Opinion: Lack of government funding is putting the health of West Northants residents at risk

West Northamptonshire is one of the worst areas for government funding into NHS and Public Health services. Our residents are being criminally underfunded by an outdated system run by a penny-pinching and greedy Conservative government in Westminster.

Last week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) published a report into how much public spending each local authority area in England received in 2022-23 per head of population in the five key areas of the NHS, schools, local government, the police, and public health.

They then compared these with the funding these areas would have received if the money was allocated in proportion to estimated needs. Across the country, the IFS found “significant discrepancies between relative levels of funding and estimated needs.”

The IFS report found:

• The government spent more than £245 billion on delivering the five key public services across England in 2022-23
• West Northants received £3,846 of funding per person, placing it 139th out of 150 local authorities (lowest 10%). This is £464 (11%) less than the national average of £4,310 per capita.
• Estimates say every person in West Northants needs £2,084 spent on their NHS care, yet they received only £1,934. This is a funding-needs gap of -7.2% and puts West Northants 147th out of 150 areas in terms of meeting needs
• In Public Health, West Northants only received £44 of funding per capita, an outrageous 17.7% LESS than what estimates say is needed and leaving us 129th out of 150

The IFS found funding for public health in the tenth of areas with the highest funding per capita is at least 2.6 times that of the tenth of areas with the lowest funding and that the least-deprived fifth of areas received 3% more funding than estimates say they need, while the most-deprived fifth of areas received 3% less.

The health of West Northants residents and the survival of our NHS services is being jeopardised by this Tory government and its outright refusal give the poorest in this country an equal share. The numbers speak for themselves; the rich are kept safe and healthy while poor are left to struggle.

I’m absolutely horrified to find we are in the bottom three areas for receiving appropriate NHS funding. This Tory Government is seriously putting our lives at risk.

Looking at these figures you can clearly see the most affluent areas are receiving far better health funding than the rest of us. The government urgently needs to rethink and reform its funding strategy, so we are not seeing such huge inequalities across England.

The only way of halting this postcode lottery of health provision is to vote Labour at the next election and stop over a decade of Conservative mismanagement of public money.

Please find the full report here: https://ifs.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-08/How-much-public-spending-does-each-area-receive-IFS-Report-R269-2.pdf