HM Treasury 3 14 July 1998
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FAIRNESS AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
New reforms and investment to modernise and raise standards in the
National Health Service, tackle crime and improve public housing were
announced today by the Chancellor Gordon Brown in the Comprehensive
Spending Review White Paper, together with a programme of targeted
help to tackle poverty and social exclusion.
The Chancellor said:
"The Government pledged to promote opportunity for all and make
Britain a fairer society. These plans will help achieve that
vision by ensuring universal access to high quality, modern
public services and by helping to build stronger communities in which
crime is tackled and everyone has opportunities to succeed."
In addition to the plans it has announced on education and transport,
the Government's programme of investment and reform in public
services includes:
Health - rebuilding a national service
an average annual increase in funding of nearly 4 3/4 per cent
above inflation, with commitments to reduce waiting lists by
100,000 from the March 1997 level and to reduce avoidable
diseases and injury;
resources for primary care, mental health and also for the
modernisation of hospitals, with the largest ever
hospital-building programme;
substantial reform, based on the partnership of all local
health bodies on the ground, with GPs and nurses playing an
increasing role in commissioning the services people need;
Tough on Crime
resources to implement the pledge of fast-track justice for
young people and efficiency savings to increase resources for
front-line policing;
first ever significant investment in tackling the underlying
causes of crime through a new crime reduction strategy which
will discover what works and invest in it;
fundamental reform to get more out of the criminal justice
system - clear targets as well as ensuring all parts of the
system work better together to deliver them;
Rebuilding Communities
#3.6 billion to improve and modernise council housing
refurbishing more than 1.5 million council houses; and
major reform of council housing management, including a new
Housing Inspectorate.
A programme of measures to tackle poverty and social exclusion was
also announced, which builds on the Welfare to Work programme, the
Working Families Tax Credit and other major initiatives already
being put in place. The measures in the CSR ensure help for those
who cannot work; invest in prevention; help people into work as the
best way out of poverty; and regenerate the poorest communities.
They include:
a package of support and services for pensioners including
action to meet the Government's manifesto commitment on
take-up of benefits by poorer pensioners;
more focused and higher quality social services for elderly
and disabled. The disabled will also benefit from a new
Disability Rights Commission;
a new "Sure Start" programme for pre-school children and
their families, targeted on areas of need, to help them to
be ready to learn at school;
additional help for under-performing schools and children
excluded from school;and improvements in the help given by
social services for children in care;
more opportunity for skills to help people avoid or get out
of unemployment, including getting more people into Further
and Higher Education; pilots of an Educational Maintenance
allowance to raise school and college staying on rates
after 16;
a New Deal for Communities for the most deprived areas, to
increase economic opportunity, improve neighbourhood
management and bring together housing and regeneration
spending; and
section 11 funding for teaching English as a second
language secured, and responsibility for this passed to
DfEE; and
women will benefit from a strengthening of health services,
reform of the Child Support Agency and a new emphasis on
tackling violence against women.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. One in five working age households is now without work and,
since 1979, the number of children growing up in poverty
has risen from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3.
2. The Government has already announced an extensive package of
measures to help people into work, through the New Deal, the
National Childcare Strategy, the Minimum Wage and the Working
Families Tax Credit.
3. The Government has already committed #400 million (over two
years) to winter fuel payments to pensioners, lower VAT on fuel
and increased Child Benefit.
4. The Government published its Green Paper on Welfare Reform, "New
Ambitions for our Country: A New Contract for Welfare" in March
1998.
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# = pounds sterling