Wes Streeting announced a 0.07% drop in the mental health share of NHS spending in 2024/25 adding this will fall again by a further 0.07% in 2025/26.

Streeting said the slight drop in percentage spend in 2024/25 was ‘because of significant investment in other areas of healthcare', including such as investment to improve general practice.

	2024-25	2025-26
Recurrent NHS baseline (£billion)	170.2	179.4
Total forecast mental health spend (£billion)	14.9	15.6
Mental health share of recurrent baseline (%)	8.78	8.71

 Reaction

Liberal Democrat Mental Health spokesperson Danny Chambers said Labour was ‘backpedalling at the worst possible time—when millions desperately need mental health support'.

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive, NHS Providers, said: ‘It's deeply disappointing that the share of NHS spending on mental health is set to fall next year at a time of soaring demand for services.'

Rebecca Gray, mental health director at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘The creation of the mental health investment standard for ICB spend was a major step towards parity of esteem.

‘So while it is welcome that the secretary of state has confirmed the investment standard will continue to be met, the drop in the share of spending on mental health is a worrying step in the wrong direction.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘This Government is increasing investment in mental health care by an extra £320m in real terms, meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard.

‘This includes funding to recruit 8,500 staff across mental health services, expanding mental health support in schools and investing in new mental health crisis centres – helping deliver our Plan for Change to ensure everyone can access to the care they need.'