Tim Farron blasts Government decision to delay Lancaster and Preston hospital rebuilds until 2035

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has urged the Secretary of State for Health to do an immediate u-turn, following last night’s news that plans to rebuild hospitals in Lancaster and Preston now won’t start for at least another 10 years.

Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary are amongst nine hospitals that have been placed in a third and final wave of work of the New Hospitals Programme – with construction set to start sometime between 2035 and 2039.

This is despite the fact that land has already been purchased for the two new hospitals and, just last week, the NHS in South Cumbria and Lancashire announced a series of public engagement events for residents to have their say on the proposed sites.

Speaking in the House of Commons last night during a Ministerial Statement on the New Hospitals Programme, Tim said: “The acute hospital that serves most of my constituency is the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. It is an overcrowded Victorian hospital; parts of it are falling to bits, it has inadequate parking and it is at the wrong end of a one-way system. 

“With the Secretary of State’s help, the local hospital trust has acquired an almost perfect site for a rebuild. The trust has designed the new hospital and even begun consulting the public on it, so today’s announcement that we face a 10-year wait until a spade is dug into the ground will come as something of a bombshell. 

“Will he reconsider the timescale? The longer we leave it, the more the cost will spiral and, I am afraid, the less likely it is that people will have confidence that it will even happen at all.”

In response, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “On the honourable gentleman’s final point, I can well understand why people across the country will be cynical about commitments made on hospitals, given the experience that they had under our Conservative predecessors.

“Even if not every decision that we are taking is universally popular, I hope that people will appreciate our up-front candour and honesty in not trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and in setting out in today’s report, in terms, the timetable for pre-construction work and for starting construction.

“In the particular case that the honourable gentleman raises, I hope that the fact that land was acquired by this Government in December 2024 signals our absolute commitment to the scheme. If we were not committed to the scheme, we would not have made the land purchase up front ahead of pre-construction works, which are planned for 2030. 

“We did so because we absolutely accept the case that he makes about the desirability of the site and the need for investment and the new hospital locally.”