Frustration among MPs as £900m Hampshire hospital delayed again
Work on the site in Basingstoke won't now begin until at least 2037
Last updated 21st Jan 2025
MPs across the South have responded with frustration to the news that a new £900 million hospital building planned for Hampshire has been delayed again.
The improvements at the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital were part of a proposal to build 40 new hospitals across the UK, first announced by the previous Conservative government in 2019.
They had been due to be completed in 2032.
But Health Secretary Wes Streeting has now set out a new timetable which would see the works pushed back to 2037 and potentially as far as 2039.
Mr Streeting said the new timetable was "honest, funded and can actually be delivered".
He added: "It is a serious, credible plan to build the hospitals our NHS needs."
Luke Murphy, who represents Basingstoke for Labour, said he was 'disappointed and angry' at the decision.
"Basingstoke needs a new hospital. We’re a growing town, with health demand increasing by the day, and the current hospital building does not allow for the standard of healthcare that people in our area both need and deserve."
He also repeated a claim from Mr Streeting, that the previous administration was reponsible for causing the delay.
"Today’s announcement confirms the truth - the Conservatives’ so called ‘new hospital programme’ was a sham from the start and they, and my predecessor (former Conservative MP Maria Miller) outright lied to the public."
The move would see the downgrading of accident and emergency and maternity services at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.
The city's Liberal Democrat MP, Danny Chambers, also accused the Tories of making 'false promises' on the hospitals to win votes.
Speaking in the Commons on Monday (January 21st), he said:
"I’ve fought tirelessly to save and improve Winchester’s A&E and the consultant-led maternity.
"Now, with the announcement that the construction of a proposed new hospital in Hampshire won’t even be started until between 2037 and 2039, we absolutely need to ensure that the current services are invested in and improved so that they remain fit for purpose.
"Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, given that the hospital programme was delayed, this means it is more urgent than ever to increase capacity by fixing social care.
"So that those who are well enough to leave hospital can be cared for in the community, thus freeing up beds immediately. We cannot endure both insufficient social care packages and crumbling hospitals."
Conservative figures also weighed in, with former minister and East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds describing it as a 'terrible blow' for those using Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.
"We assume from what he says today that come the spending review, the Government will be setting out detailed capital budgets stretching into the 2040s.
"But can he tell us in the meantime, what his announcement today does to his projection for operating costs, for repairs and maintenance cost, and the provision of stopgap facilities where they're needed?"
Health Secretary Wes Streeting replied:
"Given (Mr Hinds) served in the cabinet under successive Conservative governments, I think he's got some brass neck frankly, turning up today complaining in the way that he has.
"He wants to talk about the costs being greeted upon the country, he should look in the mirror at the costs that he and his colleagues in government lumbered on this country when they imposed over a decade of austerity, of Truss-enomics, or the worst sort of kamikaze ideological project that this country has experienced in modern times."