NHS asks for £2 million from planners for more doctors in Bristol's housing boom

And so far, the council planners have been saying no.An artists impression of new student accommodation on Albert Road in Bristol(Image: Cubex)

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 so that the council keeps the money itself.

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) – the 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 has 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 the council to share the millions of pounds of Community Infrastructure Levy 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, local councillor 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 council’s planners – and fund and provide new health centres to meet the growing population.

Since then, the NHS’s response during 2024 and into 2025 has been to go back to the council and ask directly for a contribution from developers, as part of the planning process – something that has so far been rebuffed by City Hall.

Bristol Live focussed on four recent major planning applications to which the NHS has most recently formally requested CIL money from the council. Those requests have come with a warning that councillors will be breaching their own policies which prevent large-scale housing development from going ahead if the local GP surgeries are already full or have no space to expand.

Two of the planning applications have already been given the go-ahead and in both, the council planning officers came up with different reasons to turn down the NHS requests. The other two – which have seen requests for even larger sums of money – are yet to be decided by the city council.

In each of the four cases, the NHS has made a submission to the planning department as a statutory consultee, with a letter jointly signed by the Head of Strategic Estates at the Integrated Care Board and by a senior town planner with the national NHS property services.

The Integrated Care Board covers Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire and oversees GP surgeries and health centres, and also involves local councils too. When they were set up they were supposed to bring together health authorities and councils to better co-ordinate the NHS with other public bodies.

But council planners have so far turned down those requests for hundreds of thousands of pounds of developer CIL money to be shared with the NHS, with more requests yet to be formally decided on.

Albert Road student flatsAn artists impression of new student accommodation on Albert Road in Bristol(Image: Cubex)

Councillors gave permission for a purpose-built student accommodation complex to be built on the St Philips side of the River Avon in January this year. The development will house 531 students close to the University of Bristol ’s forthcoming Temple Quarter campus.

The council has told developers Cubex it must pay just over £3 million in Community Infrastructure Levy, but a request from the NHS for just over a tenth of that – some £316,183 to help create more capacity for doctors’ surgeries in the area, was turned down.

During the planning process, the NHS wrote to council planners, telling them that the nearest GP surgeries were already over-capacity, including the Wells Road surgery in nearby Totterdown which was 189 per cent over-capacity.

“The development would therefore have an impact on primary healthcare provision in the area and its implications, if unmitigated, would be unsustainable,” NHS chiefs told council planners. They also warned that GP practices could apply to the Integrated Care Board to close their books and not take on any new patients, which would leave people living in new-build developments having to find GP surgeries miles away.

“There are currently no confirmed plans for primary care premises developments that would deliver additional capacity at the impacted surgeries,” the NHS bosses warned.

“It is also important to note that practices can apply to the ICB to close their list and/or modify their practice boundary. One key reason why practices may be required to do this is because of a significant lack of physical capacity to deliver services to increasing populations,” they added.

The request calculated that the NHS would need an additional £316,183 to be able to cope with the extra demand, but despite the development bringing in £3 million in CIL money, council planners said no.

In their advice to councillors when the planning application went before the committee in January this year, planning officers told councillors they didn’t think giving money to health provision was justified, and the developer themselves did not believe it was justified.

An artists impression of new student accommodation on Albert Road in Bristol(Image: Cubex)

“Nearby surgeries are listed but the report shows that they are over capacity. In spite of this however, the report concludes that these surgeries are still taking new patients and notes that there may be a new surgery as part of the University Campus.

“The applicant’s position is therefore that adequate Primary Care Infrastructure is available without the need of a financial contribution. Officers have considered this issue closely, and are aware that contributions are being explored in other parts of the city, where primary healthcare provision is being directly impacted by development,” they added.

The planners also said that currently, the NHS advice to students is to remain registered with their GP where they come from, so the demand would be lower with a student development than a regular residential one.

Councillors voted the plans through unanimously, but there were concerns about the lack of GP. Cllr Katja Hornchen (Labour, Brislington East) said: “I have strong reservations around the medical facilities. The idea that we didn’t have any complaints about this – nobody lives around there so we’re not going to get any complaints.”

Amerind GroveAn artists impression of the plans for the former Amerind Grove Nursing Home near the Tobacco Factory in Southville(Image: Alex French Architects)

Planning permission has been granted for 106 new homes – most of which would be expensive terraced homes – on the site of the former Amerind Grove care home, to the north of the Tobacco Factory in Ashton Gate.

