£14.8bn extra for schools, defence and NHS

WHITEHALL spending will rise by £ 14.8billion to £ 540billion next year, with more cash for schools, the NHS and defence despite the huge cost of the pandemic.

Rishi Sunak said the day-to-day budgets of departments would rise by 3.8 per cent, the fastest growth rate in 15 years.

Schools will get an extra £2.2billion, with more money set aside for ‘catch-up’ learning.

The Chancellor said the NHS would also be given a further £3billion. Of this, £1.5billion will address ‘existing pressures’ in the health service, £325million will help replace older screening equipment for conditions such as cancer, and ‘hundreds of millions’ will go on mental health services.

Another £1billion will be spent on tackling the coronavirus backlog directly. This will pay for up to a million extra checks, scans and operations for those who have had their treatment delayed.

Defence has already been handed a four-year £16.5billion deal so chiefs can invest more in cyber protection and space.

Meanwhile Britain’s ‘Festival of Brexit’ will be handed £29million as expected, with officials describing it as a series of ‘show- stop

‘We don’t know if it will be enough’

ping events to showcase the best of British art, culture and tech’. Mr Sunak also announced another £220million for borders and immigration to help with the increased workload ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period. Money will go towards new technology to ‘streamline the border experience and strengthen security’.

Courts will also be given a £275million funding boost so they can increase their capacity after the pandemic created a backlog.

Data released earlier this month revealed the extent of the NHS backlog. Across England, 139,545 had waited more than 52 weeks to start treatment as of September this year – the highest in 12 years.

The figures from NHS England also showed 1.72 million had waited more than 18 weeks to start treatment in September.

Charities welcomed the extra funds to tackle NHS backlogs.

Steven McIntosh, of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: ‘This will provide much needed emergency support to help services defuse the ticking time bomb of undiagnosed and untreated cancer.’

But Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers, cautioned: ‘What we don’t know yet is whether it will be enough. It’s impossible to work out what the total additional funding needs associated with Covid-19 might be for next year.

‘The Government should therefore continue to honour its promise to give the NHS whatever it needs to continue to manage the impact of the pandemic.’