The Autumn Budget 2025, delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, marks a shift towards longer term planning for health and care, with renewed emphasis on neighbourhood working, digital foundations and system productivity. Analysis from The King’s Fund and its response to the Budget highlights that while the settlement may help the NHS “keep its head above water,” questions remain about whether funding and capacity are sufficient to match rising demand.

A headline commitment is the government’s NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme, which will deliver new and refurbished Neighbourhood Health Centres across England. Government statements confirm plans for more than 100 centres by 2030, delivered through a mix of repurposed estate and new builds, with the explicit aim of moving more care closer to home and co-locating multidisciplinary teams. This reinforces the direction set out in broader neighbourhood policy and integrated care reforms, signalling that working at neighbourhood scale is becoming the norm rather than the exception.

The Budget also earmarks capital for digital infrastructure, including funding for NHS technology upgrades and digital pathways. According to the Health Foundations budget briefing, around £300 million for NHS digital improvements tied to this agenda, with a focus on modern telephony, shared records and infrastructure that can support automation and data-driven care. These ambitions align with NHS England’s wider guidance on digital primary care and recent updates on primary care IT and service development funding.

However, both The King’s Fund and other commentators caution that technology alone will not deliver the promised benefits. Digital infrastructure and neighbourhood centres sit against a backdrop of tight revenue growth and ongoing workforce strain, as highlighted in recent analysis of the 2025 Spending Review. Without sustained investment in people, realistic implementation plans and deliberate action on digital inclusion, there is a risk that new funding could entrench rather than reduce inequalities.

For practices, several implications stand out:

• Increasing pressure to strengthen financial resilience and make targeted investment decisions, particularly as capital and development funds such as the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund are channelled through ICSs and ICBs.
• An expectation to evidence neighbourhood-level impact, especially in addressing access, long term condition management and inequalities, as Neighbourhood Health Centres and local compacts become key delivery vehicles.
• A stronger focus on data, transparent reporting and quality improvement, as systems shift towards fewer but more meaningful metrics to judge performance and value.

These themes, such as financial sustainability, neighbourhood collaboration and data-driven improvement, sit at the heart of the Best Practice London 2026 programme. GP leaders and practice teams will explore how national commitments from the Budget can be translated into day-to-day delivery and longer-term strategy in primary care.