Permission was given by planning officers themselves under delegated powers in December last year, and the report did not go before councillors at a committee.

The NHS bosses wrote to the council last year while they were considering the scheme, and said they wanted £147,407 of Community Infrastructure Levy, which will now total £535,424.

The NHS told the council the health of future residents of the development would be ‘at risk’ because the GP surgeries in the area were already over-capacity.

“The proposed development would create up to 106 new homes, generating an estimated 254 residents in the local area,” they said. “This would have a direct impact on local healthcare services and therefore will require mitigation. Without appropriate mitigation, the development would not comply with policy.

“Without appropriate healthcare mitigation, the development is unsustainable, putting future residents’ health at risk,” they added.

The Amerind Grove development is already well underway, and is located in BS3, where Bridge View Medical operates a number of doctors’ surgery sites. Over the past few years, the rapid increase in population in Bedminster, Southville and Ashton Gate has led to bosses at Bridge View Medical telling patients that, while they could hire more doctors, they didn’t have the physical capacity in terms of buildings and consulting rooms and some patients would have to travel across the river into the city centre to see their GP or nurse.

An artist's impression of part of the 106-home development on the Amerind Grove nursing home site at Raleigh Road in Southville An artist’s impression of part of the 106-home development on the Amerind Grove nursing home site at Raleigh Road in Southville(Image: The Hill Group)

But Bristol City Council turned down the NHS request, but for a different reason. “The previous use of the site as a care home included 169 bedrooms, and the loss of these has not been taken account of in the NHS request,” the council planners said.

“Neither has any consideration been made of the likelihood of some of the new residents already being local to the area and either trading up to a property in the development, moving into their first property from a parent’s house, or relocating locally due to relationship breakdowns etc.”

“Furthermore, there has been no information provided regarding plans to extend any local surgeries. It is also noted that despite the NHS stating that the relevant surgeries are currently over capacity, and not able to absorb any additional residents, the Bridge View Medical Practice are still inviting new patients to register, which would indicate that they are able to absorb additional residents.

“Whilst there may be an increase in demand for health services, there has been no assessment of what the net increase would be, taking account of the previous care home use and the likelihood of some of the new residents already being local to the area. Consequently, officers have concluded that the sum sought by the NHS cannot be justified and is not necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms,” they added.

Princess StreetThe redevelopment plans for Princess Street in Bedminster – illustration of the scheme looking across Princess Street(Image: Claridge Architects/Sam Ellis Design)

Developers have applied for planning permission to build 460 flats and a very tall PBSA building for 420 students as the first part of a wider Whitehouse Street ‘regeneration’ project, just below Victoria Park in Bedminster.

The application has not yet been decided and has received hundreds of objections, mostly about the scale and height of the buildings. When promoting the new development as the plans were unveiled, the developers said the ground floor of the buildings they are proposing will be given over to a range of different uses, including shops, cafes, businesses and – potentially – a doctors’ surgery or health centre.

But creating that would need to be paid for. The NHS has again written to the city council asking for a total of £667,201, saying that the nearest GP practices – Bridge View and Swift – could be refurbished or extended to meet demand.

This time, after being turned down last time, the NHS has come with a plan. “The contribution request is directly related to the development, being based on the proposed development, the specific population increase, and the resultant primary care floorspace requirement,” they said.

“The request is fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development, as the financial contribution is based on the capital cost of delivering the required additional capacity within the primary care estate that will be impacted by the proposed development.

“Failure to provide an appropriate contribution to ensure the delivery of health capacity to serve this new population would place unsustainable pressure on local primary healthcare infrastructure,” they warned. The council is yet to decide on the planning application and, publicly, the NHS request.

Temple Island An artist's impression of the proposed L&G development at an area known as Temple Island, south of Temple Meads station in Bristol.
An artist’s impression of the proposed L&G development at an area known as Temple Island, south of Temple Meads station in Bristol.
(Image: L&G)

A major planning application has been submitted from Legal & General to build more than 500 flats, more offices and other buildings on the site next to Temple Meads station that had been earmarked for an arena venue in the 2010s.

This time, the NHS has asked for a total of £744,521 of Community Infrastructure Levy from the city council.

“There is not sufficient existing primary healthcare capacity locally to address demand generated by the development,” they warned. Bristol City Council is currently processing this planning application, with a decision expected later this year.

NHS asks for £2 million from planners for more doctors in Bristol’s housing boom

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