The Liberal Democrats are calling for GP investment to be guaranteed on every new development.

 Across the UK, research has shown that GP surgeries serve an extra 917 homes each since 2015 – a 30% increase. Between 2015 and 2025, an eye-watering 1327 practices closed across the UK, including a practice in Westbourne.

The Liberal Democrats are proposing that developers be required to fund or build new, or expand existing, GP surgeries in time for the arrival of new residents, with developer levies used to pay for them to be staffed while new residents are still moving in. This is part of the Liberal Democrats’ infrastructure-first approach to development, and supports their campaign to rescue General Practice and ensure everyone can get an appointment within 7 days, or 24 hours if urgent.

Developers would be required not only to fund new facilities but also to guarantee the GP surgery contract (or the cost of salaried GPs) while new residents are still moving in. This would ensure new residents don’t have to turn to over-stretched existing GPs, and new practices can be viable from the outset.

Delivery of health services has been found to be integral for public trust, with recent LSE research finding that where GP provision has declined and more surgeries have closed, support for the extreme right has risen.

Member of Parliament for Chichester, Jess Brown-Fuller said:

"Anyone trying to register with a GP in this constituency right now knows how overstretched our surgeries already are. Langley House can't take new patients. Westbourne has lost its surgery altogether. And yet development continues to be approved without any guarantee that the healthcare infrastructure will follow.

What happened at Minerva Heights is a warning. A health centre was promised as part of the plans, and instead residents will be relying on practices that are already at capacity. That cannot happen again."