{"id":142828,"date":"2018-06-18T16:30:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T16:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/tax-rise-need-to-help-pay-for-20bn-nhs-boost-says-pm\/"},"modified":"2018-06-18T16:30:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T16:30:17","slug":"tax-rise-need-to-help-pay-for-20bn-nhs-boost-says-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/tax-rise-need-to-help-pay-for-20bn-nhs-boost-says-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax rise need to help pay for \u00a320bn NHS boost, says PM"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Surgeons\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/11740\/production\/_102088417_surgeonsgetty.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  Getty Images<figcaption>Image caption                                      The funding boost means an extra \u00a320bn a year for the NHS by 2023                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Tax rises will be needed to pay for the boost in NHS funding announced by the government, the prime minister says.<\/p>\n<p>Theresa May conceded the public would pay more, but promised this would be done in a &quot;fair and balanced&quot; way.<\/p>\n<p>The government also says economic growth and a &quot;Brexit dividend&quot; will help cover the costs of the increased spending, which will see NHS England&#039;s budget increase by \u00a320bn by 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Labour&#039;s John McDonnell called the funding model &quot;not credible&quot;.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kuenssberg: &#039;No magic money tree&#039;<\/li>\n<li>NHS at 70: Share your stories and memories <\/li>\n<li>10 charts that show why the NHS is in trouble<\/li>\n<li>Does the Brexit dividend actually exist?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He - and others - have been critical about whether there will be the savings from Brexit that ministers are claiming.<\/p>\n<p>But in a speech in London, Mrs May insisted it would free up money.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Some of the extra funding I am promising will come from using the money we will no longer spend on our annual membership subscription to the European Union after we have left.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>However, she added that &quot;taxpayers will have to contribute a bit more in a fair and balanced way to support the NHS we all use&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>In return, Mrs May said the NHS had to play its part to ensure &quot;every penny is well spent&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>She has asked NHS England boss Simon Stevens to work with senior doctors to come up with a 10-year plan, looking at productivity, staffing and key areas such as mental health and cancer survival.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It must be a plan that tackles waste, reduces bureaucracy and eliminates unacceptable variation,&quot; Mrs May said.<\/p>\n<h2>What is the funding plan?<\/h2>\n<p>At the weekend, the government announced the NHS England budget would increase by 3.4% a year on average over the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>That means by 2023 the budget will be \u00a320bn higher than it is now, once inflation is taken into account.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, NHS England spends \u00a3114bn a year.<\/p>\n<p>But the plan does not include other parts of the wider health budget, such as training, stop-smoking clinics and other preventative services, so the overall &quot;health&quot; increase might be lower than 3.4%.<\/p>\n<p>The average annual rise since the foundation of the NHS in 1948 is 3.7%.<\/p>\n<p>The plan also means more money will be given to the rest of the UK - about \u00a34bn - although it will be up to the Welsh and Scottish governments to decide how that is spent.<\/p>\n<h2>How is it being funded?<\/h2>\n<p>Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the boost in funding was agreed with the Treasury on the basis it would come from three sources - Brexit, economic growth and the taxation system.<\/p>\n<p>Like the prime minister, Mr Hunt did not spell out what that could mean for taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Economic growth would mean the size of the public purse would grow, which leaves more for public services.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to Brexit, Mr Hunt the savings &quot;won&#039;t be anything like enough.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>In fact, some have questioned the very idea of a &quot;Brexit dividend&quot; with the Liberal Democrats even asking the UK Statistics Authority to rule whether the government is right to claim there is one.<\/p>\n<p>The Conservative chair of the Commons&#039; Health and Social Care Committee, Sarah Wollaston, said the concept was &quot;tosh&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>And Paul Johnson, director of economic think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said the only way the rise could be paid for was by an increase in taxes. <\/p>\n<p>He said the financial settlement with the EU, plus the UK&#039;s commitments to replace EU funding, &quot;already uses up all of our EU contributions&quot; for the next few years.<\/p>\n<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p06bf85h.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionJeremy Hunt tells Today there will be an &quot;increased burden of taxation&quot; to fund the NHS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Analysis: By Hugh Pym, BBC health editor<\/h2>\n<p>It was a significant funding announcement - few at senior levels in the NHS in England disagree with that.<\/p>\n<p>But as the dust settles after the weekend, several unanswered questions are still hanging in the air.<\/p>\n<p>What about the areas of health which are not covered? What about investment in hospital buildings and equipment? How will it be paid for?<\/p>\n<p>Read more from Hugh<\/p>\n<h2>Tax rises: The options<\/h2>\n<p>Ministers say there will be more details in the Budget in the autumn.<\/p>\n<p>There will be a desire to keep any rises to a minimum given the Conservative Party manifesto at the last election said its intention was to reduce taxes on businesses and working families.<\/p>\n<p>The IFS has looked at how much could be brought in and what the options are.<\/p>\n<p>The manifesto ruled out a rise in VAT, but that does not exclude extending the range of goods the tax is applied to.<\/p>\n<p>A commitment has also been made to reduce corporation tax.<\/p>\n<p>Income tax and National Insurance are the two biggest sources of tax revenue to the government.<\/p>\n<p>The IFS says adding a penny to the basic rate of income tax would raise \u00a34bn, while 1p on all the main rates of NI would bring in nearly \u00a310bn.<\/p>\n<p>Changing the thresholds at which different rates are applied is another option.<\/p>\n<h2>The 10-year plan for the NHS<\/h2>\n<p>Work on the plan will get under way almost immediately, with final proposals expected towards the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Four main areas of the NHS will be looked at:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The workforce<\/li>\n<li>Technology<\/li>\n<li>Buildings<\/li>\n<li>Productivity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The plan will build on the five-year strategy Mr Stevens set out in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>A big part of that was shifting care out of hospitals and into the community.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Getty Images                                                    <\/figure>\n<p>Mrs May is known to be keen to see a specific stress on mental health and improving cancer survival rates this time.<\/p>\n<p>In her speech on Monday, the PM recalled her own reliance on the NHS for help when she was diagnosed with type one diabetes, saying: &quot;I would not be doing the job I am doing today without that support.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, councils have questioned why the funding announcement did not also include more money for social care and public health, which covers everything from stop smoking services to obesity prevention.<\/p>\n<p>Both are considered essential to the sustainability of the NHS, but the increase announced only applied to front-line NHS services such as hospitals, GPs and mental health care.<\/p>\n<p>Councillor Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association, said: &quot;Without essential council services, which help people live healthy lives in their own homes and communities, the NHS cannot thrive.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The government said plans to reform the system will be published in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>Read more from Nick<\/p>\n<p>Follow Nick on Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty ImagesImage caption The funding boost means an extra \u00a320bn a year for the NHS by 2023 Tax rises will be needed to pay for the boost in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}