NHS · Funding · United Kingdom and England
How much funding does the NHS get, and what does it buy?
NHS England’s budget is planned to grow about 3.0% a year in real terms to 2028–29. That planned increase is not itself a measure of need: what matters is how many staff, beds and tests the money buys, and how productively they are used.
Evidence last reviewed 3 October 2026
How fast spending has grown
How fast has health spending grown?
Selected post-2010 periods fall below the 3.6% long-run average
Average annual real-terms growth in UK public spending on health (international COFOG definition, adjusted for economy-wide inflation), selected parliaments. Dashed line: average since 1949–50.
United Kingdom · 1949–50 to 2024–25 (selected periods) · Independent analysis
Sources, definitions and data — Selected post-2010 periods fall below the 3.6% long-run average
- Geography:
- United Kingdom
- Measure:
- Per cent a year, real terms
- Period:
- 1949–50 to 2024–25 (selected periods)
- Status:
- Independent analysis
- Calculation:
- As published by IFS (text and Figure 2). Only the periods IFS states in its text are shown; IFS’s full chart covers every parliament.
- Compare with:
- Long-run average, 3.6% a year
- Not included / breaks:
- Includes pandemic programmes (vaccines, PPE, Test and Trace) in 2020–21 and 2021–22. Uses economy-wide inflation, so it does not adjust for faster cost growth in health care.
Source: IFS, The past and future of UK health spending (Stoye, Warner and Zaranko, 14 May 2024). Chart NHS-05.
View the data as a table
| Period | Average real growth a year |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 to 2005–06 | 7.9% |
| 2010 to 2015 | 1.0% |
| 2019–20 to 2024–25 (May 2024 plans) | 2.4% |
| Average since 1949–50 | 3.6% |
What is planned, and what is needed
The 2025 Spending Review set day-to-day NHS England funding to grow by about 3.0% a year in real terms from 2025–26 to 2028–29, and the whole Department of Health and Social Care budget — which also covers capital and public health — by 2.8% a year.
How much is “enough” depends on what you want the NHS to achieve. The Health Foundation estimates that keeping services roughly as they are, as the population grows and ages, needs about 2.9% a year; delivering sustained improvement needs about 3.8% a year over ten years, close to the long-run average. Those are modelled projections by an independent research charity, not official figures, and they depend heavily on assumptions about productivity.
Past growth rates are a useful benchmark but not a needs estimate: a rate that matched the 2000s would not tell you whether the money was well spent. The government’s plans assume the NHS raises productivity by 2% a year; if it does not, the same money buys less care than planned.
Buildings and equipment: the squeezed part
Capital spending — on buildings, equipment and IT — was cut back sharply in the 2010s and has repeatedly been moved into day-to-day budgets to meet immediate pressures, including in 2023–24. The IFS found the NHS maintenance backlog in England more than doubled over the decade to 2024, and the “high-risk” part of it quintupled. NHS England’s estates returns put the backlog at about £15.9 billion in 2024/25.
Old buildings, too few scanners and slow IT limit how much the extra staff hired since 2019 can do. Productivity fell sharply in the pandemic; NHS England reports it rising about 2.7% in 2024/25, and the government’s plans depend on 2% a year continuing. Staff, beds and diagnostic capacity are covered in are there enough staff, beds and scanners?
The trade-off
Health took 8.2% of national income in 2022–23, against 7.3% in 2019–20, and a rising share of all day-to-day departmental spending. Every extra point of growth for the NHS has to come from other services, higher taxes or more borrowing — see how the budget is shared out. The options for spending it well are compared in What would move the needle?
Sources and methods (5)
- IFS, The past and future of UK health spending (Stoye, Warner and Zaranko, 14 May 2024) — historical growth rates, share of national income, capital and maintenance backlog
- Health Foundation, What does the 2025 Spending Review mean for the NHS? (June 2025) — planned growth to 2028–29
- Health Foundation, How much funding does the NHS need over the next decade? (20 June 2024) — funding need under two scenarios
- NHS England, Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) — maintenance backlog, 2024/25
- NHS England, Productivity plan – update — 2% a year productivity target and 2024/25 estimate
Method notes
- IFS growth rates are UK-wide public health spending (COFOG), adjusted with the GDP deflator; planned growth figures are for England.
- Funding-need estimates are independent modelled projections, not official statistics.