Oral Answers to Questions

Clive Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the time taken to deliver the new hospital programme on maintenance costs across the NHS estate.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

22. What progress his Department has made on the implementation of the new hospital programme.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

In January we published an honest, realistic and deliverable plan that puts the programme on a sustainable footing, ensuring that taxpayers get the maximum value for money. We are committed to delivering all the schemes and are moving at pace, with funding in place for design work, construction and business case development. Outside the new hospital programme, we are investing £30 billion in day-to-day maintenance repairs of the NHS estate across this spending review period.

--- Later in debate ---

[Karin Smyth]

I think that the Conservatives’ constituents know exactly what their promises were built on: sand. That is why there are very few Conservative Members in the House and a lot of Members on the Labour Benches. We took hold of the programme and put it on a sustainable and credible footing, and we will deliver it.

[Clive Jones]

Frimley Park hospital is in wave 1 of the new hospital programme, with construction expected to start in 2028-29. Many of my constituents use the hospital, and they are rightly concerned about possible delays to its build, especially with the issue of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Patients and staff cannot be expected to work in an unsafe environment longer than necessary, if at all. Will the Minister reassure my constituents and confirm that the construction on Frimley Park hospital will begin no later than 2029?

[Karin Smyth]

The hon. Gentleman is an assiduous campaigner on behalf of Royal Berkshire hospital and now of Frimley Park hospital. I met with Members of Parliament last week who are involved in the RAAC schemes, which are progressing to plan. We are absolutely on target with progressing that plan, and we look forward to the proposals coming through from the local integrated care board.