Hopes for a new dentistry school in Norwich - to tackle Norfolk's 'dental desert' which stops people getting NHS treatment - have been handed a huge boost.
The government has announced it will fund an extra 50 undergraduate dentistry places - and there is optimism that will mean the University of East Anglia's dental school can finally be launched.
The UEA already has accreditation from the General Dental Council to provide undergraduate dental training and a £3m dentistry centre is being created in a new extension of the Edith Cavell Building at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
But the UEA needed the government to agree funding for dental places, which it has now done, instructing the Office for Students to prioritise places in areas where dentists are not being trained.
MPs of all political hues had been pressing the government to act, with a shortage of dentists meaning many people in Norfolk cannot get NHS dental treatment.
The hope is that, once the school is established and dentists trained up, some will stay to work in Norfolk.
The UEA intends to submit a bid for new dentistry training places when the Office for Students opens the process and would be ready to welcome its first students in September 2027.
Prof David Maguire, vice-chancellor of UEA, said: "UEA’s civic mission is central to our ambition for new dentistry provision.
"Training dentists locally is proven to help recruit and retain them in the region - and this region needs them urgently.
"We are grateful for the strong, cross party support of our local MPs, whose sustained advocacy has helped bring this issue to the forefront in Westminster.
"Our plans are ready and our NHS partnerships are established. If places can be allocated swiftly, on a needs based allocation, we can open applications for students to begin training with us in September 2027."
Alice Macdonald, Labour MP for Norwich North, said: "This is fantastic news. Thanks to the minister’s steer to the Office for Students, a new dental school at the University of East Anglia is closer than ever before.
"I, along with other MPs, will be continuing to work hard to get this over the line."
Jerome Mayhew, Conservative MP for Broadland and Fakenham, said: "Rural areas struggle to attract newly qualified dentists to start their careers away from cities, so training home grown talent is even more important.
"We know from the experience of the medical school at the UEA that about 40pc of newly qualified medical professionals end up working close to where they trained, yet the nearest training school for dentists is Birmingham or London."
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