The UK government is preparing to expand community-based healthcare as part of a new plan to cut NHS waiting times, boost productivity, and modernise the system
Ahead of the Autumn Budget, ministers have confirmed funding for 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres, designed to bring a wide range of services closer to patients’ homes and reduce the need for hospital visits.
The Neighbourhood Health Service will address long-standing inequalities in access to care by prioritising areas with the highest deprivation. The centres will house GPs, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and community health teams under one roof, providing a modernised, one-stop approach to local treatment and support.
Bringing care closer to home
The Neighbourhood Health Centres are intended to ease pressure on hospitals by shifting more outpatient activity into communities. Patients will be able to receive treatment minutes from home, rather than having to travel long distances to large acute sites. The government argues that this will simplify patient journeys, prevent complications through better chronic disease management, and end the so-called postcode lottery of healthcare access.
Early phases of the rollout will focus on supporting people with complex needs and long-term conditions such as diabetes and heart failure. Over time, the scope is expected to widen to include more patient groups and additional priority services.
To accelerate delivery, the Neighbourhood Health Centres will be constructed using a mixed-funding model that combines public funding and private investment. A blend of refurbished existing buildings and new facilities will be used, forming part of a national NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild programme. Ministers say this approach will bring in external expertise where helpful, while maintaining public ownership and ensuring centres remain free at the point of use.
Carly Caton, partner in commercial health at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “Leveraging private finance to build 250 neighbourhood health centres – earmarked as a central plank in the government’s 10 Year Health Plan to shift healthcare from hospitals to communities – is a wise move at a time of fiscal restraint.
“PPP programmes work well when there is a consistent pipeline of projects that allows the private sector partners to deliver economies of scale with some certainty. Bringing forward a significant number of community health centres will help to attract those private sector partners to the table.”
Productivity boost through new NHS technology
Alongside the expansion of neighbourhood care, the Chancellor is preparing a £300 million investment in NHS technology that will increase productivity across hospitals and community settings. New digital tools will be deployed to reduce the amount of time staff spend on administrative work, streamline access to patient information, and improve communication between teams.
The government shows recent gains in hospital productivity, with services such as A&E and surgery reporting improvements this year. Achieving sustained productivity growth is seen as essential to unlocking billions in savings that can be reinvested directly into patient services.
Reform, rebuild, and financial responsibility
The Neighbourhood Health Centres are part of a wider set of reforms intended to reshape how the NHS is organised and funded. Recent structural changes include cutting 18,000 administrative posts and merging NHS England back into the Department of Health and Social Care. Officials expect these measures to redirect over £1 billion annually into frontline care by the end of the Parliament.
The government argues that these Neighbourhood Health Centres are essential to repairing the NHS estate, following findings of a substantial funding shortfall. Capital budgets have already been significantly increased, and the new public-private partnership model for infrastructure delivery aims to ensure value for money while speeding up construction.
More than 100 Neighbourhood Health Centres are expected to open by 2030, with early refurbishments already identified in areas such as Barrow-in-Furness, Birmingham, and Ealing.
