NHS cash injection worth billions to deliver 2% productivity growth, says chancellor

Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

By Sarah Lowden

The chancellor has announced what she described as “the largest real-terms growth in day-to-day NHS spending outside of Covid since 2010”.

The health budget for day-to-day spending will increase by £22.6 billion from 2023-24 to 2025-26, providing a 2-year average real terms growth rate of 4%.

In an Autumn Budget that set out “a large, sustained increase in spending, taxation, and borrowing”, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, Rachel Reeves MP said the NHS funding boost would help get waiting lists back to a maximum of 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment – one of Labour’s election manifesto pledges.

Delivering her budget in the Commons on Wednesday, she described the NHS as "our most cherished public service of all".

She said the extra funding for the department of health and social care was a “down payment” on the government’s 10-year health plan.