What’s Happening With the New Hospital Programme?

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11 February 2025

The government has changed its timetable for the New Hospital Programme, saying it inherited a “unfunded and undeliverable” plan from the previous government.

In 2023, the Conservative government said it was on track” to deliver their manifesto commitment to build 40 new hospitals in England by 2030, revealing extra funding for unsafe hospital buildings in England due to significant amounts of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) – a material no longer used by the NHS estate due to its limited lifespan.

However, Labour’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting has since announced that: “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 five years.”

A new delivery plan has followed, which divides projects into “wave” groups”

• Wave 0: Projects with already approved full business cases will continue as planned and are already in construction (wave 0)
• Wave 1: Projects that are expected to begin construction between 2025 and 2030. These schemes include hospitals constructed primarily using RAAC
• Wave 2: Expected to begin construction between 2030 and 2035
• Wave 3: Expected to begin construction between 2035 and 2039

Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation has called the change “a disappointing blow to NHS leaders, staff and patients across the country” but added that he welcomed “clarity from government that all the existing projects will continue and the revised timetable looks more realistic.”

He said: “While we understand the delays given the ongoing pressures on the public finances, we are concerned that the delays may lead to costs rising and some of these projects being even more expensive. That will need to be managed carefully.

“But we should be under no illusion that the scale of the capital challenges facing the NHS - laid bare in Lord Darzi’s investigation published in September - means that the New Hospital Programme could never have provided the solution on its own nor was it the ideal solution. Experience has shown that the NHP is not the best way to distribute scarce capital investment, which can be more efficiently managed by local leaders.

“More generally, the NHS continues to suffer from not having the level of capital investment it needs. The majority of NHS leaders have stressed that a lack of capital is limiting their ability to tackle backlogs and boost productivity. The extra capital funding pledged in October’s Budget was a very welcome first step to addressing these long-term issues. Now ahead of the Spending Review, NHS leaders hope the government will consider the bigger picture on capital, and particularly how changes to the way capital funding is allocated could ensure more efficient and effective spending to support its three shifts for the NHS.”

Picture: a photograph of a hospital corridor. Image Credit: Adobe Stock
 

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 11 February 2025

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