The Government has announced a new plan for a ‘realistic’ timetable to put the New Hospital Programme on track to deliver all of its hospital projects. As a result, hospital builds will be delayed by up to 14 years.
This announcement follows a review of the scheme which found that the previous Government’s commitment to deliver ‘40 new hospitals’ by 2030 was behind schedule, unfunded and therefore undeliverable.
In its annual report, published on 16th January 2025, the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) also deemed the previous scheme ‘unachievable’, rating the programme as red and highlighting major issues including with the schedule and budget. An independent IPA review upgraded the New Hospital Programme from a red to an amber rating last week, thanks to action taken to improve deliverability.
In May 2023, for example, the previous Government announced that the programme was backed by over £20 billion of investment – but this funding was never delivered.
The new Government declares that it is committed to rebuilding the NHS and to rebuilding trust in Government. The new plan is set to be backed with £15 billion of new investment over consecutive 5-year waves, averaging £3 billion a year. As with all Government capital budgets, the exact profile of funding will be confirmed in rolling 5-year waves at regular Spending Reviews.
For schemes that were out of scope of the review, those already with approved full business cases will continue as planned and are already in construction (wave 0).
The remaining schemes will be allocated to one of 3 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 as patient and staff safety is paramount
- schemes in wave 2 are expected to begin construction between 2030 and 2035
- 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.
For more information, the plan for implementation is available at: New Hospital Programme review outcome. The IPA’s assessment of the previous New Hospital Programme is available in the IPA annual report 2023 to 2024.
