Location: United Kingdom
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, has delivered the 2026 Autumn Budget. Announcements relevant to the Mental Health Foundation’s work included ring-fenced funding for prevention, an anti-misogyny fund, and changes to the National Living and Minimum Wages.
Responding to the announcements, Alexa Knight, Director of Policy and Influencing at the Mental Health Foundation, said:
On ring-fenced funding for prevention at the next spending review:
“Prevention is the only possible way the UK can address the levels of poor mental health it faces. For far too long, prevention has been given short shrift, prioritising short-term thinking over the health and prosperity of the country. It cannot be the case, for instance, that in 2024/25 we spent over £200 billion on healthcare, but only £3.8 billion on the public health grant. This has had drastic impacts on the country’s mental health.
“The announcement by the Chancellor today that he will ring-fence funding for prevention at the next spending review has the potential to be radical. This is a change that the Mental Health Foundation has been calling for for years.
“Ring-fencing the funding of prevention will provide a necessary baseline and hold departments to account for spending on preventative policies and programmes. It signals the importance of prevention and will encourage officials and agencies to develop programmes and activities that stop poor mental health in its tracks.
“No longer will budget holders have to choose between helping people experiencing poor mental health now and preventing it from arising in the future. Today, the Chancellor has made an essential step towards a healthy, more mentally resilient UK. This is exactly the sort of creative approach we need.”
On the anti-misogyny fund for schools, workplaces, and community interventions:
“The announcement of an anti-misogyny fund is immensely welcome. It has the potential to address the scourge of misogyny and make a very real difference to the safety and mental health of not just women, but everyone across the country.
“Misogyny impacts every one of us. Experiencing misogyny can leave life-long impacts on women’s mental health. Women at all stages of life experience worse mental health than men of the same age, with sexism contributing to this. But men - particularly young men - are impacted by increasing misogyny too. It twists the values of society, leads young men to have unrealistic images of themselves, and foments hateful attitudes in their minds. Keeping the country’s population mentally healthy means rooting out hatred of women everywhere.
“With online misogyny in particular becoming an increasing part of culture aimed at young men, interventions to prevent this hatred from taking hold are urgently needed.”
On the rise in the National Living Wage:
“Receiving a fair income for good work is a cornerstone of keeping people mentally healthy and addressing in-work poverty. Financial security helps support people's re-entry to the workforce and prevents worsening wellbeing. This is why the Chancellor is absolutely right to continue to increase the National Living Wage. It will help make sure that all employees over the age of 21 will be able to afford a decent standard of living and stay in good mental health.”
On the pausing of equalisation for the National Minimum Wage:
"The government previously committed to equalising the minimum wage for under-21s with all other workers. Today they have put that commitment on pause and failed to increase the National Minimum Wage by nearly enough. The government suggests this will boost employment for young people. But we know that low pay can undermine people's mental health, which makes staying in work harder. Keeping this discrepancy is unfair, unnecessary and unwise.”
On greater funding for regional projects:
“This increase in funding for regional projects could supercharge local governments to support better mental health through prevention. Local and devolved governments are best placed to deliver many policies that prevent poor mental health. For example, they can increase the amount of support to get people active or create more green spaces in their locality. It is imperative local governments receive this kind of funding so they can make these decisions.
"If the Chancellor wants to build on this, he should continue to make sure the public health grant given to local authorities increases. We also need a new approach from the Department for Health and Social Care that places prevention at the heart of its work. The upcoming mental health strategy for England has the potential to do this, but it must be fully funded.”