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Public Health Grant allocations to local authorities 2025/26
The LGA welcomes increased funding in the short-term, but we also urge the Government to set out a long-term sustainable funding plan for public health as part of the Spending Review.
Key messages
- We are pleased the Government has increased the Public Health Grant for councils, acting on our concerns over the significant funding pressures public health teams have been under to maintain vital services such as sexual health services, smoking cessation programmes and drug treatment. It is important this marks a reset which sees central government work in partnership with councils. The LGA will be considering further analysis on the effects of the increases to employer National Insurance contributions, Agenda for Change (pay increases for NHS commissioned staff), new uncosted pressures and increased demand for services.
- Investing in public health is key to bridging the health inequality gap, improving population health and preventing ill-health, reducing the pressure on social care and the NHS.
- As public health teams continue to face increasing demand, we are calling on the Government in the Spending Review to set out a long-term sustainable funding plan for public health, which will give councils the long-term certainty they need to plan services that meet the needs of their communities.
- An increased focus on prevention is urgently needed, as well as a wider review of the adequacy of public health funding. This will support the Government’s wider aims by improving health outcomes, reducing health spending and putting social care and the NHS on a better footing for the long term.
Key announcements
- Public health grants to local authorities: 2025 to 2026
- In the 2025 to 2026 financial year, the total public health grant to local authorities will be £3.858 billion, an uplift of 5.4%.
- This includes the notional amounts for the 10 Greater Manchester local authorities under the business rate retention arrangement.
- The allocations for 2025 to 2026 comprise an uplift for the additional recurrent pay pressures due to the 2024 to 2025 NHS pay awards.
Background
- Public health grants fund essential local services that help keep communities healthy. LGA analysis has found that, between 2015 and 2024, the Public Health Grant received by councils has been reduced in real terms by £858 million (in 2022/23 prices). This has resulted in reduction in councils’ ability to spend on public health commissioned services.
- Public health teams have faced an unprecedented period of funding and demand pressures and continue to face significant pressures and challenges. Sufficient ongoing funding is needed to ensure all local authorities can continue to meet their statutory public health responsibilities.
- As funding has fallen, councils have focused their spend on meeting their statutory obligations. This has led to a reduction in spend on preventative services and a greater focus on reactive, demand-led provision. This is despite the growing body of evidence of the financial and social benefits of prevention. It is vitally important that the Government continues to address challenges which arise over the coming months and years.
- Local authority public health interventions funded by the Grant provide excellent value for money. However, we are concerned about the piecemeal nature of some of this. Although one-off pots of funding are helpful in the short-term, long-term clarity is needed if councils are to truly improve health outcomes in their communities.
- Services such as local sexual health clinics have seen record demand coupled with staffing shortages. At a time when NHS and social care pressures are greater than ever, vital sexual health, drug, alcohol and health visiting services cannot keep living a hand to mouth existence with insufficient resources to meet this demand.
- NHS pay settlements cannot and should not be an additional burden on already pressured council public health budgets. Vital public health services run by councils cannot continue to maximise their role at the heart of communities while continually having to make budget cuts or manage uncosted new burdens.
- We continue to make the case for multi-year settlements and for more long-term certainty around public health funding for all councils. An increased focus on prevention through an uplift to the public health grant is needed, as well as a wider review of the adequacy of public health funding. This will support the Government’s wider aims by improving health outcomes, reducing health spending and putting social care and the NHS on a better footing for the long term.
- A coordinated Government wide strategy is required to improve the nation’s health together with a commitment to funding public health properly. It is fiscally sensible to invest in public health to help reduce the long-term cost of treatment and to maintain a sustainable health and social care service.
- If the Government provides public health with the long-term resources it needs, this will reduce the long-term cost of treatment on the NHS while maintain a sustainable health and social care system. Such investment will have a greater return than if the same money was spent in the NHS; academic analysis by the University of York shows public health expenditure by councils is three to four times as cost-effective in improving health outcomes delivered by the NHS.
Key asks
- For local councils and their partners to improve the health of the nation, we need:
- Increased investment in the public health grant and in other vital areas of public health and prevention.
- A formal exercise to ensure that the public health grant and the mandated functions that local authorities must deliver are costed.
- A review of the public health grant and how it is distributed taking into consideration significant changes in population, deprivation and need. These are changes that have not been taken into full consideration since the transfer of responsibility of public health services to local government in 2012.
- An increase in investment in public health. This includes a scale up of investment through the upcoming Government Spending Review Investment in services, such as health visiting, that give children the best start in life. This investment reduces demands on GPs, hospitals and social care. It means children start school ready to learn and to achieve, so our schools can be more effective.
- Multi-year settlements for the public health grant and a stronger alignment with the annual local government funding settlements. It makes little sense to treat funding for local government separately and in a piecemeal way.
- Increased investment in the public health grant and in other vital areas of public health and prevention.