MPs urge capital investment into NHS
MPs from across Parliament have called for greater investment in the NHS estate, warning that ageing infrastructure and constrained capital budgets are holding back efforts to improve patient care and productivity.
During a Westminster Hall debate on NHS capital spending on 4 March, MPs highlighted the scale of the challenge facing the health service, with many hospitals and community facilities requiring major upgrades or replacement after years of underinvestment.
Opening the debate, Liberal Democrat MP Bobby Dean emphasised the pressures on hospital capacity and infrastructure, arguing that the condition of NHS buildings and the lack of capital investment were contributing to overcrowding and inefficiencies across the system. He suggested that innovative financing approaches could help accelerate much-needed upgrades to the NHS estate, including greater use of partnerships with private investors to deliver new infrastructure projects more quickly.
"It must be said, however, that other nations have learnt the lessons of our failures and successfully delivered social infrastructure at scale, on budget and on time. Indeed, I believe that is one of the reasons why we have fallen behind so badly. As a member of the Treasury Committee, I recently guested on a Public Accounts Committee inquiry into PPP, which concluded that if we get procurement, contract management, and the risk allocation of projects right, then we can massively accelerate the delivery of infrastructure in our country in a way that delivers real value for money for the taxpayer."
Responding for the Government, Karin Smyth, Minister for Secondary Care, acknowledged the scale of the NHS’s capital challenge and the need to modernise facilities across the country. She pointed to the Government’s broader plans to expand community-based healthcare infrastructure, including the development of new neighbourhood health centres.
Smyth highlighted that some of these projects could be delivered through public–private partnerships (PPPs), drawing on external investment to help accelerate construction and bring new facilities online faster. The Government has indicated that future programmes will combine public funding with private capital where it offers value for money and supports the delivery of modern NHS infrastructure.
The debate underscored a growing cross-party recognition that capital investment will be critical to the future performance of the NHS. While operational funding often dominates political discussions, MPs noted that modern facilities, digital infrastructure and upgraded estates are essential for improving productivity, expanding capacity and delivering better patient outcomes.
With the NHS facing a significant infrastructure backlog and rising demand for services, the discussion highlighted how mobilising both public funding and private investment could play an important role in accelerating the renewal of the NHS estate in the years ahead.
The AIIP will be writing to MPs who spoke in the debate to share our New Models report on how to accelerate financing for new hospitals and health centres using an updated PPP model that learns the lessons of the past.