Government announce building of new Princess Alexandra Hospital now planned to start in 2034
Health / Mon 20th Jan 2025 at 05:39pm
THE Government’s review of the New Hospital Programme has today (Monday 20th January) been published, outlining Labour’s commitment to delivering all hospitals in the programme and rebuilding our NHS claims the Labour Party.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “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.
With no credible plan left by the Conservatives to deliver these building projects, let alone deliver them all in the next five years, local MP for Chris Vince has today slammed ‘the legacy of empty Tory promises for residents in Harlow’.
A review of the programme was announced by Labour after the election 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.
The outcome of that review was announced today (Monday 20th January) and the New Hospitals Programme has now been put on a sustainable footing, with a timeline that can be met, and a budget that is consistent with the fiscal rules that the Labour Government is operating under.
Today the government has outlined the new timetable which means the building of the new Princess Alexandra will commence by 2034 at the latest.
“Labour is committed to rebuilding our NHS, and to rebuilding trust in politics, promising to never play fast and loose with the public finances or with the public’s trust”.
Chris Vince said:
“Years of false promises for Harlow is the unforgivable legacy left by the Tories. Time and again they led us up the garden path, raising expectations that we could expect a new hospital overnight when the money simply wasn’t there.
“We all know how important The Princess Alexandra is for our community and that’s why local residents, staff and patients expect an honest, realistic and deliverable timetable. I’m relieved that is what the Government has given us today.
“I will continue to campaign and lobby for a new hospital in Harlow at every opportunity and keep local residents updated on the progress of the programme every step of the way.”
Wes Streeting, Labour’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said:
Since the election, Chris Vince has used every single possibility to stop and remind me just how important The Princess Alexandra is for Harlow and the villages.
“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 The Princess Alexandra and to rebuilding our NHS.”
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Your Harlow is hoping to interview Harlow MP Chris Vince this week as well as a representative from Princess Alexandra Hospital.
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For your convenience, many of our articles on a new hospital, can be found below.
https://yourharlow.com/?s=new+hospital
Start construction between 2030 and 2035
Leeds General Infirmary
Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, Sutton
Whipps Cross University Hospital, north-east London
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow
Watford General Hospital
Leicester General Hospital Royal Infirmary
Kettering General Hospital
Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton
Torbay Hospital
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The full government document.
gary roberts
2025-01-20 18:00:35
Oh dear another piece of nonsense. People need it now not in 2037 at the earliest. This will upset many who believed Halfon. And now MP Vince will have to defend this decision and will fail badly. In short a disgraceful decision by a government who six months is starting to rot at both ends of the spectrum. Anyone got a spare ticket to Vancouver!
Brian Aston
2025-01-20 18:40:36
I think the sensible thing should now be to pause the building of new housing estates around harlow. Given the current hospital is straining to cope at the moment
Ian McNaught
2025-01-20 18:48:29
I assume that we haven't yet decided where the site for the new Harlow Hospital will be or has the land needed been bought? I feel sorry for the NHS staff , who are being stretched to the limit.
Reg Grigg
2025-01-20 18:56:46
I suggest Chris Vince get behind the people of Harlow and refuse to build any more houses in Harlow until at least 2035. Why should the Government get the kudos of ‘what a good job they have done ‘ in achieving house building targets (planned by others) whilst overwhelming our out of date hospital in the process. The stress on our GP’s and the staff at PAH will become insurmountable. Just common sense surely; I appreciate that the last Government’s hospital building programme was on very shaky ground but why exasperate things further. NO MORE HOUSE BUILDING IN HARLOW UNTIL OUR HOSPITAL IS BUILT! Maybe our smiling Chancellor could sharpen her pencil and look at reducing MP’s costs such as subsidised meals, drinks, pensions etc. etc. etc.
Jason Fryer
2025-01-20 19:00:52
So a minimum of 12years before it’s built! Harlow council needs to block all house building then - unless it’s for social housing for Harlow residents. Lister house my doctors is on its knees based on its last inspection so if I get seriously ill, at this rate I will be dead before PAH 2 opens …. The hospital maybe coping now , but in 10 years time ????
Paul
2025-01-20 19:07:23
Chris Vince - joke already. Just like the rest of his shabby party.
Disgusted
2025-01-20 19:11:50
Is this a joke? Our hospital cannot manage now ten years time. I take it all house building will now stop until we have the proper infrastructure. What hospital will the people of Harlow North use I wonder.
