Spring 2024 Budget - Health and Care Spending Announcements

Key announcements

• £3.4 billion long-term capital investment over three years (from 2025/26) to upgrade medical equipment such as MRI scanners, roll out electronic patient record systems, and reduce the time NHS staff spend on administration

• £2.45 billion of additional resource (day-to-day) funding for 2024/25 for the NHS.

• Further announcements and ambitions, including more specific areas funded by the long-term capital investment above:

• £35 million over three years (2024/25–2026/27) to improve maternity safety through specialist training, more midwives and engagement with mothers

• £45 million of additional funding for medical research charities in the life sciences sector

• Duties introduced for vaping products and increases to tobacco duty from October 2026. Duty on alcohol is frozen until February 2025

• Tighter controls on how much the NHS spends on temporary (agency) staff, including the ending of ‘off-framework’ agency staffing from July 2024

• NHS England, integrated care boards and trusts will start reporting against new productivity measures from the second half of 2024/25.

In many cases, the absence of news can signal concerning developments, particularly in areas of health and care expenditure not thoroughly addressed in the spring Budget. The councils overseeing adult and children's social care are set to receive an additional £500 million grant funding in the fiscal year 2024/25, as announced in late January 2024. However, this falls significantly short of the £7 billion annual increase advocated by Jeremy Hunt during his tenure as chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee in 2020.

As we approach the election, the pressure and urgency surrounding adult social care services are bound to intensify as more individuals encounter difficulties accessing necessary care while providers grapple with financial sustainability.

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