Alzheimer's Society comments on the 2021 Budget's lack of plans to double dementia research spending

Fiona Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at Alzheimer’s Society, said:

'We’re hugely disappointed that the Government has not announced concrete plans to deliver their 2019 pledge to double dementia research funding. Research is vital to accelerating our progress in finding a cure and understanding the best possible care provision now, and decades of underfunding means that dementia research lags about twenty years behind the progress we’ve made in cancer. The value of research has been clearly shown in vaccination discoveries last year – the lack of dementia research funding is a further blow to the 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, who have been worst hit by coronavirus, and the research community, who have been badly hit financially by the pandemic.

'Never again must people with dementia and their families face the hardship and loss of the last year, which has utterly exposed the dire state of social care. We urge the Government to fast-track their plans for social care reform this year, ensuring it’s put on equal footing with the NHS, so people with dementia get the quality support and care they so desperately need and deserve.'