Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will dispose Bootham Park Hospital to (a) the local authority and (b) other groups.

Bootham Park Hospital was declared surplus to National Health Service operational requirements in 2017 and was fully vacated in 2018. The NHS Property Services (NHSPS), which owns and manages the site, is required to dispose of surplus assets in accordance with HM Treasury's Managing Public Money, Cabinet Office heritage guidance, and its mandate to achieve best value to enable reinvestment into the NHS. Bootham Park Hospital is no longer suitable for healthcare use and has been classified as surplus to requirement for the provision of healthcare.

If public sector bodies such as a local authority wish to purchase a property from the NHSPS to facilitate the delivery of alternative public services from the building, they would be able to register their interest and make an offer. When disposing of surplus healthcare assets, all such sites are expected to be advertised to public sector bodies before wider marketing activity commences. If there is no economically viable expression of interest from another public sector body, then it is up to the NHSPS to determine the most appropriate marketing strategy to deliver the best value from the sale, in accordance with requirements set out HM Treasury’s guidance on Managing Public Money.

The NHSPS engaged with City of York Council and other public sector bodies through the One Public Estate programme, during which no viable public sector use was identified. In October 2023, the NHSPS formally invited bids via a tender process following the withdrawal of a prospective purchaser from the sale process. No bids were received from City of York Council or any other public sector bodies in that or any earlier sale process.

The NHSPS has subsequently entered negotiations with private sector parties and agreed the terms for sale to a purchaser with planning consent in place, which will see the site converted for retirement living. The sale has been structured to deliver best value while securing a range of public benefits.

The agreed disposal arrangements include substantial community and public benefits as part of the redevelopment proposals. Financially, the transaction sale proceeds will be reinvested directly into the NHS estate. Disposal of the property in its current form for public sector or community ownership would not deliver these benefits, neither would releasing this site as a community asset to the City of York.