You did not secure the funds
Funding for Airedale hospital is still pending with 2030 target for completion now looking unlikely
The chancellor Rachel Reeves told Robbie Moore today that he did not secure the funds for the full rebuild of Airedale Hospital, which he claimed a year ago and doubled down on this afternoon (“… my efforts to secure the full funds”).
“The honourable gentleman says he secured the funds – he did not secure the funds,” she said in response to Moore’s question in the House of Commons.
“The money was not there, which is why I am having to make this statement today. I share his frustration and anger, but that frustration and anger should be with the previous government, who did not fund these schemes.”
In May 2023, the then Conservative government under Bois Johnson announced that it was adding Airedale Hospital to its New Hospital Programme, which aimed to rebuild 40 hospitals by 2030.
“For the first time, the government has confirmed a record investment of over £20 billion is expected to be spent on new hospital infrastructure,” the Department of Health and Social Care said at the time.
“Final funding will be subject to future spending reviews.
However, confirmation of that funding was still pending as of July 2024, as as Airedale Hospital Trust recently established told The Ilkley Journal.
How much money will now be allocated to the rebuild of Airedale Hospital and when remains unclear – although there will be an autumn budget on 30 October – with Reeves confirming that a full review of the entire hospital building programme will now be carried out.
“We will conduct a complete reset of the New Hospitals Programme, with a thorough, realistic and costed timetable for delivery,” she said.
Planning for the rebuild has been underway since the previous government confirmed Airedale’s inclusion in the New Hospital Programme last year.
“Work started soon after, looking at where we could build the new hospital,’ the Airedale Hospital Trust told The Ilkley Journal recently.
“No other suitable locations were found, so we will be building the hospital on our current site. We have carried out a range of surveys, providing information about the ground conditions, make-up of the land, traffic, and impact on wildlife, which will help inform where on the site the new hospital will be built.
“Our next phase of work is looking at what needs to be done to get the site ready before the new hospital can be built. This will include bringing extra power to the site by building a new substation, and ensuring there is enough parking for staff, patients and people working on the construction of the new hospital.”
Airedale Hospital opened in July 1970. It provides care for over 200,000 within Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Much of the hospital was built using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a cheaper alternative to concrete that was popular between the 60s and 80s. One of the critical flaws with RAAC is that it has a short lifespan of around 30 years. Airedale Hospital has been around for 54 years.
Foluke Ajayi, chief executive of Airedale Hospital, described the building as being “unfit for purpose” last year.
“Independent engineers' advice is that we need to be out of this building by 2030, hence the urgency [to be admitted to the New Hospital Programme].”
The article was updated on the evening of Monday 29 July.