The government has confirmed that all projects in the new hospital programme will be built… but not by 2030.

The government has confirmed funding and a timetable for the new hospital programme. A review of the previous Conservative government scheme to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030 has been found to be behind schedule, unfunded and therefore undeliverable.

In its annual report, published in mid-January, the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) also deemed the previous scheme “unachievable”, rating the programme as red and highlighting major issues including the schedule and budget.

“The new hospital programme we inherited was unfunded and undeliverable. Not a single new hospital was built in the past five years, and there was no credible funding plan to build 40 in the next five years,” said health and social care secretary Wes Streeting. 

Funding for new hospitals has been revamped. 

The new plan for hospitals will be funded by £15 billion of new investment in consecutive five-year waves, averaging £3 billion a year, the Labour government said. 

Provision of certainty

The new timetable, described by Streeting as “an honest, funded and deliverable programme” is detailed out to the end of 2040. The aim is, as Morag Stuart, chief programme officer for the New Hospital Programme, said to provide “certainty”. 

For schemes that were out of the scope of the review, those already with approved full business cases will continue as planned and are already under construction. 

The remaining schemes will be allocated to one of three wave groups:

Schemes in wave 1 are expected to begin construction between 2025 and 2030. These schemes include hospitals constructed primarily using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), and have been prioritised, the government said as “patient and staff safety is paramount”. 

Schemes in wave 2 are expected to begin construction between 2030 and 2035 while schemes in wave 3 are expected to begin construction between 2035 and 2039. 

Hospitals in later waves will be supported on their development and early construction work before then, to ensure that they are ready for main construction.

A disappointing blow

The news was greeted with a mixture of understanding and some scepticism. 

“It will be a disappointing blow to NHS leaders, staff and patients across the country that some of these vital hospital building projects have been delayed. But we welcome this clarity from the government that all the existing projects will continue and the revised timetable looks more realistic,” said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

The British Medical Association (BMA) was more cynical about the news. 

“The £15 billion announced isn’t enough to address all of the problems with the NHS estates or to modernise buildings to the extent that’s needed,” said Latifa Patel, chair of the representative body at the BMA. 

She pointed out that even with the additional £1 billion to help with the maintenance backlog announced earlier this year, the running total stands at £13.8 billion, with £2.7 billion of that considered high risk and urgent. 

“There’s no way these funding packages can cover both the NHP and this essential maintenance elsewhere in the NHS,” she said.