Lib Dems call for GP guarantee on new housing developments

Housing developers in England should be forced to ensure GP services are available for use by residents before they move into new homes, the Liberal Democrats have proposed.

The Lib Dems say they would pass a new law that would require developers to fund, build, or expand existing GP surgeries in time for the arrival of new residents.

The GP services near these new homes would be funded by taxes levied on developers, the party says.

The party says local authorities and NHS boards would have a duty to identify where extra GP provision is needed to support residents living in new housing developments.

Taxes on housing developers in the UK are already used to fund local infrastructure, including GP surgeries.

For example, the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in England and Wales can be used to fund a wide range of amenities, including transport, flood defences, schools, hospitals, and other health and social care facilities.

But recent research by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) estimated that local authorities in England and Wales had left unspent more than £9bn of developer contributions, intended to fund essential local infrastructure.

The HBF said the sums that remain unspent raised "increasing concerns about inefficiencies in spending and delivery".

Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the HBF, said the balance of unspent developer contributions provided "further evidence of a capacity crisis in local government and should be a major cause of concern for local communities and for ministers".

The Lib Dems say GP surgeries are often promised but not delivered in tandem with new housing, placing pressure on existing services.

Speaking at a news conference, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said "too often new developments don't come with the services and infrastructure they need".

He said his party's policy would "get new or expanded GP surgeries up and running to serve new developments, right from the moment the first homes are sold".

Sir Ed added: "It means that the local authority and the NHS would work together to identify how much extra GP capacity is needed to serve new developments - and then require the developers to pay for it, through their levies.

"Crucially, that means funding not just the bricks and mortar of GP surgeries, but also the contracts so there are actually doctors to staff them while patients are first moving in."

The BBC has asked Labour, the Conservatives, the Green Party and Reform UK for comment.

Simon Clarke, the director of the Onward think tank and a former Conservative minister, said the Lib Dem proposal "sounds totally mad".

In a post on X, Clarke asked: "What modelling have they done, if any, about the impact on housebuilding, already at a record, devastating low?"

The Labour government has pledged to deliver 1.5m new homes in England by 2029.

But last year, Housing Secretary Steve Reed admitted there will need to be a sharp surge in housebuilding to meet Labour's promise.

Housebuilders have warned the government will miss its target, after the number of new homes started fell from 207,000 to 139,000 after Labour took office - the lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic.