NHS bosses urged to put pressure on Bridgwater developers over GP funding
Calls grow for stronger developer contributions as Bridgwater’s rapid housing boom strains local NHS services.
NHS bosses in Somerset have been urged to put pressure on housing developers to ensure that Bridgwater’s health services get the funding they desperately need.
Bridgwater is experiencing significant housing growth driven by numerous factors – including the ongoing construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, the delivery of the new £4bn ‘gigafactory’ between Puriton and Woolavington, and the town being unaffected by the ongoing phosphates crisis which has held up development elsewhere in Somerset.
Registered nurse Liz Browne, who sits on Bridgwater Without Parish Council, has criticised Somerset Council for allowing developers to escape from paying sufficient contributions to local NHS services – funding which can be used to expand GP surgeries and deliver more appointments for local people.
Ms Browne has urged the NHS Somerset integrated care board (ICB) to put pressure on the council and developers to ensure developers paid what was expected of them as part of approved housing developments.
The ICB – which governs how Somerset’s health funding and resources are distributed – has said the government needed to better “manage the impact” of additional housing growth and said it would be pushing for further contributions as part of the new Somerset-wide Local Plan.
Ms Browne raised the issue in detail when the ICB met at Glastonbury Town Hall on Thursday, November 27.
She said: “An increase of approximately 4,000 patients is projected from major housebuilding within the next ten years in east Bridgwater alone, with more houses being approved above Local Plan targets.
“Bridgwater’s GP practices have unanimously declared that they cannot absorb the increased patients from any new development locally, and that staff and patients would be put at risk by unsustainable pressure without sufficient funding and infrastructure planning.
“Waiting times for appointments are already clinically unacceptable, and this will in turn create additional adverse impacts on secondary care and poor health outcomes for the local population.
“This situation is compounded by the local authority regularly allowing developers to get out of their financial contribution obligations to healthcare, on the grounds of viability assessments.”
Countryside Partnerships is currently constructing 260 homes within the Strawberry Grange development north of the A372 Westonzoyland Road at the eastern edge of Bridgwater.
Outline planning consent is in place for a further 530 homes at Folletts Farm to the south, accessed from Dunwear Lane – with the site being put up for sale in late-January.
Permission is being sought for a further 750 homes to the north of the Strawberry Grange, which will include a new primary school and the remainder of a spine road to link the new homes to the A39 Bath Road.
Ms Browne said the ICB’s Local Plan area engagement team was not making sufficient allowances for population growth, relying too heavily on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
She said: “The ONS statistics only consider trends based upon births, deaths and natural migration and make assumptions about future levels of fertility.
“Local housing projections, local housing land supply or existing planning permissions are not taken into consideration.
“ICB funding from central government is reactive and limited, and the funding does not follow the patient in any given year.”
NHS contributions from housing developers can only be used for capital projects (such as building new GP surgeries or expanding existing ones) rather than revenue spending (such as paying the salaries of doctors and nurses).
Ms Browne welcomed the ICB’s decision to review its primary care provision to bring it in line with the NHS ten-year plan, she questioned whether this would be completed quickly and expertly enough to deal with “exponential demand” for local health services.
She added: “How can the ICB and wider NHS work with the local authority to insist that house-builders fulfil their financial obligation contributions as necessary mitigation towards healthcare services?
“Can the local NHS put additional lobbying pressure on the local authority to curb phasing of major development schemes, to avert a crisis in healthcare provision – and how will this be made a strategic priority?”
ICB chief medical officer Dr Bernie Marden said a holistic approach to local health services was needed to ensure that Bridgwater residents could access the services they needed.
Construction is currently under way on the town’s new diagnostic centre on Bower Lane, which will allow for many additional tests and scans to be carried out without patients having to travel to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.
Dr Marden said: “We are aware of the impact of local housing development on the capacity of primary care in Bridgwater.
“The level of investment achieved through the planning process is a national challenge, but we recognise that it is important that we do all we can in Somerset to support our practices.
“We use a national size guide to measure the recommended spacial capacity of a GP practice against its registered population size.
“We are aware that the number of patients currently registered at some of the local practices greatly exceeds their recommended capacity levels – and that additional housing development, and the resulting population increase, will contribute to further shortfalls in capacity.
“We have been working with Somerset Council for the impact of new housing on primary care to be recognised; however, the current system does not create any definitive link between approved planning applications and funding to provide the infrastructure.
“As the government accelerates housebuilding, it will need to find ways of managing the impact of this at a local, regional and national level.”
Dr Marden added that the ICB would be consulted on the county’s healthcare needs during the creation of the Somerset Local Plan – with the first round of public consultation expected to take place in the spring of 2026.
He said: “Hopefully, more joined-up planning can be undertaken with regards to infrastructure provision.
“In the interim, the ICB reviews each planning application made to the council and, where appropriate, applies for Section 106 funding where such developments are considered to have an impact on primary care capacity.
“Improvements have recently been made to the East Quay Medical Centre, where two new consulting rooms have been provided – and similar projects are also being supported at the Polden Medical Practice in Woolavington and other locations across the county.”