NHS trusts’ confidence in the government’s £20bn new hospitals pledge is “on increasingly shaky ground” due to funding delays, a health leader has told Construction News.
Trust leaders are concerned schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP) will be scaled back or delayed beyond the 2030 deadline, as many are still waiting to hear what funding they will get, NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery said.
NHP programme leaders in the government are taking more than a year to approve the national business case – leaving trusts with “no clarity” on funding allocations from 2025 and 2026 onwards, trusts have reported. Uncertainty on funds has limited trusts’ ability to engage potential partners and progress the builds, Cordery added.
She also warned that planning delays at the national level were likely to compound the effects of construction cost inflation.
CN has reported in the past few weeks that two schemes expected to be complete by mid-2030 – Whipps Cross University Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital – are unlikely to be built before the deadline.
Cordery said: “Trusts in the NHP have been frustrated by delays to the programme thus far and, consequently, delays to promised benefits for patients, staff and local communities.
“A number of trusts who were already part of the NHP are deeply disappointed that their schemes will not now become reality until after 2030.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told CN: “We continue to make good progress across our New Hospital Programme, with six new hospitals already open to patients. Two more are expected to open by the end of the financial year, and another 18 are under construction or have work ongoing to prepare the sites.
“On top of the expected £20 billion for the New Hospital Programme, the government has invested £4.2 billion this financial year to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings so staff have the facilities needed to provide world-class care for patients.
“We have also provided a further £1.7 billion for over 70 hospital upgrades across England, alongside a range of nationally funded infrastructure improvements in mental health, urgent and emergency care and diagnostic capacity. We are working with each individual scheme on opportunities to progress as quickly as possible.”
Cordery’s comments come after NHS Providers chief executive Julian Hartley hit out at “delay, indecision and soaring costs” on Wednesday (15 May).
He warned that some NHS trusts in the programme were spending upwards of £1m every month on repairs,
Hartley said: “As we head towards a general election, trust leaders want a cast-iron commitment from all political parties to an NHS infrastructure programme that meets the needs of hospitals, mental health, community and ambulance services.
“Patients, hard-working NHS staff and taxpayers deserve nothing less.”
The government pledged £3.7bn to build 40 hospitals by 2030 in October 2020. The schemes were split into five cohorts based on when construction was expected to complete.
Several schemes announced in the first cohort were already underway, including two builds delayed by the 2018 collapse of Carillion: the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Midland Metropolitan Hospital.
In May 2023, the government admitted eight of the hospitals in the scheme would not be built by 2030. It added five hospitals affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) into the programme and increased the financial commitment to £20bn over the projects’ lifetimes.
At the same time, the government announced it would look to standardise hospital design to save time and money, in a policy dubbed “Hospital 2.0”.
Last July, the National Audit Office (NAO) said the government had not engaged enough with construction companies over the new plans.
An NAO report said: “Delays in developing Hospital 2.0 and in agreeing programme funding have constrained NHP’s ability to engage with the industry and provide it with detailed information on the commercial pipeline and Hospital 2.0.”
It also raised concerns about the availability of contractors capable of large hospital builds, and about a shortage of factory capacity to manufacture offsite building components to fulfil the programme’s focus on modern methods of construction.
Cordery also warned of the scale of the country’s crumbling health infrastructure beyond the scope of the NHP.
She said: “Welcome as the promised investment of the NHP is, the programme alone isn’t enough to meet the capital funding needs of the NHS.
“Every one of the 100 trusts which bid for the final eight places on the NHP still need vital capital investment to overhaul ageing estates.”
NHS Providers is a voluntary, member-led organisation for NHS trusts.
