Spring Budget 2024: Key points at a glance for the assistive tech sector

Yesterday (6 March 2024), Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt unveiled the Spring Budget 2024, which sets out the UK Government’s plans for tax and spending policy in the UK.

Below, AT Today has covered the key points from the Spring Budget 2024 that assistive technology professionals should be aware of, as well as reactions from leaders in the sector.

The NHS is getting £3.4 billion funding as part of the government’s Public Sector Productivity Programme, which is designed to get productivity back to “pre-pandemic levels”.

According to the government, this NHS funding will double investment in NHS technological and digital transformation, including to upgrade MRI scanners, roll out universal electronic patient records, and reduce the time frontline workers spend on administrative tasks. The budget says this will help unlock £35 billion in cumulative productivity savings from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

The NHS in England is also getting an additional £2.5 billion of day-to-day funding for the in 2024-25. This will protect funding levels in real terms and support the NHS to continue to improve performance and reduce waiting times, the government underlines.

In addition, the Spring Budget is supporting SMEs (including assistive technology SMEs) by increasing the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £90,000.

However, no new funding was announced for social care or for disabled people.

This was met with criticism by Amy Little, Head of Advocacy at Leonard Cheshire.

Responding to the Spring Budget 2024, Amy commented: “While declaring one of his ‘greatest privileges was to be Health Secretary,’ in today’s Budget the Chancellor seemingly forgot he was actually the former Health and Social Care Secretary.

“Ever the overlooked sibling, adult social care was again ignored in Jeremy Hunt’s Budget speech. Disabled adults of all ages urgently need social care, and the entire sector is on its knees. Yet the Budget offered no new funding for adult social care.

“Perhaps the Chancellor also forgot his 2022 LBC interview with Andrew Marr, lamenting that his big regret as Health and Social Care Secretary was failing to transform the social care system?

“And perhaps the Chancellor forgot that when he chaired the Health and Social Care Select Committee in 2020, it called for an additional £7 billion a year for social care as a ‘starting point’.

“The Chancellor’s speech did not mention disabled people at all. And it did not mention adult social care. The Budget Red Book simply reannounced the £500 million from January, which doesn’t even come close to plugging the gaps.

“So there’s nothing new when adult social care requires £2 billion just to meet the vital National Living Wage rise, which begins in April. And nothing new when there is still a workforce crisis – with more than 150,000 vacancies across the UK.

“Once again, hard-hit local councils will be forced to make cuts and disabled people will go without essential care. Tax cuts must not be at the expense of people’s care.”

Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the Local Government Association, underlined that councils need long-term funding certainty to deal with unprecedented cost pressures.

“It is disappointing that the Government has not announced measures to adequately fund the local services people rely on every day,” Shaun explained. “Councils continue to transform services but, given that core spending power in 2024/25 has been cut by 23.3 per cent in real terms compared to 2010/11, it is unsustainable to expect them to keep doing more for less in the face of unprecedented cost and demand pressures.

“Councils of all political colours are starting this financial year in a precarious position, and having to scale back or close a wide range of local services, so the continued squeeze in public spending in the years ahead is a frightening prospect for communities.

“This year also saw the sixth one-year settlement in a row for councils. Keeping them on a financial drip feed in this way has led to the steady weakening of local services. Councils need greater funding certainty through multi-year settlements to prevent this ongoing decline but also to ensure key national government policies – such as boosting economic growth, creating jobs and building homes – can be achieved.”

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, added: “This latest budget has features that many health leaders will welcome, but with a revenue settlement which is at best flat in real terms against a backdrop of significant deficits and universal pressures across the NHS it means that 24/25 is going to be another incredibly tough year for the health service and for patients.

“The £3.4bn additional investment in technology over the next Parliament has the potential to improve patient care and staff productivity as it will help to replace outdated IT systems that keep those on the frontline from spending more time with patients. Meanwhile, extending Electronic Patient Records to all hospitals will help to support joined up care across services.

“However, bigger productivity gains will only be realised if the NHS’s crumbling estates are addressed too. This is why we have called for a £6.4bn annual capital funding increase for the NHS. Some of this may be covered by the Government’s NHS productivity plan, but new computers sat in outdated estates is far from ideal and much more funding will be required.

“The promised £2.5bn boost for NHS budgets next year will scarcely touch the sides as the service faces the triple threat of ongoing industrial action, significant waiting lists and uncertainty over staff pay. This also raises eyebrows over how achievable the new productivity target may end up being without greater investment. Rather than improve the situation, this may just about stop things from worsening.

“Given the Chancellor’s health background, NHS leaders had hoped to see more recognition for the situation they are up against with full funding of the workforce plan and greater investment in primary and community care so that they can carry out the important prevention work that will mean so much to the NHS in years to come.

“In previous years unrealistically tight revenue settlements like this have been followed by in-year emergency top ups that are overly prescriptive and inefficient, this is not the way to plan for the future or improve productivity. NHS leaders hoped that the Chancellor would have stopped this from happening today.”