Here’s a quick-fire ‘need to know’ on the Autumn Budget announcement on 30 October 2024, related to food and health. See also this digest on farming and the countryside.

Health, food and poverty:

• Investment in school breakfast clubs will be tripled, to fund ‘in thousands of schools’
• The soft drink levy will increase to account for inflation. The duty will also rise in line with CPI going forwards. Alcohol duty will increase in line with RPI, but (no doubt one for the tabloids) duty on draft beer will be cut by 1.1% (1p off a pint in a pub).
• The current thresholds to the soft drink levy are to be reviewed, to greater incentivise reformulation and will be extended to sugar-sweetened milk and alternative-milk based drinks (thanks for spotting this one, Ali, in the supporting docs).
• The NHS, which the Chancellor described as “our most cherished public sector service of them all”, will be given an increase of £22.6 billion for ‘day-to-day’ spending, plus a £3.1 billion increase in its capital budget over this year and next. The Chancellor says this is the largest real-term growth in its day-to-day budget since 2010.
• A ten-year plan for the NHS will be unveiled in the Spring, with one of its key missions to focus on moving the health service to prevention instead of sickness.
• A ‘Get Britain Working’ white paper will “tackle the root cause of inactivity” through an “integrated approach” to health, education and welfare – how might this tie in to the NHS’s new mandate for prevention, if at all, and what might the impact be on less well-off households, particularly as we also hear that disability benefits will change.

General economic headlines: 

• Taxes will be raised by £40 billion pounds, but the government will not increase employee’s NI, income tax or VAT.
• The budget deficit will be gradually reduced and by 2029-2030 is projected to be in £9.9 billion surplus (this would be in the next parliament).
• The OBR projects GDP growth to be between 1.1% and 2% in the years to 2029.
• Funding for research and science is protected.

Ali Morpeth, our Policy Champion on Food Systems, Health & Nutrition, said;

“The Chancellor confirmed that the Soft Drinks Industry Levy will be adjusted to keep pace with inflation. This means the levy, which was introduced in 2018 to reduce sugar consumption by taxing sugary drinks, will be increased in line with rising costs from inflation. 

“A commitment was also made to triple investment in breakfast clubs to help young people.  By expanding breakfast clubs, the budget commitment aims to support children, especially those from low-income families, to have access to nutritional security nets.”

See also this digest on farming and the countryside.