Vet bill night tax: Owners urged to speak out as campaigners demand Budget action
Pet owners are being urged to share their experience of inflated veterinary bills at night clinics owned by corporate vet groups, as campaigners warn reforms originally intended to lower vet bills will instead pile more costs on independent vets and the families and animals who depend on them.
The Progressive Veterinary Association (PVA) is appealing for owners to come forward if their animals were excluded from care as a result of the high costs they faced when their pet fell ill at night. The price of emergency consultations has risen from around £100 ten years ago, to £336 at a corporate practice today - an increase of 236%. Despite this the CMA made no attempt to put a mandatory cap on prices.
With the Chancellor due to deliver the Budget on Wednesday, October 28, the association wants the affordability of veterinary care pushed to the heart of the political agenda.
The PVA is demanding that ministers listen to pet owners who face such bills and the independent vets trying to keep treatment affordable and within reach of the average member of the public.
The campaign follows two online webinars last week examining the Competition and Markets Authority’s veterinary market investigation and the implications of its Orders for independent practices.
The PVA warns that additional administration, demands on vets’ time and regulatory fees can only increase financial pressure on independent practices, leaving them little option but to go out of business, or put bills up for owners already struggling with the cost of living.
Iain McGill, director of the PVA, said: “Despite repeated requests, the CMA has not identified a single aspect of its Orders that will reduce costs for independent practices, such that they might compete effectively or lower bills for pet owners. It is shocking that they haven’t even considered this, yet still expect prices to go down”.
"The CMA has acknowledged that its Orders will add costs for practices through administration, loss of vets’ time and RCVS fees. It also acknowledged that its proposed remedies forcing independent practices to promote the online medicine sales of their corporate competitors via mandatory posters will result in loss of income for independents. McGill said: lt’s like your corner shop having to put up notices stating ‘your tomatoes may be significantly cheaper at Aldi’. It’s an ill-considered and preposterous remedy that quite frankly beggars belief.”
The CMA found that five of the corporate practices were on average 18.3% more expensive than independents. McGill commented that: “The CMA has no intention of informing owners that indy practices are cheaper, or indeed telling owners who actually owns their local vet practice - instead deliberately allowing corporations to hide their true corporate identity behind misleading brand names and strap lines. Its remedies clearly aim to make Indy practices more expensive so they lose their price advantage over the corporates”.
The PVA claims that when the CMA was faced with an easy measure to reduce costs for practices and owners alike, it failed to mandate the use of human generic drugs by vets, which could save practices and pet owners between 50 and 90% on their drug bills. The PVA claims that instead of slashing medicine bills, the CMA listened to those with a vested interest in keeping those bills expensive, and failed to act, adding: ‘In a cost-of-living crisis this is a treacherous dereliction of duty by the CMA and works directly against the interests of the British people.’
The PVA wants to hear owners’ accounts of the veterinary ‘night tax’, to help bring the issue to the attention of MPs and the media, alongside evidence from veterinary professionals.
McGill said: “Independent vets deserve the chance to explain directly how the CMA’s Orders will affect their practices and the pet owners and animals who rely on them. Our Budget campaign will bring those experiences to MPs and the media, and press for decisions that take affordability and the future of independent veterinary care seriously.”
The campaign comes as the RSPCA has also called for veterinary affordability to be made a Budget priority.
According to the PVA’s campaign briefing, the charity’s pre-Budget appeal, launched on Monday, October 26, calls for the removal of VAT from emergency veterinary care, support for pet food banks and government action to tackle animal poverty.
The RSPCA also urges ministers to place animal protection and the prevention of abuse within the debate about household financial pressures.
The PVA claims that all these problems arise from the formal Strategic Steer given to the CMA in 2025 during Keir Starmer’s administration.
This placed an over-riding duty on the CMA to increase GDP - in this case by increasing public and practice spend. The CMA’s former value-for-money duty was demoted by Mr Starmer, and for other regulators too. The over-riding duty of ‘growth’ for regulators has put costs up across the board, leading to higher utility and vet bills in a vain attempt to refloat the economy using the hard-earned cash of the public.
The PVA says it “wants to put affordability at the centre of the CMA and other regulators’ agenda, so that they work for the public and small British businesses instead of the foreign billionaires they currently serve”. The PVA wants the Government to consider whether a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN) is warranted to break up existing monopolies.
McGill used the webinars to update veterinary professionals on the association’s ongoing legal and procedural challenge to the CMA.
The watchdog, however, maintains that its reforms will strengthen competition, improve transparency and help owners manage the cost of caring for their pets.
Its final veterinary services Order was published in September, with measures being introduced in phases. The reforms include clearer pricing information and advance written estimates for higher-cost treatment. Smaller veterinary businesses have longer to implement changes.
The PVA is urging independent veterinary professionals to view the webinar and communicate their CMA concerns to media and MPs, as well as asking pet owners to speak out about the financial realities of seeking care at night for the animal they love.
The webinar is available to view HERE
Get in touch with the PVA by emailing iain.mcgill@pva.vet
