Today, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care made a statement to Parliament on the New Hospital Programme and the commitment to deliver 40 hospitals by 2030. He pledged a spend of £20billion pounds to the national programme and announced that all Cohort 3 schemes, of which Leeds is one, are funded and able to proceed. You can access his full speech on the Government website here.
In response to his statement, Professor Phil Wood, Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We’re delighted by the announcement today by the Secretary of State for Health that confirms the New Hospitals Programme cohort 3 schemes, of which Leeds is one, are fully funded and will be delivered by 2030.This is fantastic news for the people of Leeds and our wider region.
“Our new hospital scheme includes plans for a new adult’s hospital, a new home for Leeds Children’s Hospital and the UK’s largest single-site maternity centre. The new development will be a catalyst to regenerate part of the city centre, creating an Innovation Village that will generate 4,000 new jobs and provide an economic boost of almost £13billion to our region.
“Our enabling works are already complete and we have secured outline planning permission which puts us in a strong position and ready to go.
“The LGI site is a complex, landlocked, triangular site in the city-centre which presents numerous design and build challenges and we have developed robust plans throughout our design process to manage these. We will now continue to work with the New Hospital Programme team to understand next steps and agree a funding and delivery timeline.
“We hope today’s announcement means we can commence construction of our fantastic new facilities as soon as possible.”