Pharmacy closures could turn health crisis into high street crisis

Hundreds of pharmacies at risk as rates bills rocket

Britain could be heading for a pharmacy closure crisis, with almost half of those surveyed by the National Pharmacy Association considering shutting their doors as business rates and other costs bite. These aren’t ordinary shops: they dispense NHS medicines, provide frontline health services and often anchor the local high street. If they disappear, patients lose easy access to care, more pressure falls on GPs and hospitals, and neighbouring small businesses lose valuable footfall. For communities already struggling with poor health and disappearing local services, losing the pharmacy could be another devastating blow.

HUNDREDS OF PHARMACIES FACE CLOSURE

Hundreds of community pharmacies across the UK are on the brink of closure as soaring business rates push small, NHS‑funded operators to breaking point. New data from the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) shows a sector in crisis and the consequences for people in poor health could be severe.

A survey of 420 pharmacies found that 48% are considering shutting down entirely, while 55% are actively looking to relocate to escape unaffordable rates bills.

This year alone, 44 pharmacies have already closed, leaving the network at its smallest since 2006. Nine in 10 council areas have lost at least one pharmacy since 2022.

Tripled bills

Pharmacies say their business rates bills have tripled, with some facing tens of thousands of pounds in extra costs, money that could otherwise fund new services, staff, or premises improvements.

Unlike pubs, vape shops, pawn brokers, or restaurants, pharmacies can’t raise prices to absorb higher costs because 90% of their income comes from the NHS.

GPs and NHS dentists have their business rates reimbursed. Pharmacies don’t.

9 in 10 pharmacy owners say business rates now prevent them from investing in new services or workforce development.

People in poor health

Pharmacy closures are a public health emergency. In rural and coastal areas, where rates are often higher than average, closures could leave entire communities without a local pharmacy. Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, COPD, heart disease, will face longer travel times and reduced access to essential medication.

Pressure on GPs and A&E

Pharmacies increasingly deliver frontline NHS services such as blood pressure checks, contraception, minor illness treatment, vaccinations and medicine reviews.

When pharmacies close, these services bounce back to already overstretched GP surgeries and emergency departments, worsening waiting times.

Loss of free support

Pharmacies are often the only accessible health point for older and disables, carers and people with mobility issues who don’t have cars or reliable transport.

Some pharmacies have already cut free medicine deliveries to elderly patients because they can’t afford the service any longer.

Health inequalities widen

Pharmacies are disproportionately located in deprived areas, where they act as health anchors. Closures will hit the poorest hardest and these are the very communities with the highest burden of long‑term illness.

Pharmacies are anchors

Pharmacies are often the anchor tenant on local parades of shops. They’re the business that keeps footfall steady and supports neighbouring shops. When a pharmacy closes footfall drops and neighbouring microbusinesses lose trade. That’s when shops shut and crime and anti‑social behaviour increase.

The NPA warns that closures will damage local economies and undermine national plans to revitalise high streets.

Being left behind

Despite their essential role, pharmacies were excluded from recent business rates relief offered to pubs and live music venues. Yet pharmacies are the third most desired high street business among the public, ahead of post offices, pubs, restaurants, and coffee shops.

NPA chair Olivier Picard says pharmacies are being treated like retail shops, not health providers: “Pharmacies cannot flex their prices to meet increasing costs… They are almost entirely dependent on NHS funding. They should not be treated in the same way as pubs or vape shops.”

A threat to the NHS 10‑year plan

The NPA warns that continued closures will jeopardise the government’s 10‑Year Plan for the NHS, which relies on pharmacies to take pressure off GPs and hospitals.

Pharmacies are being asked to do more but funded less. They need:

Immediate business rates exemption

Matching the support given to GPs and dentists would stabilise the sector overnight.

Long‑term funding reform

Pharmacies must be funded for the NHS services they already deliver, not treated as retail units.

Targeted support for rural and coastal communities

These areas face the highest rates and the greatest risk of becoming “pharmacy deserts”.

High street regeneration that includes health infrastructure

Pharmacies should be central to high street renewal, not an afterthought.

The takeaway

Pharmacies aren’t just shops. They’re frontline NHS access points, especially for people in poor health. If hundreds close, the impact will be felt first, and hardest, by the sick, elderly, isolated, and communities already struggling with health inequalities.

This is a health crisis disguised as a tax bill, and it’s yet another blow to the small and micro businesses that are so vital to the economy, wider society and local communities.