Soaring levels of NHS land earmarked for private sale

Research has suggested that the concerning amount of health service land being earmarked for sale to private developers is soaring.

The Labour Party says the rise in NHS land being made available for sale is coinciding with Conservative ‘mismanagement of NHS finances’, which is leaving many hospitals struggling to cope. The research indicates that the amount of NHS land under consideration for sale has risen by 31 per cent in the past year, to 1,750 hectares.

Additionally, over two years the amount of land for sale has risen by a staggering 320 per cent, so that there is now more than four times as much NHS land for sale compared to 2015/16.

Furthermore, the Labour Party research shows that 140 sites currently used for clinical or medical purposes are now identified as surplus, a 20 per cent rise on last year, and that 43 sites with a market value over £1 million are included in the latest report.

Therefore, the party is asking the government to make additional capital funding available to the NHS in the Autumn Budget, so that hospitals don’t have to rely on a fire sale of valuable sites to plug the Tories’ NHS financial black hole.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “With hospitals crumbling in desperate need of repair and renewal the government must provide the capital investment our NHS now clearly is crying out for, rather than forcing financially stretched hospitals into a fire sale of assets.

“Patients who want good local hospital services will be alarmed at this huge rise in the amount of NHS land being put up for sale. Hospitals are struggling to cope with years of cutbacks from the Tories. The answer should be a serious long term government funded investment plan, not selling off the NHS’s family silver.

“What’s more with details withheld for so many of the sites for sale, it simply adds to the sense that this government is driving through a secret fire sale of valuable assets. All this uncertainty and rumours of deals behind closed doors are clearly not good for the long term sustainability of the NHS. Ministers must provide the capital funding that the NHS needs in the Budget this autumn, so that hospitals can start tackling the huge repair backlog they face and invest in the future equipment and technology which modern patient care demands.”