What the Budget’s £1bn boost to NHS estate maintenance means for the North

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget included £1bn to address the critical repairs backlog for the NHS’s estate – but with the total backlog cost set at £13.8bn nationwide, is it enough?

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The NHS released a provisional summary of its 2023/2024 Estates Return Information Collection results on 17 October. This dataset outlines the state of the estate – including how much it costs to run (£13.6bn, for those curious).

In the North, the data lists a backlog of maintenance, repairs, and upgrades that will cost £3.7bn to resolve. Of these, £663m are designated as high-risk repairs and £1.3bn are significant.

Of those hospitals with the highest high-risk repairs backlog, the situation at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust’s Airedale General Hospital in Steeton is the most dire. Its high-risk backlog would require £316m to eradicate.

Airedale Hospital is part of the New Hospitals Programme that is currently under review. It is also one of the seven hospitals on the programme that were built using RAAC, alongside Leighton Hospital in Crewe. The chancellor stated in her speech that work on replacing these hospitals would continue despite the review of the overall programme.

Newcastle upon Tyne Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Royal Victoria Infirmary’s situation has the second highest regarding a high-risk backlog. Its repairs will cost £40.7m.

The third highest is the Newcastle trust’s Freeman Hospital, which has £27m of work that needs doing.

This is followed by Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Tameside General Hospital – which would require £26m to eradicate its high-risk backlog.

Rounding out the top five is Wirral University Teaching Hospital’s Arrowe Park Hospital, whose backlog of work is valued at £18m.

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Looking at the Northern regions separately, the North West trusts would need £1.35bn to resolve its backlog. Of that £119m is for high-risk repairs, £476m for significant risk ones, £546m for moderate, and £211m for low.

North East and Yorkshire are lumped together in the data pool. The two regions have a backlog worth £2.3bn – this breaks down to £544m for high-risk repairs, £788m for significant, £711m for moderate, and £276m for low.

You can view the data for yourself at digital.nhs.uk. The final ERIC dataset for the 2023-2024 year is due to be published on 19 December.