Rachel Reeves Unveils Record NHS Cash Boost As She Turns On The Spending Taps
Rachel Reeves has announced a record-breaking cash boost for the NHS as she went on a huge spending spree to secure a second term in office for Labour.
The chancellor said the health service will receive an extra £29 billion a year from the Treasury – a rise of 3% after inflation.
It means that health secretary Wes Streeting is the big winner from her spending review, which sets out Whitehall budgets for the next three years.
She said previously-announced changes to her fiscal rules, allowing her to borrow more for major infrastructure projects, have allowed her to allocate £190 billion more to the day-to-day running of public services.
On her plans for the NHS, she said: 'I am proud to announce today that this Labour government is making a record cash investment in our NHS, increasing real-terms, day to day spending by 3% per year for every year of this spending review.
'An extra £29bn per year for the day to day running of the health service. That is what the British people voted for and that is what we will deliver: more appointments, more doctors, more scanners.
'The National Health Service: created, by a Labour government, protected, by a Labour government and renewed by this Labour government.'
Effectively firing the starting gun on the next general election campaign, the chancellor said her spending review would 'deliver the priorities of the British people'.
Reeves said that overall, Whitehall budgets will grow by 2.3% a year in real terms.
But with the NHS and the Ministry of Defence receiving the biggest increases, it means other departments will see their budgets squeezed.
The MoD will receive an extra £11bn increase, meaning military spending will hit 2.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) by April 2027 – slightly more than had been previously announced.
Reeves also confirmed previously-announced plans to spend £39 billion on a 10-year affordable house building programme, £15bn improving transport links in the north and Midlands, and £14bn for the new Sizewell C nuclear plant.
She said she was 'increasing police spending power by an average 2.3% per year in real terms', but that is unlikely to be enough to satisfy police chiefs who wanted substantially more.
Throwing down the gauntlet to the Tories and Reform, Reeves said: 'I've made my choices. Tough decisions, yes, for stability. Changing Britain's fiscal rules, yes, for investment.
'And today, delivering that investment – for the renewal of Britain. Now it is time for the parties opposite to make their choices'
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