In total, the 2025/26 uplift represents a 15% increase in government spending on the previous year, higher than the record 5.8% growth in the total NHS budget.

On top of this, the government is writing off £193m of debt for community pharmacy owners.

The investment comes alongside reforms to deliver a raft of patient benefits, as part of the government's agenda to shift the focus of care from hospitals into the community, these include:

• Making the ‘morning-after pill' available free of charge at pharmacies on the NHS for the first time ever, ending the postcode lottery women face in accessing the medicine and reducing inequalities
• Offering patients suffering depression convenient support at pharmacies when they are prescribed antidepressants, to boost mental health support in the community
• Cutting red tape and bureaucracy to give patients easier access to consultations, with more of the pharmacy team able to deliver a wider number of services
• Boosting financial incentives for pharmacists to identify patients with undiagnosed high blood pressure and take pressure off GPs
• Boosting funding for medicine supply so patients have better access to the medicines prescribed for them. This includes writing off the historic debt linked to dispensing activity during the pandemic and increasing fees linked to dispensing prescriptions.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock said: ‘This package of record investment and reform is a vital first step to getting community pharmacies back on their feet and fit for the future.

‘The agreement shows how this government is working in partnership with community pharmacy to deliver more care for patients closer to their home, freeing up GP appointments, and catching ill-health earlier and preventing it in the first place.'

Community Pharmacy England chief executive, Janet Morrison, said: ‘We came to these negotiations as a sector in crisis – with the impact of a decade's worth of real-terms cuts to funding leaving pharmacy businesses fighting to survive, and closures continuing at an alarming rate.

‘We are pleased that this settlement takes a positive first step in the right direction for pharmacies, towards stabilisation and a better future. A sustainable community pharmacy sector can and must play a huge part in the future of the NHS.'

In response, Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said: ‘The Government inherited an intolerable situation after more than a decade of real terms cuts and today's settlement is a step forward. However, the truth is that because of a decade of neglect it also falls a long way short of the NHS's own estimates of the true cost of providing pharmacy services so we stand ready to work with ministers to close the funding gap, reform the system and deliver the sustainable, stronger pharmacy service that millions of people need so much.

‘The NPA has tirelessly campaigned tirelessly to build an unprecedented profile for pharmacies and the crisis that has engulfed our sector. Although there is a long way to go, we're pleased ministers are beginning to recognise the scale of the problem and the risks of inaction.'