“We reject the self-imposed and demonstrably failed Treasury rules and call for a publicly funded and provided NHS that meets the needs of the population in the context of a functioning welfare state.”
By the Socialist Health Assosication
As we predicted from Healey’s speech at LPC 2026, there is little to be hopeful about in the 2026 Budget.
The NHS will get £190m in additional funding for Winter Pressures, which is a reflection of the severe pressures the NHS routinely faces over the winter period and is a non-recurrent top-up that solves no structural issue.
Furthermore, the total uplift for the NHS:
Cuts capital spending and does not address the backlog maintenance requirement of £17.3bn.
Capital budgets have been attacked to fund the commitment to NATO to increase Defence Spending, with most departments losing 1%. The total capital budget for the NHS will be cut by £1bn over the next four years compared with what was originally planned (down from £57.8bn to £56.8bn). Healey’s budget offers no relief for the NHS backlog maintenance. The backlog funding requirement of £17.3bn includes £10bn that is high risk – and could threaten safety or force buildings to close. At the same time as it is eroding NHS capital budgets, the NHS 10-year plan draws on failed private finance models to deliver NHS infrastructure.
It does nothing to support Primary Care.
Primary Care is not explicitly mentioned in the budget- nor are General Practitioners or NHS Dentistry. Regarding General Practice, it is a gross oversight that the Chancellor should fail even to acknowledge the foundational pillar of the NHS. Regarding the latter, there are an estimated £13m people in England unable to access NHS Dental Care.
It does not address real staffing crises in nursing and other healthcare professions.
NHS workers’ pay remains stagnant, leaving them on the front line of the cost of living crisis, resulting in an exhausted and depleted workforce. A King’s Fund Study in July 2025 reported that only a third of NHS staff believe there are enough colleagues in their organisation to do their job properly. The budget does not earmark funding for pay awards, but requires that pay awards be funded from existing budgets. The Government’s recommendation for staff pay awards is an uplift of 2.4%, whilst the commensurate inflation rate is 3.4%. The RCN, BMA and UNISON have criticised this real-terms pay cut.
It represents a real-terms reduction in funding
After taking inflation into account, funding for the NHS represents a £1bn reduction in funding in real terms (the inflation uplift is 2.8%, and inflation is estimated to be at least 1% more than this).
We repeat our view that investment in our NHS is an investment in people and the economy, and is neglected at our peril. We reject the self-imposed and demonstrably failed Treasury rules and call for a publicly funded and provided NHS that meets the needs of the population in the context of a functioning welfare state.
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- This was taken from a post on the SHA’s website on 2 November 2026.
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