The £56bn New Hospital Programme, which includes the remediation and replacement of hospitals built with Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC), is set to miss its original 2030 deadline, with some projects now expected to overrun by several years.
According to a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO), RAAC hospital remediation projects are likely to be delayed by between two and three years. While this represents a significant setback for estates identified as critical safety priorities, the watchdog says the programme is now on a firmer footing following a major reset under the current government.
The NAO states that the final hospitals within the programme are now expected to be completed in the 2045–46 period, more than a decade later than initially pledged. However, it adds that improved governance and clearer delivery plans have increased confidence among contractors and the wider supply chain.
The report highlights that the programme reset has improved certainty for construction partners, but warns that delivery remains finely balanced. With tight schedules and limited alternatives available, the next five years will need to see minimal errors, delays or cost increases if further slippage is to be avoided. The NAO notes that overly ambitious timetables were a key factor behind earlier delays to RAAC hospital projects.
Despite these risks, industry interest remains strong. Around 20 contractors and 16 firms have been shortlisted to participate in the programme, including major players such as Bam, McLaren and Morgan Sindall.
Andy Morrison, who directed the NAO report, said: “The programme to upgrade and build new hospitals is now on a more realistic timetable. The final hospitals to be completed will be in 2046.
“However, despite being priorities, hospitals built with Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC) are now not expected to be replaced until 2032-33.
“Standardised hospital designs plan to have single rooms and be digitally enabled, offering potential savings and a stronger market for contractors. But these benefits depend on robust programme oversight.
“Staff will also need to buy-in to operational changes for hospitals to achieve efficiencies and improvements in patient care.”
The New Hospital Programme was originally announced by then prime minister Boris Johnson in 2019, with a headline commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. It later emerged that this figure included refurbishments and extensions to existing hospitals, rather than 40 entirely new builds, prompting criticism over how the pledge had been presented.
Further scrutiny revealed that, under the original plans, funding for the programme would have been exhausted by March 2025, leaving later projects without confirmed financial backing.
Under the revised approach, HM Treasury will now fund hospital construction in five-year investment waves. Each wave is expected to increase by £15bn, reaching an average annual spend of £3bn per year from 2030 onwards. While this model provides longer-term certainty, it also means the overall programme completion date has moved to more than 10 years beyond the original target.
Secretary of state for health and social care Wes Streeting was highly critical of the programme’s condition when he took office, saying: “I was shocked by what I found on entering the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The programme was hugely delayed, by several years more than had already been revealed by the National Audit Office. Most shocking of all, the funding for the programme was due to run out in March of this year, with no provision for future years whatsoever. The money simply was not there. The programme was built on the shaky foundation of false hope and without the confirmed funding these building projects could not be delivered, let alone delivering them all in the next 5 years.
“If I was shocked by the state of this programme, patients ought to be furious. Not only because the promises made to them were never going to be kept. They also desperately need new buildings and new hospitals.”
While the NAO acknowledges that the reset has improved the programme’s credibility, it warns that sustained political focus, tight cost control and strong oversight will be essential if the government is to deliver safer, modern hospitals and address the ongoing risks posed by RAAC across the NHS estate.
