK Government committing to increased funding for the NHS. The NHS and its staff are under pressure like never before with unprecedented staff shortages, while demand continues to rise. More than 3 in 4 NHS staff surveyed last winter reported experiencing poor mental health in the past year, and, without investment, this is unlikely to improve, especially as we face the particularly tough and busy winter period.

“There is much work to be done to safeguard our NHS for future generations, in addition to increasing funding. Our diverse network of over 230 NHS charities across the UK are working tirelessly to help ease pressure on the NHS, improve staff wellbeing and break down the barriers patients face in accessing healthcare. Working closely with our incoming UK Government, we can collectively work towards a brighter future for our much-loved NHS – improving the experiences of staff, patients and communities.”