Budget 2018: Philip Hammond to unveil £2bn-a-year mental health cash boost
3 min read
Philip Hammond will pump an extra £2bn-a-year into mental health services today as he lifts the lid on the final Budget before Brexit.
The extra cash forms the first part of the major NHS funding boost ordered by Theresa May earlier this year, and will be used to increase the level of mental health support in every major accident and emergency department in Britain.
The additional funding is also expected to fund a fleet of dedicated mental health ambulances, which look like normal cars but are used to reduce the stigma associated with receiving emergency mental health treatment.
Schools will also be given money for specialist crisis teams to help pupils suffering from mental health conditions.
The money - which will rise to £2bn in real terms by 2023/24 - will be unveiled by the Chancellor in his major tax-and-spend statement this afternoon.
Alongside a raft of announcements trailed in recent days, the Chancellor is also expected to pledge fresh cash to plant more trees across England.
Mr Hammond will promise £10m of new money for street and urban trees - with local authorities and community groups asked to match that figure - as well as a fresh £50m to buy carbon credits from landowners who plant new woodland.
But Labour warned that cuts to council funding had already "decimated local parks and green spaces".
Shadow Environment Secretary Sue Hayman said: "These one-off pots of funding, expected to be match-funded by cash-strapped local councils, do nothing to reverse or stop the serious decline of parks and open spaces on this government’s watch."
The party meanwhile warned that the extra mental health cash outlined by the Chancellor would do little to reverse the impact of the ministers' "relentless underfunding of the NHS".
'DIFFERENT APPROACH'
Mr Hammond is also expected to use today's Budget to outline a raft of big-ticket spending pledges after the Prime Minister declared that a decade of government-imposed austerity was "over".
As well as the extra NHS cash, he will pledge a £30bn spending spree to fix Britain's roads and a £1.5bn package of measures to help the country's flagging high streets.
It has also been widely reported that Mr Hammond will pump additional cash into the Ministry of Defence and the social care system, while the Chancellor is expected to answer demands for a reversal of £2bn-worth of cuts to the Universal Credit welfare overhaul.
But Mr Hammond on Sunday warned that his Budget plans could be torn up altogether if Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal.
The Chancellor, who has previously put an £80bn price tag on a no-deal Brexit, said quitting the bloc without an agreement would require a "different approach" and a "different strategy" from the tax-and-spend plan he is set to unveil today.
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