Key Summary
- NPA stated that pharmacies are labour-intensive healthcare providers operating within a constrained NHS funding envelope.
- Without governmental support, many more pharmacies will close down, and patients will suffer.
- The Low Pay Commission’s consultation closed on 26 June.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has called for an exemption of business rates to relieve financial pressures brought on by rising employment costs.
The NPA submitted evidence to the Low Pay Commission, which is considering its minimum wage recommendations for April 2027.
It stated that pharmacies are labour-intensive healthcare providers operating within a constrained NHS funding envelope, and without governmental support, many more pharmacies will close down.
This will reduce patient access and undermine the Government’s ambition to shift more healthcare into the community.
Citing its member survey in June, the NPA stated that the National Living Wage has added to existing financial pressures for 90 percent of independent pharmacies.
In the same survey, 66 percent said that they were being forced to reduce opening hours and staffing as a result of wage inflation.
The Low Pay Commission’s consultation closed on 26 June.
NPA's demands
The current National Living Wage (21 years and over rate) is £12.71 per hour.
The NPA wants the government to explicitly account for NLW/NMW increases in future pharmacy funding settlements.
Introduce a Business Rates exemption for community pharmacy (similar to dentists and GPs) as a mechanism to relieve financial pressures.
The Low Pay Commission should work with the Department of Health and Social Care to review the impact of NLW increases on pharmacies in deprived, rural and high-need areas where closures would worsen health inequalities.
Cannot pass inflation to customers: Picard
NPA chair, Olivier Picard, said, “Community pharmacy is being asked to deliver ever more clinical care and absorb more demand from general practice and hospitals, while our cost base continues to rise.
“Whilst supporting fair pay for pharmacy staff, the NPA has told the Low Pay Commission that pharmacies cannot easily pass wage inflation onto consumers, as the majority of the income pharmacies receive is from set NHS funding.
“Pharmacies should be regarded as a special case, because of the particular constraints on us in relation to generating revenue to pay for rising costs.
“We’re therefore repeating our call for a Business Rates exemption for community pharmacy - similar to dentists and GPs - as a mechanism to relieve financial pressures brought on by increases to NLW.
“We believe the survey data we supplied to the Low Pay Commission is persuasive, as it is rooted in the challenging realities of the pharmacy frontline.”
Freeze for pubs
It may be recalled that the government had in January spared pubs and live music venues from the 15 percent business rates announced during Budget 2025.
Then chancellor of exchequer Rachel Reeves had said this was being done to restore the "pride in our communities, we need our pubs and our high streets to thrive."
In a recent House of Lords debate, Baroness Janke of the Liberal Democrat party had raised the same issue.
She said, "Pharmacies are small businesses, and like all small businesses, they have difficult issues affecting them, such as increased national insurance charges, increases in the minimum wage, and rising business rates. Incidentally, GP practices and pubs are exempt from business rates, so many local pharmacists are asking why pharmacies cannot also be exempt as an essential service."
"We cannot move healthcare out of hospitals and into the community if the community infrastructure has been allowed to crumble," she had warned.