Jess
2025-01-20 19:28:31
This is absolutely outrageous! How were these projects prioritised, we need to know the criteria vs. other initiatives/decisions on spending? The current hospital is extremely dated and with a poor CQC rating, I'm genuinely afraid to need to be treated there, is there any investment going into improving the current hospital? There will be a growing population in Harlow in the coming few years, this timeline is an extremely bad decision, my trust has completely eroded and instead of getting a return for our taxes and solving a genuinely pressing issue, we're always served the childish gov argument that 'the others did it'. Well now was your chance to do it better, but did you? The gov needs to reduce the delivery timeframe for this much needed hospital
MikeO
2025-01-20 19:30:39
If anyone thinks that the Tory Government really had a genuine, funded plan to build the hospitals they promised over and over again, they need their heads examined. At least now we have a plan and one that is actually funded. Its a shame though that its going to take so long, because a new hospital is desperately needed as soon as possible.
Roger
2025-01-20 19:32:04
So why has the Government's Housing Department increased the amount of housing required in Harlow and Epping Forest when it's Health Department can't afford the increased health facilities needed. Working hand in hand as usual!
Resident
2025-01-20 19:36:01
No more housing developments and no more mass movement of people from outside the area until extra health care facilities are in place. It's clear the priority is on appeasing developers and zero interest in improving access to health care. They'll just keep pushing this back and hope we all just die off in the meantime. No one in their right mind believed the tories and no one should believe this lot either. Kicking the ball down the road so they don't have to do anything
Nostradamus
2025-01-20 20:04:52
"I don't believe it!" A mirage. We need a new hospital now. Somewhere near the town centre, not far from Harlow Town Station where the land is already owned and that is near the a newly refurbished bus station. Somewhere where the car parks areas could be used to start building unit by unit or upwards. Somewhere near where many of the staff live and somewhere the work could start tomorrow. Somewhere that's not actually in Epping District (as was proposed by the Conservatives). How about the current PAH site or ex Glaxos at the Pinnacles? Don't throw 41million at impossible fusion reactors or the billions at old tec broken edf french fission reactors in Suffolk!
Jason Munday
2025-01-20 20:09:43
Tory smoke and mirrors now labours blame the tories so we don't have to do anything. Chris vince another let down for the town. We need mps like rammell again not this shower.
Nicholas Taylor
2025-01-20 22:02:14
This must surely be the final nail in the coffin for the HGGT plan. A reduction from 43% to 28% in the number of affordable homes at Gilston, the lack of and timing of infrastructure for the Latton Priory development and now no new hospital for at least a decade. When the new hospital was proposed I seem to remember it was going to cost £400 million which quickly escalated to £600 million. Now we are told £1.5 to £2 billion. The staff at the hospital must be in despair as are we the patients, with the prospect of another 100,00 potential patients living within 10 miles of the hospital.
David Forman
2025-01-20 23:34:39
A question for the Editor to ask Mr Vince: Will the medtech campus be delivered in addition to the new hospital or just a new hospital?
David Forman
2025-01-20 23:38:46
Another question for Mr Vince: What is being done to reduce the huge backlog of hospital repairs? Timetable and costings please.
David Forman
2025-01-20 23:51:14
Like car loans it is always best to check the small print. The Gov.Uk small print on the New Hospital Programme says: "Delivery expectations may be subject to change depending on local and national factors and the programme reserves the right to adjust the delivery plan as schemes develop in the future."
Pat Roberts
2025-01-21 08:42:32
Headline slightly wrong. Gov.uk actually puts Harlow in the start group for 32:34. So fingers crossed it’s the earlier date. The first wave I understand is mostly hospitals that are literally falling down due to concrete cancer. Good news that work on the Cambridge Cancer Centre is in the wave due to start imminently.
James
2025-01-21 09:45:36
Good God this lot are an absolute shambles.
Peter
2025-01-21 10:08:41
The comment that the hospital was unfunded by the conservatives is interesting. At one of the election hustings Robert Halfon was definitely under the impression that funding was in place. So, who in the previous govt lied to him (and therefore us). Perhaps that also helps to explain Rachel Reeves' financial black hole
Abigail
2025-01-21 10:10:51
How does this announcement differ from that of the Tories regarding a new hospital in Harlow please? Am I missing something here? Why can't building start now for the PAH? New housing developments are agreed and started within a short timescale (months). The new David Lloyd centre has already started building since its 2024 announcement. Why is PAH still waiting in the wings for its 'performance'?
TonyB
2025-01-21 10:55:36
One worry is that if the Labour Party sticks to the Parliamentary timetable, the next general election will be in 2029, with another five years later. Harlow could find the proposed new hospital back with the Conservative Party, which has been very economical with the truth in the past. Just look at what the Conservative Party have stated: On September 19th, 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust will receive funding to build a new hospital. On Thursday, May 25th, 2023, the Conservative government promised to build a new Hospital, this time by 2030, a “fully-funded” new Hospital with construction to start in 2025. Meanwhile, the homes-building programme and the Conservative Party's jamming of Harlow’s roads by building bus lanes will still go on.
