"Short-Term" Spending Leaves Next Government Facing "Critical" Challenges

A new report from the influential Public Accounts Committee of cross-party MPs has criticised the government for "short-termism" in policy making – highlighting a number areas in public spending the next government will have to grapple with.

Chair of the committee, Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, in the foreword to the report said a future government must become better at "slow politics" to ensure the long term investment in public services the UK needs. 

"We must recognise that some of the major challenges facing Britain require long-term investment and planning," she wrote.

"These challenges should never become merely matters of political controversy, but instead should be dealt with over decades, and always in the national interest."

A general election must be called before the end of this year, with Labour widely expected to win. But the current opposition party, which is making a pitch for change to dissatisfied voters, has faced warnings that a succession of national crises including Covid, the Ukraine war and a revolving cast of prime ministers may leave them with a bigger challenge than they had hoped. 

Areas of specific concern flagged by the committee report – dubbed "The Big Nasties" – include health, education, defence, justice, energy, and housing. 

On the NHS, the report found the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) "for many years" had "prioritised short-term spending needs", and that combined with a "lack of long-term thinking" and an ageing population, this would have serious consequences for the NHS. 

"By 2021–22, the value of the maintenance backlog for NHS hospitals had reached £10.2bn," reads the report. 

"The New Hospital Programme was supposed to address this issue by delivering forty new hospitals by