Millions trapped in defibrillator deserts as lifesaving devices remain out of reach

New analysis by the Heart Restart Tax campaign reveals that more than 16 million people in England and Wales face a potentially fatal race to reach their nearest defibrillator available 24 hours a day.

More than 16 million people in England and Wales live at least 500 metres from their nearest publicly accessible defibrillator available around the clock, according to new analysis by the Heart Restart Tax campaign.

That means somebody sent to retrieve the device could face a round trip of at least one kilometre - roughly ten minutes at a brisk walking pace.

For someone in cardiac arrest, that delay could be the difference between life and death.

With the exception of the City of London, every local authority studied has residents who face a round trip of this length to reach their nearest registered 24/7 defibrillator. In some parts of the country, most residents are dangerously far from a device they can rely on being available in an emergency.

A national network of defibrillator desert

The research mapped public defibrillators registered on The Circuit, the national database run by the British Heart Foundation, against postcode-level population data.

It examined two different measures of access.

First, the campaign assessed how many people live within 250 metres of any registered public defibrillator. This was used as a practical proxy for guidance that a device should be within a three-to-five-minute brisk walk in an emergency.

The analysis estimates that 35 million people in England and Wales are not within recommended reach of a registered public defibrillator.

It then looked specifically at devices registered as available 24 hours a day.

This showed that more than 16 million people live at least 500 metres from their nearest 24/7 defibrillator, leaving somebody trying to retrieve it facing a journey of at least one kilometre there and back.

The distinction matters. A defibrillator may appear nearby on a map but be kept inside a workplace, shop, sports club or other building that is locked at night, at weekends or outside normal opening hours.

When a cardiac arrest happens, a device that cannot be reached is no help at all.

Every minute without treatment matters

A cardiac arrest is one of the most time-critical medical emergencies. The heart has stopped pumping blood around the body, and immediate CPR and defibrillation are needed to give the person the best chance of survival.

There are more than 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK each year, but fewer than one in ten people survive. Early CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chance of survival.

A ten-minute round trip to retrieve a device could therefore use up the entire period in which emergency treatment is most likely to work.

Where somebody lives - and whether their nearest device is unlocked - should not determine whether they survive.

The problem goes far beyond rural communities

The findings show that defibrillator deserts are not confined to remote or isolated areas.

In 264 of the 318 local authority areas studied, more than half of residents are estimated not to live within the recommended three-to-five-minute reach of a registered public defibrillator.

Major towns and cities with particularly low estimated coverage include:

Local Authority	Residents within recommended reach (3-5min)	Estimated residents not covered
Medway	27%	204,403
Luton	29%	160,383
Birmingham	29%	808,302
Walsall	30%	200,410
Coventry	31%	239,113

In Birmingham alone, nearly half a million people are estimated to live more than 500 metres from their nearest 24/7 defibrillator. In Harlow, more than seven in ten residents face a round trip of at least ten minutes to retrieve one.

Some areas perform considerably better, but even many of the stronger-performing towns and cities leave tens of thousands of people outside quick reach. The research reveals a widespread national access gap, not a handful of isolated blackspots.

Communities should not be taxed for saving lives

The British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) is leading the Heart Restart Tax campaign, calling on the Government to remove VAT from defibrillators, replacement pads and batteries.

Community groups, grassroots sports clubs, small businesses and local venues often have to raise thousands of pounds to install and maintain these lifesaving devices.

VAT makes that task harder. It means money raised by volunteers and local residents to protect their communities is instead returned to the Treasury.

Removing the tax would make it more affordable to place defibrillators in the communities that need them most and help close the dangerous gaps exposed by this research.

Where you live should never decide whether you survive a cardiac arrest.

Sign the petition to scrap the defibrillator tax

About the analysis

The analysis used February 2026 defibrillator-location data from The Circuit, alongside Office for National Statistics postcode information and postcode-level population estimates derived from the 2021 Census.

For the wider coverage analysis, each postcode centroid located within 250 metres of a registered public defibrillator was treated as being within quick reach. Population estimates were then used to calculate the number of people likely to be covered and not covered.

The separate 24/7 analysis identified postcodes located at least 500 metres from the nearest defibrillator registered as available around the clock. Residents in those postcodes were treated as facing a round trip of at least one kilometre to retrieve a device, equivalent to a 10-minute brisk walk.

The results are modelled estimates rather than a door-to-door audit. They use straight-line distances and do not account for every real-world obstacle, including road crossings, railway lines, locked gates, indirect walking routes or whether a device with restricted access is available at the time of an emergency.

Because of these limitations, the analysis is more likely to overstate than understate how easily people can reach a defibrillator in practice.