NHS funding in the 2025 Spending Review explained

Understand this issue

Can the new government fix the NHS?

podcast

We look at the key challenges facing the NHS, and what the new government could do to tackle them.

14 August 2024

Simulated list size and performance against the 18-week target under a variety of treatment growth rate assumptions

data item

Although performance improves in each case, in none of our scenarios does performance reach the 92% target by the end of the parliament. 

20 March 2025

The Labour manifesto

explainer

IFS Director Paul Johnson responds to the Labour manifesto.

13 June 2024

Policy analysis

If the NHS is treated well, other services will feel the squeeze

comment

Rachel Reeves is to allocate between competing priorities with her spending review, and a 2.5 per cent rise for health could mean cuts elsewhere

9 June 2025

Four big decisions for the 2025 Spending Review

comment

Spending Review 2025 will set detailed departmental budgets for most of this parliament. We examine the key choices facing the government.

1 June 2025

The relationship between NHS waiting lists and health-related benefit claims

report

Have increases in NHS waiting lists and waiting times contributed to the growing number of  people claiming working-age health-related benefits? 

2 May 2025

Academic research

Future challenges for health and social care provision in the UK

journal article

We consider recent trends in health and social care productivity and the scope for future improvements.

6 June 2025

Multitasking, two-part contracts, and bunching: an application to doctors' tasks

working paper

The optimal design of incentive contracts critically depends on whether the tasks performed by agents are complementary or substitutable.

24 February 2025

A senior doctor like me: Gender match and occupational choice

working paper

In this paper, we estimate how the gender of supervisors early in one’s career affects subsequent choice of finely-defined occupations.

24 April 2024