Budget vow to rebuild 'broken not beaten' NHS

The budget will revive a "broken but not beaten" NHS, with billions of pounds to be unveiled in an attempt to cut record waiting lists, the chancellor said yesterday.

- Jessica Elgot Anna Bawden Kiran Stacey

Rachel Reeves said measures announced tomorrow would "end the neglect" of the health service, delivering more surgical hubs and radiotherapy machines in an effort to lay on an extra 40,000 appointments a week.

The government is expected to provide a boost of at least 4% of the NHS annual budget - which could be as much as £7bn - sources have previously told the Guardian.

In a speech yesterday to underline how steep tax rises would fund public spending, Keir Starmer said this would be the biggest budget of the next five years - with the toughest decisions - to set the course for the whole parliament.

The prime minister said he wanted to "take the difficult decisions here and now up front" to create the conditions for improving public services, investment and growth. "We are fixing the foundations in this budget... That's the approach... you can expect to see pretty well all of that in this budget," he said, although he added that he could not "ever completely rule out any further changes".

Separately, Reeves revealed a £240m package to speed up the introduction of local services to help people back into work yesterday. The Get Britain Working scheme white paper - to be published later this year - will feature support in work, skills and health for disabled people and the long-term sick.

Treasury sources said Starmer and Reeves would emphasise this week that the budget would be "generational" and contain the most significant decisions of the parliament, barring unexpected crises.

"We do not want to come back and do another budget of this magnitude," one said. "This is responding to a once-in-a-generation set of crises and we don't intend to ask the country to do this again."

Tax rises are expected to hit employers' national insurance, a rise that will directly be linked with the investment planned for the NHS. The rises are not likely to be extended to employers' pensions contributions, however.