Autumn statement 2024: What does the budget mean for cancer?

Yesterday was the first budget from the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she laid out her forecast for the years ahead in a bid to deliver on the Labour party’s manifesto commitments. After significant trailing in the news of a budget that would raise billions in tax revenue, invest in health to spearhead the health mission, and have a significant negative impact on vital areas such as research and development (R&D) budget, here are our initial thoughts on what the budget means for our mission of beating cancer.

What does the budget mean for science and research?

There had been significant concerns about R&D funding going into the budget, with organisations across the sector arguing the case to not cut this funding in real terms. In that context, we welcome the protection of government investment in R&D, with £20.4 billion allocated in 2025-26, and core research spending (including Research Councils and Research England) being protected. There is still ambiguity around the £2.7 billion allocated for association with EU research programmes, including Horizon Europe, and whether that being in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) budget will have any implications for their broader funding settlement. We look forward to more clarity from government around this and working with them to achieve the welcome ambitions for UK R&D set out in this budget.  

Meanwhile, it is positive to see a real terms uplift to the budget of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) as part of over £2 billion of R&D funding to support life sciences innovation. This will help accelerate the delivery of the health and growth missions and help government improve the UK’s environment to do clinical trials. It is also welcome to see the government keep the current rate of research and development tax relief, an important part of the UK’s work to ensure we are a competitive environment for R&D investment. 

In this budget, the Treasury reiterated the importance of the Industrial Strategy, announced last week. With life sciences identified in that strategy as one of eight growth-driving sectors, we will continue to make the case for the importance of cancer research, and particularly the importance of the charity sector in this ecosystem. We look forward to engaging with government as more detail is worked out before its publication in the Spring. 

We were pleased to see continued investment into Innovation Accelerators throughout 2025-26 to bolster high-potential innovation clusters in the Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands. Innovation Accelerators, which support health-related projects, are a positive for sites across the UK and funding was due to run out this year, so the Government continuing to back these projects is welcome news.  

Finally, while the overall package for research is welcome, wider tax changes the Chancellor made will have more challenging impacts on delivering research in the UK. Changes such as the increase in employer National Insurance contributions will increase costs for research institutes, and therefore the cost of doing research. 

What does the budget mean for health services?

The Chancellor called yesterday’s announcements a “down payment” in addressing the immediate challenges facing the NHS while we await the new 10 Year Health Plan next spring. 

The overall day-to-day funding for healthcare is set to increase by £22.6bn – around a 4% annual real terms growth – over the next two years. This is a positive settlement for health, with the Government aiming this investment at delivering the 40,000 extra appointments a week committed to in their election manifesto including for cancer. However, with significant pressures on NHS budgets, driven by inflation and staffing costs, it remains to be seen how far this increased revenue spending can go in driving up NHS activity. 

As part of plans announced today to raise ‘capital spending’ – aimed at infrastructure, equipment and facilities, rather than day to day spending – by £3.1bn by 2025/26, £1.5bn has been earmarked for new diagnostic scanners and surgical hubs, new beds and £70m specifically for new radiotherapy machines. 

This appears to build on the manifesto commitment of a ‘Fit for the Future Fund’ for investing in diagnostic scanners, and more widely support increased NHS capacity, and could potentially offer real benefits for cancer care, but we’ll need to seek further clarity on how money will be allocated around the range of priorities set out across this funding. On radiotherapy specifically, there are questions about whether this will fund the direct replacement of older machines, upgrade equipment or invest in new, innovative options.  

Finally, the budget announced more than £2 billion for NHS technology and digital and to support NHS productivity improvements. This mirrors commitments made by the previous government earlier this year, which saw £2 billion allocated to upgrading outdated computers and IT, and ensuring all Trusts have Electronic Patient Records in place. We’ll be looking to see if this funding is new or supports these previous commitments, and also how the workforce will be supported to upskill in new digital technologies.

What does the budget mean for preventing cancer?

With around 4 in 10 cancers being preventable, and the UK Government’s  health priorities including a shift from treatment to prevention, it was encouraging to see the Chancellor use several economic levers to pursue the biggest causes of preventable cancer in the UK, tobacco. 

Increasing tobacco taxes is one of the most effective mechanisms for reducing smoking, so renewal of the tobacco duty escalator was very welcome. Hand-rolling tobacco is cheaper than cigarettes, and rectifying this is important to ensuring taxation is effective across all income groups, so it was positive to see a larger increase on the duty for hand-rolled tobacco. In practice, this change will add 54p to the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes and £2.32 to a 30g pack of hand-rolling tobacco. 

An increase to the price of e-cigarettes was also confirmed, to help deter young people and those who don’t smoke from vaping. This new flat-rate duty of £2.20 per 10ml of e-liquids was accompanied with an equivalent one-off increase on tobacco duty to maintain the financial incentive for people to switch from smoking to vaping. It will be crucial to monitor and ensure that e-cigarettes, which are an effective cessation tool, remain affordable and accessible to help the 6 million people in the UK who need support to quit.

However, we are still lacking clarity on the future of smoking cessation funding. The previous government made commitments to better fund local stop smoking services, national quit campaigns and enforcement for illicit tobacco and age of sale laws. But nothing was mentioned in the Budget. We will be seeking assurances this investment will be sustained by the new UK Government to help the people who smoke to quit.

We support the UK Government’s plans to uprate the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL) in line with inflation, and to review expanding the levy, to help people to reduce their sugar and calorie intake. SDIL has been a success, with research showing that the amount of sugar consumed by children from soft drinks in the UK halved in the three years after the announcement of the tax in 2016. The Government is right to build on that progress, and to consider providing further incentives for the industry to change its products, to help make it easier for people maintain a healthy weight. 

Finally, the decision to increase non-draught alcohol duty in line with inflation is a significant step in the right direction, after years of duty freezes and cuts.  The Chancellor appears to have recognised the important role of taxation policy in reducing the harm caused by alcohol.  The next step would be for the UK Government to introduce an alcohol duty escalator, to ensure taxation automatically continues to keep pace with, or indeed increases above, inflation.

What comes next?

Overall, it’s positive to see continued commitment to R&D investment from the Government, although we await further clarity around some areas. 

We’re also pleased to see the Government take important steps to ensure that the NHS is well resourced and fit for the future, as well as implement economic strategies to help reduce smoking rates, both of which will have big implications for people with cancer. 

As always, the true story of what the budget means will be unpacked in both the days of analysis ahead and the months and years of its impact, but on behalf of cancer patients and the wider cancer community, we look forward to working constructively with the Government to make this budget, and this parliament, a turning point for cancer.