Budget 2024: Poll reveals NHS top priority – for both cash and reform

Voters believe the NHS is a top priority issue for the Chancellor to address in tomorrow’s Budget – although the electorate is divided on whether extra funding or structural reforms are the required solution to fix the beleaguered health service.

A survey from More in Common found that while the public broadly agrees that healthcare should be at the top of the concern list for Rachel Reeves, the left-leaning segments favour higher spending on the NHS while the more conservative side puts more weight on the service’s reform.

The organisation splits the electorate into six different archetypes designed to inform the views of various segments of the British public. Progressive activists were the group most supportive of additional funding for the NHS, whereas backbone conservatives are the likeliest to get behind reform.

It comes as the government is set to pledge billions of pounds of extra cash for the NHS in a bid to open up two million extra appointments per year.

READ MORE: Budget 2024: The tax rises and spending plans to expect as PM revises bus fare cap and reveals back-to-work package

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce £1.5bn for new surgical hubs and scanners and £70m for radiotherapy machines.

However, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has repeatedly made clear his intention for the NHS to undergo substantial reform under the new Labour government.

Speaking during a vist to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Reeves said: “I don’t think in one budget you can undo 14 years of damage.

“But in this budget we’re going to provide the resource necessary to deliver on our manifesto commitment to 40,000 additional appointments every single week, to reduce the huge backlog and as well as the increase in the capital budget to take it to its highest level since 2010 to invest in the new scanners and the radiography equipment.”

Streeting added: “There will be people waiting on trolleys in corridors this winter. I can’t turn the situation around that fast.”

Read more of our Budget 2024 coverage:

• Labour’s Budget 2024: What policies could Rachel Reeves announce?
• ‘No fiscal rule is perfect. But this one means welcome investment’
• Fiscal rules: What is Reeves changing – and why does it matter?
• ‘We can avoid taxing workers by hiking capital gains tax’
• ‘A case against cuts, from the winter fuel allowance to the £2 bus fare cap’
• Minister says ‘normal’ for cabinet to seek good deal for departments amid unrest over cuts
• ‘How Labour can fix the worst economic inheritance since 1945′

• SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected]. 
• SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning. 
• DONATE: If you value our work, please donate to become one of our supporters here and help sustain and expand our coverage.
• PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or content, email [email protected].