Just 30% of ’40 new hospitals’ promised by Tories has full planning permission

Just 30% of the 40 ‘new’ hospitals promised by the Tories has secured full planning permission, research suggests.

Just one of the genuinely new hospitals promised in 2019 has opened since the pledge was made, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. Rishi Sunak’s manifesto, launched on Tuesday, repeats the pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030, despite little evidence the Government is on track to deliver on time.

Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, branded the pledge “a cynical lie from a desperate party.”

Of the 20 trusts with projects in the ’40 new hospitals’ pledge that responded to Freedom of Information requests – just 6 said they had full planning permission. A further five said they had outline planning permission, or had the project included in a local planning framework.

The National Audit Office has previously deemed only 11 of the 32 sites announced by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) in October 2020 are actually “whole new hospitals” – with the remainder being upgrades, rebuilds or refurbishments. Of those 11, just one – the Dyson Cancer Centre, in Bath – has been completed and opened.

Last month this newspaper revealed some hospitals could be five years late in being completed. Ms Cooper said: “ Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives must think that the voters are fools. This cut-and-paste promise from 2019 comes straight from Boris Johnson ’s playbook and we all know they can’t deliver it.

“They’ve built one hospital in five years and not even started on many others, yet somehow expect people to believe another 39 will magically appear. This is a cynical lie from a desperate party. The best way to get a real local champion who will fight for them, their local services and the NHS is to vote Liberal Democrat.”