Confirmation of the extra £20.5 billion more in ‘real-terms’ annual funding for the NHS by 2023-2024 announced last June – including at least £2 billion annually for mental health, and an end to the current PFI model, were among the notable elements impacting on health and social care in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s 2018 Budget Speech delivered on 29 October.
The Executive Summary said: ‘In June the government set out an unprecedented multi-year funding plan for the NHS in England. At the time this equated to £20.5 billion more a year in real terms by 2030-2024, an average real growth rate in the NHS’s budget of 3.4% per year – taking the NHS budget from £114.6 billion in 2018-2019 to £147.8 billion in 20232024. The NHS agreed to come forward with a new long-term plan this year, to be agreed with the government. The cash settlement that the government promised in June 2018 is fully funded at this Budget. The NHS will deliver its plan by the yearend, and the government will confirm the settlement consistent with that plan, and the £20.5 billion real-terms increase by 2023-2024, by Spending Review 2019.”
