Relief as new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital gets green light from health secretary Wes Streeting after New Hospital Programme review
There was relief today as the government confirmed that the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital will be built, following a review of the New Hospital Programme.
Construction is expected to start on Cambridge Biomedical Campus this year or next, after it was placed in the next set of new hospitals to be built. And pre-construction work will now start as early as next month.
Rebuilds at Hinchingbrooke Hospital and West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds were also approved, and are due to start in 2027-28.
They are among seven hospitals in the programme affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), with construction work due to begin on them all over the next five years.
Health secretary Wes Streeting and Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced after Labour won the 2024 General Election that Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, Hinchingbrooke and West Suffolk Hospital were among 40 schemes that the previous Conservative government had promised by 2030 that were to be reviewed over funding and viability concerns.
He said he had been “shocked” by the state of the New Hospital Programme, which had been built on “the shaky foundation of false hope”.
But declaring that the government had now put the programme on a “sustainable footing”, he unveiled plans to progress all of the schemes in five-year waves, which overall will take a decade longer than the Tories had claimed.
Operated by Cambridge University Hospital NHS Trust in partnership with the University of Cambridge, the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital will be the first of its kind in the East of England, bringing together NHS staff from Addenbrooke’s Hospital and leading scientists from the university and its Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre under one roof to improve treatments and aid early diagnosis.
Daniel Zeichner, Cambridge’s Labour MP, said: “I am absolutely delighted. Today is the news that residents in Cambridge have been waiting to hear for far too long.
“For years we have been led up the garden path with false promises from the Tories about when this desperately needed scheme will finally be under way in our community.
“It is thanks to this Labour government that we now have a timetable for delivery so patients finally get the care they deserve.”
Mr Streeting said: “Since the election, Daniel Zeichner has been banging the drum day and night for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.
"Today we are setting out an honest, funded, and deliverable programme which confirms the construction of a specialist cancer research hospital in Cambridge and the complete rebuild of Hinchingbrooke Hospital."
Cambridge University Hospitals said it was “pleased by the decision”, adding: "This pioneering facility, located on Cambridge Biomedical Campus , will unite world-class research and clinical expertise to transform the lives of cancer patients across the East of England, the UK, and beyond.”
And Pippa Heylings, Liberal Democrat MP for South Cambridgeshire, said: “I am hugely relieved to hear today that the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital is finally to be given the green light. This is extremely important news for us locally, for our region and the whole country.
“The Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital aims to rewrite the story of cancer, transforming the outcomes for millions of people both here at home and across the globe.
“This is personal, too. The oncology team at Addenbrooke’s saved my husband's life. But we know that a high price is being paid for missed opportunities to prevent, detect and treat cancer. That’s why it is so important that the government has given it the go-ahead after a period of uncertainty during its review of the New Hospital Programme.
“Alongside the world-class strengths of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe – South Cambridgeshire is ideally placed to deliver this innovation.
“I look forward to spades being in the ground soon.”
Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital received £120m of government funding in October 2020 and was earmarked as the first to be delivered in the New Hospital Programme by the previous government, with work expected to start in November 2025 and the hospital due to open in 2029.
The second stage of the outline business case was approved in August 2023 and planning permission to build it on what is currently a car park was granted in April 2024 by a joint development control committee meeting of city and district councillors, despite an objection from the Environment Agency, which cited concerns over water scarcity.
A petition was launched urging the incoming Labour government to proceed with the plans after it announced its review.
Setting out the new timetable for the New Hospital Programme, Mr Streeting said construction of the new hospitals would proceed in four “waves”, with the final part not beginning until between 2035 and 2039.
Promising that all the new units would be delivered, Mr Streeting said he had secured investment averaging £3 billion a year, which he described as part of the largest capital investment in the NHS since the previous Labour government.
He also announced a new framework for contracting out construction of the new hospitals, saying this would ensure the new facilities were delivered “as quickly as possible”.
Seven schemes are already under construction and are set to be completed in the next three years.
