Joint Primary Care Statement on the Budget 2025

Following on from the Budget announcement at the end of November, Community Pharmacy England has joined forces with other national primary care bodies to reiterate our call on Government to commit to “clear and decisive action” to support primary care.

The joint statement, copied below, has been signed by Community Pharmacy England, the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee and The National Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers.

The statement is made in addition to our organisations’ own sector-specific responses to the Budget. You can read the Community Pharmacy England response to the budget here.

We are briefing supportive and engaged MPs, including those who will be attending the joint Primary Care Parliamentary briefing event in January 2026, calling on Ministers to “use financial levers to support a long-term, funded plan that rebuilds capacity, supports innovation and places patient choice at the heart of the Government’s plans”.

This is alongside Community Pharmacy England’s ongoing work to raise the need for a long-term sustainable funding and operational model for community pharmacies with Parliamentarians.

The full joint statement is:

Joint Primary Care Statement on the Budget

“We welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to the NHS as set out in the Budget. While the announcement did not provide the clear financial detail that primary care providers had hoped for, we welcome any steps that help strengthen the foundations of the NHS and support the services patients rely on every day.

Primary care is the front door of the NHS – of the 1.5 million patients treated by the NHS each day, more than 75% are seen and treated in primary care without the need to visit a hospital.

Yet, primary care continues to face severe pressures due to funding cuts, workforce shortages and a disproportionate focus on secondary care. Without meaningful investment to restore and rebuild the whole of primary care, there will be limited capacity to deliver the shifts from treatment to prevention and from hospital to community that the Government rightly seeks as part of a neighbourhood health service.

As the NHS strives to meet the rising demand of a growing ageing population and improve patients’ access to care close to home, primary care providers stand ready to work together to ease pressures on other parts of the health service. This will only be possible with clear and decisive action by Government using financial levers to support a long-term, funded plan that rebuilds capacity, supports innovation and places patient choice at the heart of the Government’s plans.

We are looking forward to receiving further details following the Budget and to working closely with the Government to ensure that all parts of primary care can deliver on the Government’s priorities for the NHS.”

Shiv Pabary, Chair, British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee

Janet Morrison, Chief Executive, Community Pharmacy England

Paul Carroll, Chair, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee

Harjit Sandhu, Chief Executive, The National Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers