Details of funding for new Royal Preston Hospital funding revealed

The purchase of the final part of the preferred site for a new Royal Preston Hospital was made possible after the government released funding that had first been committed when the facility was set to be built far sooner, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands.

Local NHS leaders announced last week that they had acquired the provisional plot – off Stanifield Lane in the Farington area of South Ribble – for a hospital whose doors are not expected to open until the early-mid 2040s.

The first tranche of land needed for the new-build was bought in late 2024, at which point construction work was expected to begin in 2030 and be completed by the middle of that decade.

However, when that deal was done, the timeframe for building the facility had already been put under review by the new Labour government, which had accused its Conservative predecessors of failing to fund a commitment to a claimed “40 new hospitals” nationwide – of which the Royal Preston was one.

In January 2025, health secretary Wes Streeting announced that the start date for the scheme had been pushed back to between 2037 and 2039 – meaning the new hospital would not be treating patients for the best part of 20 years.

However, the NHS was nevertheless permitted to draw down the finance to secure the remaining part of the 64-acre site last month.

That portion of the plot was owned by Lancashire County Council, which is developing the ‘Lancashire Central’ logistics, retail and leisure hub on adjoining land.   The section of the site acquired in 2024 was previously in the hands of property specialists Brookhouse Group Limited.

The amounts paid have not yet been made publicly available. The cost estimate for the overall hospital development was set at £2bn when it was published almost 18 months ago.

The NHS has stressed that any new site would be subject to public consultation before being confirmed. Planning permission would also be required.

HOSPITAL HISTORY

Last week’s land deal led to a renewed focus on the timetable for when a new Royal Preston might finally open to replace the existing hospital in Fulwood.

However, it is already 10 years since the now preferred site in Farington first emerged as the potential home for the facility  – and the LDRS has taken a look back at what has been a decade of twists, turns and false dawns.

August 2016 – the possibility of a new ‘super hospital’ facility to replace both the Royal Preston and Chorley and South Ribble hospitals emerges as part of an exploration of how to reconfigure NHS services in Central Lancashire.   A site in the Bamber Bridge and Lostock Hall area is reported to be one of the potential locations under consideration as part of the ‘Our Health Our Care Care’ programme.

January 2017 – Chorley and South Ribble Hospital’s accident and emergency unit, which was temporarily closed in April 2016 as a result of a shortage of doctors, reopens, but only for 12 hours a day.

June 2018 – after IKEA pulls out of plans to build a store on land at Cuerden, close to where the M6 and M65 motorways meet, Chorley MP Sir Lindsay Hoyle backs the idea of building a state-of-the-art new hospital on the site, while also retaining both Chorley and Preston hospitals.

October 2020 – the Conservative government announces plans to build what it describes as “40 new hospitals” over the next decade.   On the list is the “planned replacement” of the Royal Preston and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, with the option – subject to consultation – of creating either a single new facility to serve both cities or two new hospitals based on the current catchment areas.

June 2021 – an NHS dossier making the case for a new hospital or hospitals in Central and North Lancashire reveals that the Royal Preston has a maintenance backlog that it would cost £157m to clear.  Parts of the existing Sharoe Green Lane site were described as being in a state of  “serious dilapidation”.

March 2022 – a single hospital to replace both the Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster hospitals is discounted from a shortlist of options by the Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospital Programme, following feedback from 12,000 locals.

September 2022 – NHS leaders in Lancashire and South Cumbria reveal that they plan to bid for government cash to replace both the Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster hospitals.

May 2023 – the government announces both Preston and Lancaster will get new hospitals, but that the facilities will not be completed until the 2030s – beyond the originally proposed delivery time for the “40 new hospital” schemes.  The Lancashire projects are amongst several that ministers say have been delayed to enable other work – to replace hospitals affected by so-called ‘crumbling concrete’ – to be prioritised.

South Ribble’s Conservative MP Katherine Fletcher later reveals all the shortlisted sites for a new Royal Preston are in her constituency.

June 2023 – Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (LTH) chief executive Kevin McGee – whose trust runs the Royal Preston – says building work on the new hospital will not begin until 2030, a timetable that would point to an opening date around the middle of the decade.

August 2023 – the NHS reveals it has identified a single preferred site for the new Royal Preston, but keeps the location under wraps and says it is open to other options being brought forward.

July 2024 – a question mark is placed over the Preston and Lancaster hospital builds after Labour health secretary Wes Streeting announces a review of the previous government’s nationwide New Hospital Programme within weeks of his party coming to power.   He says the raft of facilities promised across the country were ”not deliverable” by their promised completion dates.

The new Labour MP for South Ribble, Paul Foster, says there is no reason for “doom and gloom” about the plans for a new Royal Preston – and that the new government was simply responding to the fact no funding had been allocated for the project by the Tories.

December 2024 – a preferred site for the Royal Preston is revealed by the NHS in Lancashire.   The proposal is to build the new facility close to the plot previously earmarked by IKEA – on land off Stanifield Lane in Farington, alongside the ‘Lancashire Central’ logistics, leisure and retail development.   NHS leaders stress that although part of the land has been purchased, a final decision on the location will be subject to public consultation.  They say they are still open to other suggestions and have an “exit strategy” should another site ultimately be chosen.

Preston’s Labour MP Sir Mark Hendrick says the proposed site would be “in the wrong place for most of the people who require medical treatment” in the city. He suggests that a refurbishment of the existing hospital should be considered, along with the development of an urgent treatment unit in the city centre, to free up space in the main building. Preston City Council leader Matthew Brown makes a similar argument.

14th January, 2025 – public consultation launched on the proposed Farington site for a replacement Royal Preston.

20th January 2025 – the government announces that building work on the new Royal Preston will not now begin until between 2037 and 2039 – pushing its opening into the early 2040s.  An estimated £2bn price tag is also placed on the new facility.  Construction of a replacement for the Royal Lancaster shifts to 2035-2038.

Wes Streeting says the government has committed to “an honest, realistic, deliverable timetable” for the hospital facilities promised by the previous Conservative administration, which he accuses of failing to secure the necessary finances.   Tory shadow health secretary Edward Agar says Labour are guilty of making “all sorts of promises” about the new hospitals “to win power” – and then changing their stance once in office.

22nd January, 2025 – it is announced that the public consultation process over the Royal Preston’s proposed new home will end just a fortnight after it began, following the delay to building work.

late January 2025 – LTH says the existing Royal Preston will require “significant” investment now that a replacement has been delayed, in order to ensure “patient services and health outcomes are not impacted”.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle suggests the Royal Preston scheme could move up the list of new hospital projects if others, elsewhere in the country, encounter difficulties. Paul Foster MP says it is important Lancashire is prepared to capitalise on such an eventuality.

February 2025 – LTH’s new chief executive Professor Silas Nicholls tells a board meeting the trust is “really keen to pursue” the idea of a new city centre health facility, potentially incorporating urgent care, outpatients and diagnostics services.

April 2025 – Ribble Valley’s Labour MP Maya Ellis says she is lobbying for a phased development of the new Royal Preston so that it can open “in stages”, delivering parts of the facility sooner than currently scheduled.

March 2026 – the NHS announces it has acquired the remaining part of the Farington site for a new Royal Preston.

Early-mid 2040s – new hospital due to open.