Sixteen more hospitals are in wave one, with construction on those due between 2025 and 2030,
Among them is Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which is due to cost “less than £500million”, according to government documents, which noted its “high deliverability”.
Between £501m and £1bn will be spent at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, run by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.
Ian Sollom, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, said: “After years of broken promises from the Conservatives, the NHS is quite literally crumbling, and it is constituents of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire that are paying the price.
“Having recently visited Hinchingbrooke Hospital, it is clear to see the amazing effort of staff and engineers to keep patients safe, but they cannot possibly continue working under these conditions. This government must not delay the urgent rebuilding, and in fact it must accelerate the timeline.
“I will continue to hold its feet to the fire until the final brick is laid.”
Some £1bn to £1.5bn will be spent to rebuild West Suffolk Hospital in wave one.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn is another affected by RAAC and work is due to begin there in 2027-28 on its £1bn-£1.5bn rebuild.
A further nine projects, including Watford General Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, are due in wave two, with construction starting between 2030 and 2035.
The final nine schemes are due to start between 2035 and 2040.
Mr Streeting was critical of the previous government’s claims over the programme.
“Despite the claim, there were not 40 ‘new’ schemes and some were just refurbishments or extensions. To put it simply - there were not 40 of them, they were not all new and many were not even hospitals,” he said.
“The spin that had been applied to the programme was widely known before the election. But even knowing that, I was shocked by what I found on entering the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
“The programme was hugely delayed, by several years more than had already been revealed by the National Audit Office. Most shocking of all, the funding for the programme was due to run out in March of this year, with no provision for future years whatsoever.
“The money simply was not there. The programme was built on the shaky foundation of false hope and without the confirmed funding these building projects could not be delivered, let alone delivering them all in the next five years.
“If I was shocked by the state of this programme, patients ought to be furious. Not only because the promises made to them were never going to be kept. They also desperately need new buildings and new hospitals.
“The NHS is quite literally crumbling. I have visited hospitals where the roof has fallen in, pipes regularly leak and even freeze over in winter.
“As Lord Darzi found in his investigation, the NHS was starved of capital in the 2010s, with £37billion under-investment over the 2010s. This lack of investment meant the UK construction sector did not have the appetite and capacity to build the number of concurrent hospitals required to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030 when this promise was made.
“Delivery is dependent on providing certainty to develop relationships and secure investments in the supply chain which would ensure this vital hospital infrastructure is realised.
“This review was launched for two reasons. First, to put the programme on a firm footing with sustainable funding, so all the projects can be delivered. Second, to give patients an honest, realistic, deliverable timetable in which they can have confidence.
“This government is committed to rebuilding our NHS and to rebuilding trust in government. We will never play fast and loose with the public finances or with the public’s trust.
“Following the review into the NHP, and the funding secured through the Spending Review, we are now publishing a credible plan and timeline to deliver the new hospital schemes.
“Working closely with colleagues in HM Treasury (HMT), we have secured 5-year waves of investment, ensuring that there is always a balanced portfolio of hospital schemes at different development stages being delivered now and into the future.
“This is the most efficient and cost-effective way of giving our NHS the buildings it needs, giving the construction sector the certainty it needs to deliver. We are backing this plan with investment which will increase up to £15billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging around £3billion a year from 2030.
“I would rather take tough decisions which are the right decisions for the future, than lead patients up a garden path once more only for them to be let down again. Alongside record levels of capital investment - £13.6billion next year, including the NHP - we have now put the NHP on a sustainable footing, with a timeline that can be met and a budget that is consistent with the fiscal rules under which the government is operating.
“My commitment to you is that we will deliver these hospitals and rebuild our NHS.”
The Liberal Democrats accused the government of trying to “bury bad news” on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president.
Helen Morgan, the party’s health spokesperson, said: “Instead of ducking scrutiny, the health secretary needs to publish the full impact assessment of these delays.
“Patients have a right to know just how at risk they are, and how many more delays they will have to suffer as a result of the government’s decision.”