Bitter pill to swallow NHS bids for funding to match housing growth rejected

HEALTH chiefs in Bristol have asked council planners for almost £2 million of developers’ money to help fund more doctors’ surgeries and health centres - but are being turned down with the council keeping the money itself.

- Tristan CORK

NHS bosses are warning that the rapid and large-scale residential development and population growth in some areas of the city is unsustainable unless it is also accompanied by building new GP surgeries and health centres.

And the NHS has been regularly writing to Bristol City Council asking for a share of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) - money the council receives from developers for local infrastructure projects when planning permission is awarded.

So far, council planners have turned down those demands, but the requests are continuing from the NHS and the amount of money being asked for is increasing.

In public, Bristol City Council and the NHS have said they are working together to find ways to ensure that the thousands of new residents of areas like St Jude's, Ashton Gate, Bedminster, the new ‘Temple Quarter’ and Totterdown have access to GP surgeries and a doctor they can register with.

Behind the scenes, however, the council has been turning down formal requests for it to share the millions of pounds of CIL funds it has been receiving or is due to receive from the swathe of major planning applications for thousands of new homes - mainly rented flats and student accommodation.

In August 2022, Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) - now the leader of Bristol City Council - called on the Labour-run administration to allocate some or all of around £8 million of developer contributions from the Bedminster Green regeneration scheme to go to the NHS.

But in late 2023, the then-ruling Labour group proposed a motion which said it was the NHS that should be stepping up to match the level of development being allowed by the city planners - and fund and provide new health centres to meet the growing population.