News / Budget highlights

George Osborne's third Budget was dominated, as far as the NHS was concerned, by the chancellor further throwing his weight behind regional pay. Mr Osborne is keen to address what he believes is a public sector pay premium that averages 8% across the UK.
 
Budget documents also showed a marginal rise in the GDP deflator (2.7% compared with 2.5% forecast in the 2011 Budget) – adding around £300m to NHS England revenue funding, according to the NHS Confederation.

The government will legislate to exempt the NHS Commissioning Board, clinical commissioning groups, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Health and Social Care Information Centre from corporation tax and include them within the section 41 VAT refund scheme.

The exemption of NHS bodies from stamp duty land tax is being applied from this year. Reports also suggested the Treasury had clawed back £500m of a £900m capital underspend in 2011/12.