The UK government’s plans to channel billions of pounds of pension fund money into domestic growth assets continues to gather momentum as the country’s biggest local government scheme teams up with the world’s largest fund manager to invest in Britain’s primary healthcare sector.
The Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) has announced a joint venture with BlackRock delivering GBP150 million of investment for NHS real estate.
The partnership is designed to drive third-party capital to upgrade, expand and develop primary healthcare centres providing frontline General Practitioner (GP) and NHS services in local communities.
Launching with a seed portfolio of 65 purpose-built primary care assets serving over 700,000 patients across England, Scotland and Wales, the joint venture is initially targeting up to a GBP1 billion portfolio of “high-quality healthcare facilities” by the end of the decade.
By leveraging the GMPF’s long-term investment horizon, the partnership aims to “expand capacity and improve access to GP services in local communities over the coming decades.”
According to figures from the Royal College of GPs, the number of open and active GP practices in England declined by approximately 15 per cent between January 2018 and July 2025, while around 20 per cent of local GP estates pre-date the founding of the NHS in 1948, which GMPF said “underlines the urgent need for much broader investment into newer, fit-for-purpose healthcare facilities”.
Councillor Eleanor Wills, Chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund, says: “Greater Manchester Pension Fund is a long-term investor, committed to deploying capital in ways that secure income to pay our members’ pensions and support essential UK infrastructure. Primary care is a vital part of our communities, yet much of the estate is ageing and no longer fit for the needs of modern healthcare delivery.”
Wills said the partnership would allow GMPF to back “high-quality, purpose-built facilities that directly align with the NHS Long Term Plan, improve patient experience, and provide stable, inflation-linked returns over decades with strong potential for growth”.
Investing in the underlying real estate, GMPF said the venture will finance refurbishment and development projects, as well as initiatives to enhance the sustainability credentials and operational resiliency of the assets.
UK Minister for Investment, Lord Stockwood, says: “With this new joint venture, Greater Manchester Pension Fund’s GBP150 million cornerstone investment into our country’s healthcare real estate will help boost provision and accessibility for hundreds of thousands of patients in local communities.”
Lord Stockwood added that financial services are a key sector in the government’s modern Industrial Strategy, and called for “greater investment from UK pension schemes into critical infrastructure projects at the heart of our communities”.
