As the calendar turns to 2026, resolutions are everywhere: eat better, move more, drink less alcohol. But beyond individual choices, public health in 2026 will feel less like a new agenda and more like a year of delivery.
This is the year when local government’s convening power, commissioning responsibilities, and place-based leadership will determine whether national ambition turns into tangible gains in our local communities.
The Covid Inquiry’s Module 10, Impact on society, opens public hearings in mid-February, reflecting on the social, economic, and health consequences of the pandemic. Its earlier reports have already concluded that the UK response was “too little, too late,” citing unclear governance and poor communication across the country. The practical implications for 2026 are likely to focus on how we embed local public health expertise in national emergency frameworks, clarify accountability, and ensure preparedness is sustainably funded rather than improvised in crisis.
Legislation is also shifting the ground. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, after clearing critical Commons stages in March 2025 and progressing in the Lords, begins to reshape the retail and promotional environment this year. Bans on vape advertising, sponsorship, and vending machines start to roll out in 2026, with ministers retaining powers to regulate flavours, packaging, display and expand smokefree places via secondary legislation. And from 1 January 2027, the “smokefree generation” provision will make tobacco sales illegal to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
Meanwhile, the NHS’s 10-Year Health Plan is being put into operation through the Medium-Term Planning Framework for 2026/27–2028/29, setting clear trajectories for elective recovery, urgent and emergency care, and cancer pathways, while pushing systems to rewire governance, finance, and patient experience. The promise of neighbourhood health, delivering more care at home or closer to home, is starting to materialise through virtual wards and integrated teams, with new national frameworks supporting local adaptation. The test for 2026 is whether these shifts are felt by patients and frontline staff, not just recorded in board papers.
On funding, the government has confirmed a three-year multi-year settlement for public health. This provides a consolidated Public Health Grant of £13.45 billion over the Spending Review period. The Public Health Grant will remain ringfenced for exclusive use on public health, with additional service-specific ringfences for smoking cessation and drug and alcohol treatment funding. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will soon publish the annual public health ringfenced grant circular for local authorities, setting out detailed allocations and guidance.
Besides funding, the DHSC local authority Peer Review and External Support offer is due to go live in 2026/27, delivering 90 peer reviews over three years, universal toolkits, and rapid improvement support. And NHS England’s neighbourhood health guidance sets out the integrated approach between ICBs, councils, public health, social care and providers that many places have been developing already, now with a clearer national scaffold.
There are moments this year that invite reflection as well as action. 2026 is a centenary year for some formative public health debates and instruments: the 1926 Commons debates on birth control and the legality of contraceptive information, which framed early state engagement with reproductive health, and the Ministry of Health’s use of provisional orders to enable rapid local interventions in housing, sanitation and health.
Fifty years ago, in spring 1976, the UK’ governments published Prevention and Health: Everybody’s Business. It was a landmark discussion paper, calling for a shift from cure to prevention and urging action on smoking, diet, inactivity, alcohol, obesity, and sexual health.
These anniversaries underscore how today’s arguments about the balance between individual agency, public interest, and local powers are not new; they are chapters in a long story of public health negotiating science, values, and the tools of government.
For local government and the LGA, improving the public’s health is not a spectator role. Councils will be the enablers of national ambition, through trading standards enforcement, commissioners of public health services, and leadership of integrated neighbourhood health models. They will need to plan for multiyear public health grants, embrace peer review as a tool for improvement, and champion equity.
The LGA’s task is to amplify the local voice, shape the improvement framework, and support members with practical guidance and advocacy. In short, 2026 is the moment to demonstrate that prevention, resilience, and health equity are built from the ground up, and that strong, well-resourced local public health leadership is the key to turning policy into impact.
Councillor Dr Wendy Taylor MBE
Chair, Health and Wellbeing Committee