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New Hospital Programme: Plan for Implementation

On 20 January 2025, the government confirmed funding and a realistic timetable to put the New Hospital Programme on track to deliver all its hospital projects. This provides certainty on the next steps for the New Hospital Programme.

The Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care: Following the 2024 General Election, the Chancellor and I set out to undertake a review of the New Hospital Programme (NHP) to provide a realistic and affordable timetable for delivery.

The NHP was announced in October 2020 to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. Despite the claim, there were not 40 ‘new’ schemes and some were just refurbishments or extensions. To put it simply - there were not 40 of them, they were not all new and many were not even hospitals.

The spin that had been applied to the programme was widely known before the election. But even knowing that, I was shocked by what I found on entering the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The programme was hugely delayed, by several years more than had already been revealed by the National Audit Office. Most shocking of all, the funding for the programme was due to run out in March of this year, with no provision for future years whatsoever. The money simply was not there. The programme was built on the shaky foundation of false hope and without the confirmed funding these building projects could not be delivered, let alone delivering them all in the next 5 years.

If I was shocked by the state of this programme, patients ought to be furious. Not only because the promises made to them were never going to be kept. They also desperately need new buildings and new hospitals.

The NHS is quite literally crumbling. I have visited hospitals where the roof has fallen in, pipes regularly leak and even freeze over in winter. As Lord Darzi found in his investigation, the NHS was starved of capital in the 2010s, with £37 billion under-investment over the 2010s. This lack of investment meant the UK construction sector did not have the appetite and capacity to build the number of concurrent hospitals required to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030 when this promise was made. Delivery is dependent on providing certainty to develop relationships and secure investments in the supply chain which would ensure this vital hospital infrastructure is realised.

This review was launched for 2 reasons. First, to put the programme on a firm footing with sustainable funding, so all the projects can be delivered. Second, to give patients an honest, realistic, deliverable timetable in which they can have confidence.

This government is committed to rebuilding our NHS and to rebuilding trust in government. We will never play fast and loose with the public finances or with the public’s trust.

Following the review into the NHP, and the funding secured through the Spending Review, we are now publishing a credible plan and timeline to deliver the new hospital schemes.

Working closely with colleagues in HM Treasury (HMT), we have secured 5-year waves of investment, ensuring that there is always a balanced portfolio of hospital schemes at different development stages being delivered now and into the future. This is the most efficient and cost-effective way of giving our NHS the buildings it needs, giving the construction sector the certainty it needs to deliver. We are backing this plan with investment which will increase up to £15 billion over each consecutive 5-year wave, averaging around £3 billion a year from 2030.

I would rather take tough decisions which are the right decisions for the future, than lead patients up a garden path once more only for them to be let down again. Alongside record levels of capital investment - £13.6 billion next year, including the NHP - we have now put the NHP on a sustainable footing, with a timeline that can be met and a budget that is consistent with the fiscal rules under which the government is operating. My commitment to you is that we will deliver these hospitals and rebuild our NHS.

Source and full details:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome/new-hospital-programme-plan-for-implementation#foreword

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