(Bloomberg) -- UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will set aside billions of pounds for the National Health Service in her budget next week as the institution kicks off an extensive program of reform.
Reeves is planning to announce real-term increases to the NHS’s day-to-day budget in this tax year and the next, anonymous government sources told the Times newspaper, though detailed allocations have yet to be agreed. The Treasury did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.
The funding negotiations come as the Health Secretary Wes Streeting will on Monday call on the public, clinicians and experts to submit ideas for the future of the NHS, in what he vowed would be the “biggest national conversation” about the institution since it was founded in 1948.
Britain’s aging population and the Covid-19 pandemic have placed the NHS under intense strain, leading to a soaring backlog and worsening health outcomes for many patients. While Reeves is under pressure to give the NHS enough financial support to fulfill Labour’s manifesto pledge of creating 40,000 extra appointments and operations a week, she is also operating within tight fiscal constraints as she attempts to raise as much as £40 billion ($52 billion) to balance Britain’s books.
In a statement announcing his plans for the health service reform, Streeting — who confirmed he had reached an agreement with the chancellor on NHS funding in the forthcoming budget — said “investment alone” would not be enough to tackle the problems facing the NHS.
“In order to save the things we love about the NHS, we need to change it,” he said. “Our 10 Year Health Plan will transform the NHS to make it fit for the future, and it will have patients’ and staff’s fingerprints all over it.”
Speaking to GB News on Sunday, he added that Reeves’ budget will focus on “investment in things like capital and tech so that we can make the system more efficient.”
Streeting has already outlined plans to create new neighborhood health centers to reduce the burden on hospitals, digitalize patient records, update IT systems across the NHS and roll out new wearable devices such as smartwatches so patients can monitor their own health.
Reeves has been weighing a series of tax hikes in recent months as she gears up to deliver a high-risk budget that can convince investors and voters, as well as her fellow Labour Party cabinet ministers, that the UK has stabilized following a tumultuous period in which the country cycled through four Tory prime ministers in five years.
After Labour came to power in July’s general election by inflicting a dramatic defeat on the Conservatives, the chancellor claimed her Tory predecessors had left a £20 billion black hole in the public purse.
Among other measures, she is considering raising taxes levied on entrepreneurs when they sell their businesses, reforming inheritance tax and extending a freeze on income tax thresholds, according to people familiar with her plans.
In a report published Monday, the Centre for Policy Studies think tank warned Labour’s tax plans would cause the UK’s competitiveness to plummet, which could upend the government’s hopes of attracting more foreign investment.
The 2024 International Tax Competitiveness Index, a separate publication released Monday by the US-based Tax Foundation, found the UK ranks 30th out of 38 OECD countries — behind peers such as Germany and Hungary.
Raising capital gains tax would see the UK drop another two to four places, while introducing a wealth tax would see the UK slide to 34th place, the CPS said.
“There’s a real danger that Britain could end up with one of the least competitive and most anti-growth tax systems in the OECD if the expected tax rises come to fruition in the budget,” said Daniel Herring, researcher for economic and fiscal policy at the CPS. “If Labour really wants long-term economic growth, it needs to get serious about fundamental tax reform.”
(Updates with think tank report starting from 12th paragraph.)
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