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Community pharmacies across England are in “real economic peril” and urgently need a roadmap to recovery, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has warned the government.
In a letter sent to pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock on 23 January 2026 — which the negotiator described as “uncompromising” — Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE, called on the government to speed up its progress towards stabilising the sector and begin a long-term recovery plan, ahead of the ‘Community pharmacy contractual framework’ (CPCF) for 2026/2027 negotiations.
“Businesses are losing money and accumulating debt, and operationally, pharmacies are struggling to cope with the ongoing demand from patients and the public,” Morrison wrote.
“Pharmacy closures are continuing — including in our most deprived areas — and we have also seen a reduction in the number of collective pharmacy opening hours.
“Statutory accounts filed at Companies House continue to show the perilous financial position that many pharmacy companies are in, typically with high levels of loss-making, borrowings and net current liabilities,” she added.
Without government intervention, letter warned that the public’s access to services would be likely to continue to drop, adding that the government should prepare to mitigate the resulting negative impacts.
“It would also stall progress on your many positive ambitions for the development of the sector’s role and services in a reformed NHS, which we share,” Morrison warned.
She also laid out the mounting pressures on pharmacies, explaining that pharmacies are economically worse off than a year ago — despite the 2025 funding uplift — owing to inflation, tax changes and operation pressures.
Morrison’s letter went on to highlight that the network faced a structural funding deficit of more than £2bn.
Opening hours have fallen, with 75,000 fewer hours per week since mid-2023 and an 88% reduction in late evening provision, while drug tariff cuts and Category H changes will further destabilise medicines supply, Morrison added.
She said that upcoming CPCF for 2026/2027 negotiations must deliver a plan to close the funding gap, a roadmap aligned with the NHS ten-year plan, a margin reset, progress towards a community pharmacist prescribing service and reforms to reduce red tape.
“We will be looking for clear progress to made in these areas, and believe this is necessary to maintain not only the viability of pharmacy businesses, but the access to medicines and pharmaceutical services that millions of patients, carers and member of the public rely on every day,” Morrison wrote.
A statement published by CPE said it expected CPCF negotiations to “commence shortly”.
Commenting on the letter, Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “Consultations on funding for 2026 need to start. Ministers must get round the table and put pharmacies in a financial position to help deliver the transformation of local NHS services they — and we — want to see.
“We’re clear that anything less than a 8.9% increase will be a real-terms cut, jeopardising patient care and risking further closures.”
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Assocation (CCA) said: “The CCA agrees with the CPE view that community pharmacy is in a precarious financial position and that urgent action is needed to ensure the sustainability of the sector in the 2026/27 CPCF.
“The upcoming CPCF must now set out a clear, funded roadmap to deliver on the government’s commitments. Kicking the can down the road or offering short-term fixes would only deepen uncertainty, and accelerate service reductions and closures. All of this would deeply impact patients’ access to pharmacy services and risk having wider consequences on the NHS.”
CPE added the current two-year CPCF had offered a 30% uplift in funding for community pharmacies compared with 2023/2024.
