The government’s plan to cut £161m from the public health budget over the next two years has been branded ‘extremely counterproductive’ by the Local Government Association (LGA).
The Government yesterday announced councils would receive £77m less from Whitehall for public health in 2016/17 and £84m less in 2017/18. This is on top of a £200m in-year cut in 2015/16.
Cllr Nick Forbes, vice chair of the LGA, warned such cuts would undermine public health and put an increasing amount of pressure on the NHS.
‘The Government is finding billions of pounds for the NHS over the next four years and has even been forced to inject hundreds of millions of pounds extra into the health budget this year to help balance the books,’ he said.
‘To then take vital money away from the services which can be used to prevent illness and the need for treatment later down the line and ease the pressure on the NHS is extremely counterproductive.’
Cllr Forbes described these cuts as a ‘short-term approach’ that reinforce the perception that central Government views prevention services as ‘nice-to-do but ultimately non-essential.’
‘Interventions to tackle teenage pregnancy, excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted infections and substance misuse cannot be seen as an added extra for health budgets,’ the councillor said.
He added: ‘Local authorities were eager to pick up the mantle of public health in 2013 but many will now feel that they have been handed all of the responsibility but without the appropriate resources to do so.’
