Hospitals: Maintenance

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Twenty-one outline or full planning permissions have been given, which is totally on track with the target. Clearly, if some of those hospitals are not being built until, say, 2027, there would be no detailed planning permission yet. So those statistics are not representative of the situation, which shows that the programme of planning applications is on track. I am committed, as are my colleagues, to ensuring that we deliver the 40 by 2030.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, what are the Government going to do to end the ludicrous situation whereby even if NHS trusts have cash in the bank or access to the proceeds of asset disposals, they can be barred from improving major equipment on their estate because of arbitrary departmental capital expenditure limits imposed by the Treasury?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Clearly, we want to give each trust the freedom to spend where it needs to. Obviously, there are overall Treasury rules but the main thing is the increased allocation we have made available in this space. We have spent £1.4 billion in the past year, which is a 57% increase, recognising that it is a good thing to put preventive maintenance in place to get on top of the backlog.