Sodthisforalark
2025-01-21 11:22:18
If only the Tories had not got our hopes up over the 40 new hospitals, Harlow being one of them. It's time politicians and parties faced consequences for breaking pledges of such importance, after all, these are the reasons people vote them in. Not building a hospital for so many years here in Harlow is of course a bad move and no doubt will cost some lives along the way and a fair bit of misery and to be honest I don't think there will ever be a hospital here as next election I presume Labour will not be voted in, leaving it with other politicians to do nothing each term.
Karen Kjolsen
2025-01-21 16:03:50
The Tories completely ruined this country over the past 14 years, with their lies and austerity measures , so this is where it lands us. Don't blame the Labour party after a couple of months in power, they cannot change things overnight. At least they are being honest with us. Keep pressure on your MP, we all have a part to play in this.
Colin
2025-01-21 16:24:29
Karen has a lot to learn about Labour's previous financial record it would seem. Yes the Tories promised a new hospital but likewise so has Labour. Obviously the next election is some years away yet but nevertheless the promise of a new hospital being started in 2032-34 is Labour assuming they will still be in power. In the last 6-7 months since Labour came into power they have banged on about a £22bn blackhole left by the Tories. Seeing that £40bn has been raised by increasing taxes one must ask why is there a £20bn blackhole in Labour's finances
T
2025-01-21 17:55:37
Can I book a bed now because the time this is built I be in my 70s I will need one by then
Sodthisforalark
2025-01-22 07:37:34
Colin, you also have a lot to learn if going doing that route. The tories have left us with a far worse economy and debt with nothing to show for it. Labour's debt was less and at least left the country working, best NHS in history, good schools etc and they also dealt with the international banking crisis. Karen is right, the tories have ruined this country and it's going to be a very long time before anything feels like it is improving.
Colin
2025-01-22 08:52:26
Sodthisforalark having lived through a series of Labour government's from Atlee to Starmer the present government is by far the worst. Brown may have raided pensions but the degree of taxes that " Rachel from accounts " has brought in are far worse. You can blame the last government for many things but the present government is tax and squander
Sodthisforalark
2025-01-22 09:05:51
Colin, so have I. Your comment was incorrect and we have now lower living standards since the war, more debt, nothing works, hospitals up and down the country broken, schools broken, roads broken, housing broken and historically Labour spend the money on us, what on earth has happened to our money under the tories? Tories also raised taxes while in power, highest for a long time, so what happened to our hard earned? While I am less than impressed by the current Labour (they are just the same as the tories so far), we cannot blame them for the mess that is right now - they left the country in a better state when the tories took over than what they have now inherited. These really are facts. We have to give them time, we have no choice and we vote accordingly next election.
Seamus
2025-01-22 12:01:07
Mr Vince complained "what about the tories?" What about them? Labour all through the election repeated everyday, "We know what the problems are, we have a plan and they are all fully costed" Rachel Reeves as well as other parties, had full access to the countries books since January 2024 so they knew the full picture. Our mp represents his party and not the people of Harlow. It is now down to Harlow council to stand up for the people of Harlow and be honest with government. No more house building till the infrastructure matches the towns need. The standards in Harlow hospital are shocking. The staff have low morale, it is staffed by to many "assistants" instead of medical professionals, there are far to many managers who seem to be unable to manage and the hospital reached its capacity in the 80's. In short, no more houses till the hospital is built, to do so would increase the chances of avoidable deaths in Harlow hospital, so defeating Wes Streetings claim of improving our nhs
Res
2025-01-22 18:12:41
Building new houses and getting new people and money in is how the area will develop economically. It will lead to more investment in local businesses and growth, this is the missing puzzle piece out of stagnation, but it cannot be done without considering impact to services, hospital being one of them. Instead of doing the political finger pointing ourselves, that it was this party's or the othe party's fault, we should focus on getting this hospital built asap and not accept this decision which I find a mockery. Not sure if anyone can organise a protest, but would join, because I cannot accept this extremely poor decision, it's a humiliation to all of us. We should have a good quality medical service and this is not currently available in Harlow!
Guy flegman
2025-01-26 08:55:22
This is nonsense as labour will not be in power in 12 years time and who ever is in power will have their own plans and agendas. It would be more informative to tell us what that plan to do today about the multitude of issues in the NHS
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