§ Mr. Sackvilleasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how he proposes to distribute resources to health authorities in 1985–86.
§ Mr. FowlerI am today informing regional health authorities how the extra cash to be provided for the Health Service in England next year is to be shared out. Nationally, the budget for health authorities will be 5.5 per cent. higher in 1985–86, but the increase for individual regions will vary because we are continuing the policy of redistributing resources between different parts of the country.
As a result, I have been able to give bigger revenue increases to regions which are relatively deprived or which have rapidly growing populations. These increases range up to almost 7 per cent. Yet the relatively well-funded Thames regions will still receive increases of 4.2 to 4.4 per cent. In addition, all regions will benefit from their programmes of cost-improvement and rationalisation. These programmes are achieving substantial benefits in the current year and we will be expecting the new general managers to extend and develop them rigorously next year. As a result health authorities should be able to develop services faster than the cash growth figures imply.
The capital allocations to regions will be 4.5 per cent. higher overall than this year and distributed mainly under the RAWP process. The table gives details. In addition to the allocations, I expect regions to generate substantially 304W more resources from sales of surplus land and residential accommodation, which can also be used to carry through their capital investment plans.
Health Authority Resource Distribution 1985–86 Regional Health Authority Revenue Increase per cent. Capital RAWP share £ million Northern 5.8 34.5 Yorkshire 5.9 47.8 Trent 6.8 51.2 East Anglia 6.3 20.4 North West Thames 4.2 34.1 North East Thames 4.2 39.8 South East Thames 4.4 40.5 South West Thames 4.4 31.1 Wessex 6.7 46.7 Oxford 6.3 23.1 South Western 6.3 44.5 West Midlands 6.4 73.7 Mersey 4.9 26.5 North Western 5.5 61.7 TOTAL 5.5 575.6 Notes:
1. The total capital allocation to regional health authorities in 1985–86 is £653.4 million, including dental hospital re-equipment; inner cities bias; strategic shifts; special and development schemes; and 35 per cent. teaching hospital support.
2. Cash figures are subject to parliamentary approval of the Department's estimates.