IFS warns Conservative manifesto lacks NHS ‘overall spending plan’

Conservative Party policy chiefs have not set out an overall spending plan for health and social care in England, a think tank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published a detailed response to the Conservative Party’s manifesto.

In it, economists set out that tax threshold freezes in the last Parliament could leave pensioners paying more than they did in 2019.

This is despite a proposed uprated income tax personal allowance in line with the triple lock, which could cut their income tax from current levels by £130 per year by 2029-30.

On the , associate director George Stoye said: “Beyond an almost meaningless commitment to increase NHS spending above inflation each year (it always gets more than inflation), there was a striking lack of detail on what financial resources will be made available to the NHS over the next parliament to deliver these commitments.”