Funding of LPCs and Community Pharmacy England

The levy funds the administrative running costs of the LPC, including members’ expenses and meeting the costs of Community Pharmacy England, to conduct national negotiations, make representations and provide support on behalf of all pharmacy owners in England.

LPCs are responsible for agreeing their own budgets and setting the levy, although they are required to use a standard template provided by Community Pharmacy England and send copies to NHS England, who authorise the NHSBSA to deduct it from pharmacy owners’ gross monthly contract payment.

You should be able to find further information about your LPC’s finances, such as financial statements and annual reports on their website. Community Pharmacy England has provided extensive support information to LPCs, to help support robust financial governance and reporting, including a Finance Guide, standard templates and guidance on holding reserves.

In 2022/23 LPCs in England collected around £11m from pharmacy owners in England to fund representation and support. They collectively retained around £6.8m for local use and passed on £4m to Community Pharmacy England.

The payment is apportioned according to the pharmacy owner’s share of total available NHS income in the LPC area. Levy payments are always taken by NHSBSA at contract level in line with the FP34 Schedule of Payments and paying the totals over to the LPCs on a monthly basis.

Illustrative example:

• Your turnover for the month (only you see) = £80,000
• The total turnover of all the pharmacies in an LPC area is = £17,600,000
• Your percentage turnover = 0.4545%
• The LPC monthly levy is £17,500 per month and your contribution is 0.4545% = pharmacy contribution of £79.55

LPCs can decide between two main ways of collecting levy from pharmacies.

Statutory – percentage variable of the monthly contract value (e.g 1p per £100 =0.01%)

Statutory – fixed amount to be collected by the LPC, apportioned across each pharmacy contract according to share of total NHS income in the area.

Community Pharmacy England’s income is exclusively raised from pharmacy owners via a levy on all LPCs in England.

The levy is apportioned according to the % share of total NHS income available to pharmacy owners in each LPC area, e.g If pharmacy owners in LPC ‘A’ have 10% of the FP34C revenue then LPC ‘A’ pays 10% of the total Community Pharmacy England levy

This method, including having an annual recalibration was subject to consultation with LPCs and agreed by the Conference of LPC Representatives in 2022, following the Review Steering Group proposals, which had the support of pharmacy owners

In 2025/26 Community Pharmacy England will collect £4.8m via the LPC network and it will be apportioned across the 50 LPCs in England. The Committee discussed budget, levy and workplans for the coming financial year at its February 2025 meeting, and detailed information was sent to LPCs in an annual planning letter.

Find out more about how we have previously invested levies and what we have achieved in two new explainers:

Community Pharmacy England’s Investment Priorities

Community Pharmacy England’s Work

Further information about our expenditure, the value we have generated for pharmacy owners and the impact we have on Government investment in the sector, clinical service development and ongoing influence is available in our latest annual report.