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Budget 2017

Rt Hon Theresa May MP’s first and final Spring 2017 Budget as PM was delivered on Wednesday 8 March. Future Budget statements will be delivered in the Autumn to allow companies and individuals to prepare for the end of the tax year.

The Chancellor Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP announced an additional £2bn for local authorities to provide social care over the next three years, and said that the health and local government secretaries will make announcements shortly about better coordination of social care budgets under STPs. A green paper later this year will announce Government options for better funding social care. The new social care funding package will include £100m of capital to support GP triage in hospitals in advance of winter 2017/18.

Note: the National Insurance rise intended to fund the extra £2bn for social care has since been rolled back on, but the pledge to provide the money to social care still stands.

Full Budget papers can be seen here:

• The Chancellor’s speech
• The Budget Red Book
• Policy costings 

The section of the speech covering NHS and social care is pasted below:

 

“Today, our social care system cares for over a million people and I pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of carers, who work in it.

But the system is clearly under pressure. And this in turn puts pressure on our NHS.

Today, there are half a million more people aged over 75 than there were in 2010.

And there will be 2 million more in ten years’ time.

That is why the government has already delivered more than £7 billion extra spending power to the system over the next three years.

And it is why we are ensuring that local authorities and the NHS work more closely together.

To enable elderly patients to be discharged when they are ready, freeing up precious NHS beds, and ensuring that elderly people are receiving the care they need.

Today I am committing additional grant funding of £2 billion to social care in England over the next 3 years, with £1 billion available in 17-18.

This will allow local authorities to act now to commission new care packages.

Of course, this is not only about money.

While there are many excellent examples of best practice around the country, at the other end of the scale, just 24 local authorities are responsible for over half of all delayed discharges to social care.

So, alongside additional funding, the Health and Communities Secretaries will announce measures to identify and support authorities which are struggling, and to ensure more joined up working with the NHS.

These measures, and greater collaborative working under NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans, will bring short and medium-term benefits.

But the long-term challenges of sustainably funding care in older age requires a strategic approach.

And the government will set out its thinking on the options for the future financing of Social Care in a Green Paper later this year.

For the avoidance of doubt, Mr Deputy Speaker, those options do not include, and never have included, a Death Tax.

The social care funding package I have announced today will deliver immediate benefit to the NHS allowing it to re-focus on delivering the NHS England Forward View Plan.

A plan which this government has supported with the £10 billion increase in annual funding by 2020.

£4 billion in this year alone.

We recognise the progress the NHS is making in developing Sustainability and Transformation Plans.

And we recognise, too, that in addition to the funding already committed, some of those plans will require further capital investment.

So the Treasury will work closely with the Department of Health over the course of the summer as the STPs are progressed and prioritised.

And at Autumn Budget I will announce a multi-year capital programme to support implementation of approved high quality STPs.

In the meantime, my RHF the Health Secretary expects that a small number of the strongest STPs may be ready ahead of Autumn Budget.

And so today I am allocating an additional £325 million of capital to allow the first selected plans to proceed.

I have one further announcement related to the NHS.

The social care package I have announced today will help to free up beds by easing discharge of elderly patients.

That is one of the two big pressures on our hospitals.

The other is inappropriate A&E attendances by people of all ages.

Experience has shown that onsite GP triage in A&E departments, can have a significant and positive impact on A&E waiting times.

I am therefore making a further £100m of capital available immediately for up to 100 new triage projects at English hospitals in time for next winter.

Mr Deputy Speaker – this government backs the NHS’s plan.

We are funding it with a £10 billion above inflation increase by 2020;

We have addressed the pressures on the NHS from the social care system with a total of £9.25 billion additional resource.

We will protect the NHS from the effects of the changed personal injury discount rate, and have set aside £5.9 billion across the forecast period to do so.

And today we have made a clear new commitment to fund a capital programme for the implementation of high quality STPs, with a first down-payment for the early pioneers.

Mr Deputy Speaker, we are the government of the NHS.”

Last updated : 22 Mar 2017

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