UK Budget 2020 - Investing In The Nhs England

11th March 2020

The NHS is the government's number one spending priority. The NHS settlement, confirmed in January 2019, provided the largest cash increase in public services since the Second World War - an additional £34 billion per year by 2023-24.25 Spending Round 2019 confirmed the government's commitment to the NHS, with £139 billion for health budgets in 2020‑21.26.

The Budget provides over £6 billion of further funding to strengthen the NHS in England and pay for vital services that will improve people’s health, reaffirming the government’s commitment to health and social care.

The government will invest to increase staffing, making sure that the NHS has the people it needs. This will include a significant funding package to improve the recruitment, training and retention of nurses in England, ensuring there are 50,000 more in the NHS; and for the recruitment, training and retention of up to 6,000 more GPs and 6,000 more primary care professionals in England, such as physiotherapists and pharmacists. This will create 50 million more GP surgery appointments a year. The government will also change

pensions tax rules to ensure that NHS staff across the UK, including senior doctors, whose income is less than £200,000 can work additional hours for the NHS without their annual allowance being reduced.

The government will invest in our hospitals, including over £100 million in 2020‑21 to make progress on 40 new hospital projects, as part of a long-term programme of investment in health infrastructure to ensure the NHS has world-class facilities for patients.27 This

will be accompanied by an increase in DHSC’s capital budget of £683 million in the 2020-21 financial year to protect the level of NHS operational capital investment. This will allow Trusts to continue to invest in important capital projects such as estate refurbishments and building maintenance.



To ensure that new arrivals to the UK contribute to the funding of the NHS, the Immigration Health Surcharge will be increased to £624. The government will also introduce a new discounted rate of £470 for children in recognition of the increased financial impact on

family groups.

The government is committed to long-term reform of adult social care and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has written to parliamentarians to begin building cross-party

consensus on reform. Ahead of those discussions, the government will invest £1 billion of additional funding for social care next year, as announced at Spending Round 2019.

The Budget confirms that this additional funding will continue for every year of the current Parliament to continue to stabilise the system.