Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of trends in the levels of demand for financial and mental health support from families in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London; and if he will make a statement.

The government recognises the challenges facing households due to elevated costs of living, so took action at Spring Budget 2023 to go further to protect struggling families. This included interventions such as extending energy support by keeping the Energy Price Guarantee at £2,500 for three months from April, saving households an additional £160, ending the premium paid by over 4 million households using prepayment meters across the UK, introducing 30 hours of free childcare per week for working parents with children aged 9 months up to 3 years in England, cancelling the planned increase in fuel duty and keeping rates at current levels for the next 12 months, and increasing Draught Relief.

This is in addition to the benefits uprating and support for vulnerable households announced at the Autumn Statement. Taken together, support to households to help with higher bills is worth £94 billion, or £3,300 per household on average, across 2022-23 and 2023-24.

It is for Integrated Care Systems to plan and deliver joined up health and care services to improve the lives of people who live and work in their area, including assessments of demand for mental health support, based on the specifics needs of the local population. However, the government remains dedicated to ensuring commissioners continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard, with investment in NHS mental health services having increased each year from almost £11 billion in 2015/16 to £15 billion in 2021/22. Furthermore, the recently published Plan for Patients set out the Government’s intention to continue to drive progress on the NHS Long Term Plan commitments to expand and transform NHS mental health services. The NHS Long Term Plan having seen at least £2.3 billion extra funding a year for mental health services by 2023/24 – supporting an additional two million people in England to access NHS-funded mental health services.