The pledge, which will help fund health checks for 40-74 year olds, health visits for infants and their mothers, and wider access to blood pressure tests, forms the second major pillar of the party's plan to fix the health and care crisis, following proposals to boost GP numbers by 8,000 and give people the legal right to see a GP within seven days.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: ‘The Liberal Democrats would reverse these scandalous cuts and invest in empowering local communities and individuals to lead healthier lives. It is time to recognise that it is far cheaper to prevent ill health than to treat it.'
The Lib Dems said there had been a 28% real terms cut to the Public Health Grant to local authorities since 2015.
The party said a new ‘invest to save' approach was needed to healthcare that empowered communities to improve their own health, reduced pressure on NHS services and ensured taxpayers' money was spent effectively on prevention programmes to help prevent people from becoming ill in the first place.
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund, warmly welcomed the commitment to restore the Public Health Grant from previous levels.
‘Cuts made to the public health grant since 2015/16 have had a major impact on local services – such as sexual health clinics, smoking cessation services and children's health visitors – which play a key role in protecting and improving people's health,' Woolnough said.
The King's Fund has called on all major political parties to commit to ‘bold action' on tackling risk factors in communities that lead to ill health and early death, including smoking, obesity, clean air and alcohol.
Victoria Atkins, secretary of state for health and social care, said: ‘Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have a clear plan and have taken bold action, not only committing to building 40 new hospitals by 2030, but also delivering 160 community diagnostic centres, a year ahead of the original target.
‘These centres have already delivered more than 7m tests, checks and scans across England, helping to tackle ill-health across the country. The choice could not be clearer: stick with the Conservatives for a brighter future or risk going back to square one with Labour and the Liberal Democrats.'
