Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to announce billions of pounds in NHS funding as part of Wednesday’s budget, focusing on acquiring new hospital equipment and expanding surgical capacities to reduce waiting lists. The financial injection includes £1.5 billion for surgical hubs and scanners, plus an additional £70 million earmarked for radiotherapy machines. This allocation follows £1.8 billion already invested since Labour’s July victory.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has acknowledged that tax increases will be needed to rebuild public services while pledging not to return to austerity. “I am putting an end to the neglect and underinvestment the NHS has seen for over a decade now,” Reeves stated.
The NHS, which faced backlogs from COVID-19 delays and industrial actions, will also see the deployment of specialized surgical teams to increase efficiency in hospitals across the UK. Health Secretary Wes Streeting highlighted the scale of the problem, saying, “Our NHS is broken, but it’s not beaten, and this Budget is the moment we start to fix it.” He emphasized that the current waiting list of 7.6 million is unacceptable.
A commitment to improving treatment wait times is also included in the plan, aiming for 92% of patients to begin treatment within 18 weeks. Starmer’s longer-term strategy involves a 10-year plan to address NHS issues in England, with recent agreements on pay settlements helping avert further strikes.
Meanwhile, the pound remained stable on Tuesday as markets awaited the budget announcement, which includes £40 billion in fiscal adjustments, mostly from tax increases and selective public spending cuts. ING strategist Francesco Pesole remarked, “Sterling continues to look vulnerable ahead of tomorrow’s budget event.” Despite recent economic growth and a minor rate cut by the Bank of England, sterling remains the top performer among major currencies against the dollar this year, with a nearly 2% rise.
