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The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has today called on Labour to “explicitly account” for national living wage and national minimum wage increases when negotiating future community pharmacy funding settlements.

Repeating its call for pharmacies to be exempted from business rates, the NPA referenced the results of its survey last month which showed the national living wage had “added to existing financial pressures” for 90 per cent of independent pharmacies.

Sixty-six per cent of independents who responded to the survey said “wage inflation” had forced them to reduce their opening hours and staffing.

The NPA also urged the Low Pay Commission, which advises the Government on the level of the national minimum wage and national living wage, to review the impact of wage increases on pharmacies in deprived, rural and “high need” parts of the country “where closures would worsen health inequalities”.

The NPA gave evidence to the Low Pay Commission’s consultation of the increasing pressure wage increases are heaping on financially stretched pharmacies. The Low Pay Commission is considering its recommendations on minimum wage rates for 2027. The national living wage rose by 4.1 per cent to £12.71 in April.

NPA chair Olivier Picard said pharmacies “should be regarded as a special case because of the particular constraints on us in relation to generating revenue to pay for rising costs”.

“Community pharmacy is being asked to deliver ever more clinical care and absorb more demand from general practice and hospitals, while our cost base continues to rise,” he said.

“Whilst supporting fair pay for pharmacy staff, the NPA has told the Low Pay Commission that pharmacies cannot easily pass wage inflation onto consumers, as the majority of the income pharmacies receive is from set NHS funding.”

Picard said the evidence the NPA gave the Low Pay Commission was "persuasive” because it “is rooted in the challenging realities of the pharmacy frontline”.