Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Acknowledged
New Hospital Programme expanded to 48 schemes, incorporating HIP and pre-existing projects.
Conclusion
DHSC launched a major capital investment programme, the Health Infrastructure Plan (HIP), in 2019. It comprised 27 schemes, all of which joined NHP in 2020. When one of the HIP schemes was split into five separate schemes, the total number grew to 31. An additional scheme (Shotley Bridge Hospital) was then added, making 32 new hospital schemes in the original NHP announcement. A further eight unspecified new hospital schemes were also promised.61 To bring the total schemes under NHP’s management to 48, eight pre-existing schemes were also moved into the programme.62
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the committee's summary by providing background on the deteriorating NHS estate, the commitment to build 40 new hospitals by 2030, and the establishment and funding of the New Hospital Programme to address these issues.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The NHS in England has around 1,500 hospitals, where most emergency and elective care occurs. The NHS estate contains many old buildings, and its condition has been deteriorating, with some 43% built before 1985, and 15% pre-dating the NHS itself. The value of the total maintenance backlog in NHS hospitals (that is, the estimated cost of restoring all its buildings to an appropriate state) had reached £10.2 billion in 2021–22, compared with £4.7 billion in 2013–14. In 2020, the government committed to build 40 new hospitals by 2030, as well as completing eight schemes that were already in construction or pending final approval. DHSC set up the New Hospital Programme (NHP) to deliver this commitment. Where hospital construction schemes had previously been funded centrally but delivered locally by NHS trusts, NHP would take a new approach, managing projects as a portfolio and standardising processes and designs with the aspiration, once fully implemented, of making significant time and cost savings in the development of new hospitals. HM Treasury initially provided funding of £3.7 billion for the period to 2024–25. In early 2023, it set an indicative maximum for capital funding of £18.5 billion for 2025–26 to 2030–31, taking the total to £22.2 billion (though the amount is subject to future spending reviews).