Revealed: Eight ‘new hospitals’ delayed until next decade

Ministers are expected to announce around £20bn of capital funding for the NHP by the end of this decade, against the £32bn of central funding that programme leaders said was required.

All schemes within the “40 new hospitals” pledge were supposed to be completed by 2030, according to the Conservative manifesto and subsequent statements, but the announcement means eight schemes will now come later.

Health secretary Steve Barclay has confirmed the schemes being pushed back are; St Mary’s/Charing Cross/Hammersmith Hospitals (Imperial); Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC)/Nottingham City Hospital; Royal Preston Hospital; Royal Lancaster Infirmary/Furness General; East Sussex Hospitals; Hampshire Hospitals; Royal Berkshire; and North Devon District Hospital.

However, work is expected to continue on their business cases so they have funding certainty, alongside enabling works.

This is because five hospitals with unsafe (RAAC) structures – Airedale, Frimley, Mid Cheshire, Hinchingbrooke and Kings Lynn – are being added to the programme and prioritised, as has been expected for several months. Two hospitals with RAAC roofs that were in “cohort four” – West Suffolk and James Paget – will also move into “cohort three” for delivery before 2030.

HSJ also understands the eight previous frontrunner schemes – Leeds; North Manchester; Barts; Hillingdon; Leicester; Epsom and St Helier; Princess Alexandra; and West Hertfordshire - will be prioritised for completion before the end of the decade.

The government will argue it is still meeting the pledge to deliver 40 new hospitals, by saying the eight schemes pushed back until after 2030 have been replaced by the five RAAC projects, as well as three mental health facilties that were part of wider capital plans.

The funding envelope to the end of the decade includes the £3.7bn already announced in 2020, some of which has already been spent.

The NHP was set up to manage projects nationally in 2020. The programme originally included 32 new projects and eight pre-existing schemes.

There have been around 120 bids from trusts to win places on the programme, but the five RAAC schemes are the only projects to have been added.

It is planned for the NHP to become a rolling programme beyond 2030. However, Labour has said it would review the government’s capital spending plans if it wins power.