What does the budget mean for the NHS?

On Wednesday 30 October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the new government's Autumn budget. It was a milestone in many ways, as this was the first budget from a Labour government since the Conservatives took power and the first from a female chancellor in the UK's history. Before the budget, Reeves had stated that she was ‘putting an end to the neglect and under investment the NHS has seen for over a decade’ – so what was promised for the health service?

The NHS in England is to receive an additional £22.6 billion over 2 years, meaning the total budget will increase to £192 billion in 2024/5. Reeves said, ‘Because of this record injection of funding, because of the thousands of additional beds that we have secured, and because of the reforms that we are delivering in our NHS, we can now begin to bring waiting lists down more quickly and move towards our target for waiting times to be no longer than 18 weeks’.