Labour’s pledge to boost NHS funding by £30bn is “still not enough”

The Labour Party’s “costed” election pledges on spending for health and social care will still not be enough to meet rising long term demand and service pressures, say analysts.

The Health Foundation said that Labour’s proposed £30bn (€35bn; $38.9bn)¹ investment in the English NHS over the next parliament would provide an “immediate and significant” £7.4bn cash boost this year, including an extra £2bn a year for capital investment.

For the remainder of this decade Labour has committed to an average increase of 2.2% a year, accounting for inflation, that will leave a £7bn shortfall by 2020-21, the Health Foundation said.

Anita Charlesworth, the healthcare charity’s director of research and economics, said, “Under Labour’s manifesto plans, healthcare funding would not match the demand and cost pressures on the health service, which the independent Office for Budget Responsibility estimates at more than 4% a year …