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The real-terms value of the ‘Community pharmacy contractual framework’ (CPCF) has decreased from £3.9bn to £3.1bn over the past decade, the pharmacy minister has confirmed.
In a written parliamentary answer, published on 24 February 2026, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock shared data setting out the nominal and real-terms funding provided through the CPCF each year since 2015/2016 (see Figure).
Although pharmacies received £2.8bn in 2015/2016, this would be equivalent today to £3.9bn — around £800m more than 2025/2026 funding levels.
Pharmacy funding reached its lowest value in 2023/2024, when the nominal value of £2.6bn — which had been unchanged for seven years — was equivalent to £2.8bn today.
However, an independent analysis commissioned by NHS England said that the actual cost of providing NHS pharmacy services across England in 2023/2024 was between £4.3bn and £5.7bn.
Since then, increases in employers’ national insurance contributions, the national living wage and business rates have increased pharmacies’ operating costs even further.
There have been several new services introduced since 2015/2016, a 16% increase in the number of NHS prescribed medicines being dispensed, and a net loss of 1,479 bricks and mortar pharmacies since 31 March 2016 — representing 13% of the network in England.
In August 2025, results of a poll by Community Pharmacy England revealed that 45% of pharmacy owners have used personal savings or remortgaged their homes to subsidise the cost of providing NHS services.
Helen Morgan MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for health and social care, who tabled the parliamentary question said: “Pharmacies play a crucial role by reducing the pressure on overcrowded hospitals and GP surgeries. If we continue to underfund them, we risk putting hospitals already on the brink under even more pressure, leaving many patients to suffer unnecessarily.
“Without additional funding, more pharmacies will close — affecting rural, coastal and deprived communities the hardest — where they are most needed.
“With so many pharmacies already having gone to the wall and with many more at risk of closure, the government needs to change course. That means reversing the brutal cuts to pharmacies under the Conservatives and exempting pharmacies from the government’s disastrous jobs tax to prevent any future surge in closures.”
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association, said: “The government has pledged to stabilise the community pharmacy network. This will only be possible with fair funding which reflects the workload the NHS and patients expect and need.”
Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, commented: “It’s important to remind MPs and ministers that a decade of cuts have led to serious consequences for patients’ access to care.
“We are still waiting for negotiations to begin on a new pharmacy contract in England and we need swift progress in the light of statistics like these and the depressing reality on the ground for pharmacy teams and patients. It’s an opportunity for the government to fulfil its promises to stabilise the pharmacy network and support pharmacies to provide more NHS clinical care close to where people live, work and shop.”
