Spending Review

The Chancellor made no announcements on the future of the NHS in his 2012 Budget statement. Yet, the contents of the Budget report have quite profound implications for NHS funding.

They also reveal some interesting facts about the short-term.

Short-term movements

According to the 2010 Spending Review, the Government planned to spend £105.9 billion in 2011-12 on health in England. In Budget 2012, that total is now £900 million less.

While £400...

It is a year since the Government published the outcome of the Spending Review and so fixed public spending allocations for the four years from 2011/12 to 2014/15. The Spending Review led to an 11% reduction in departmental allocations across government (IFS summary of Spending Review, Oct 2010). Health received a comparatively generous allocation with a small real terms increase (0.4% over the four years). 

A year on we have...