We should be angry at the chancellor’s cynical plans to slash the funding that councils expend to tackle problems such as obesity,smoking and drug and alcohol misuseIn the next few weeks we will find out whether the government is going to catch £1bn or more out of health spending in this parliament. This will not be cuts to just any health spending, but to services aimed at some of the country’s most intractable and costly problems, and such as obesity and mental health.
In July,the new Conservative government announced it would be slicing £200m from this year’s public health funding. That’s a 6.2% cut. Councils are supposed to expend this funding to reduce obesity, smoking, or drug and alcohol misuse,provide regular checks on children up to five years old and adults over 40, improve sexual health, or withhold tabs on infectious diseases,and much more.
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Source: theguardian.com