Statement: Whipps Cross Hospital Delivery Timetable
- Calvin Bailey MBE MP
- Jan 20
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 22
Delivery timetable for Whipps Cross Hospital set following Government’s review of New Hospital Programme: Delay to previous government’s rebuild programme
"The previous government failed to deliver on Whipps, and we are deeply disappointed that the timetable for a full rebuild will be longer than the Conservatives promised.
I welcome that the Government is focused solely on sound funding for the future, not soundbites about fake ‘new hospitals’.
I will continue to prioritise work with local leaders on how we can secure progress with rebuilding and urgent maintenance as quickly as possible."
Calvin Baily MBE MP
Background
The government’s Review of the New Hospital Programme has confirmed that plans to rebuild Whipps Cross Hospital will be delayed past the ‘unachievable’ 2030 date announced by the previous Government.
The New Hospitals Programme, announced by Boris Johnson in 2020, promised ‘40 new hospitals’ but was delayed by years and not a single new hospital had been constructed by the time the Conservatives left office. Upon coming into power, Labour found that the funding for the programme was shockingly due to run out in March 2025.
On 16 January, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority published its annual report for 202/4, which gave a red rating to the previous Government’s ‘New Hospital Programme’, which included a commitment to rebuild Whipps. The Authority defines a red rating as showing that “successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable”.
On 29 July, the Government announced that, due to serious internal concerns about the deliverability of the New Hospital Programme, it would be subject to a full review, in order to provide a realistic and affordable timetable for delivery and to give patients an honest, realistic, deliverable timetable that they can believe in.
Since July, local MPs, Council leaders and NHS leaders have worked closely together to lobby for Whipps to be prioritised within the review.
Calvin Bailey MBE MP has lobbied Ministers in person and in writing repeatedly, emphasising the cross-government benefits of the Whipps rebuild for housing and economic growth as well as its importance for local patients and NHS staff.
The Government’s review has concluded that, within the fiscal rules that the Labour Government is operating under and the constraints of an honest, deliverable timetable, full construction of the new Whipps Hospital is due to start in 2032-4.
In the meantime, the Trust will provide a range of patient services by replacing current buildings which experience high levels of flooding due to Victorian drainage systems, with nearly 40% of the estate being over 80 years old.
“Since the election, Calvin has used every single possibility to stop me and advocate for Whipps Cross. The New Hospital Programme we inherited was unfunded and undeliverable. Not a single new hospital was built in the past five years, and there was no credible plan to build forty in the next five years.
When I walked into the Department of Health and Social Care, I was told that the funding for the New Hospitals Programme runs out in March. We were determined to put the programme on a firm footing, so we can build the new hospitals our NHS needs.
Today we are setting out an honest, funded, and deliverable programme to rebuild our NHS. I am committed to delivering Whipps Cross and to rebuilding our NHS.”