Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria her Department will use to select locations for new Neighbourhood Health Centres, and in what way priority will be given to areas with limited primary care capacity.

We recognise the challenges significant housing and population growth can place on primary care health infrastructure. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our ambition to create a Neighbourhood Health Service, shifting care from hospitals into communities and bringing more integrated, preventative care closer to people’s homes. The 10 Year Capital Plan, published in July, sets out how we will support delivery of that vision through capital investment.

The Government is investing over approximately £200 million of Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation funding to tackle historic underinvestment into the primary care estate. This funding continues to support upgrades to existing general practice surgeries, allowing practices to offer more appointments.

A further £200 million will support upgrading the existing estate to deliver approximately 50 neighbourhood health centres through upgrades. We announced Wave 1 of Neighbourhood Health Centre upgrade schemes in March 2026, with 27 sites across England selected to bring care closer to home. We are also assessing proposals for a pipeline of new build neighbourhood health centres.

Proposals for future waves of neighbourhood health centres are currently being assessed against published criteria, as set out in the Neighbourhood Health Centre Guidance, with final decisions on future schemes yet to be confirmed. Further information on the criteria is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/neighbourhood-health-centres/

Projects that meet the criteria will be invited to develop detailed business cases before any final funding decisions are taken. Rollout for neighbourhood health centres will start in the areas of greatest need, with investment prioritised where it can have the greatest impact and address material gaps in community and neighbourhood health infrastructure.

Integrated care boards (ICBs), like the Central East ICB which covers the South Hertfordshire area, are responsible for commissioning, including planning, securing, and monitoring, services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. The National Health Service has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient medical services, including general practice, in each local area. ICBs should evaluate the needs of the populations for which they are responsible and plan service provision as required.

The Department continues to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government to determine how the developer contributions system can be strengthened and improved to support the planning and delivery of the required social infrastructure in areas of population growth.