Critics say projects were part of previous governments’ pledges or mired in inconsistencies

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

A series of announcements of major new infrastructure projects in hospitals and transport to mark the start of the Conservative conference has prompted criticism after it emerged much of the spending was either not new or notably less ambitious than billed.

Labour was particularly scathing about a package of transport measures headlined with £25bn in already-declared funds for road improvements, calling it a “combination of re-announcements and damp squibs”.

The main pre-conference spending pledge, presented as £13bn to build 40 new hospitals, fell apart after it emerged that the actual money committed so far, £3bn, would go to just six NHS trusts, which had plans already in place for hospitals in need of rebuilding.

Another 21 trusts would receive much smaller sums, but only to assist preparatory work for plans to take place almost a decade from now.

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Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative conference in Manchester, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, stuck to the official line, saying the government was committed to “40 new hospital projects”.

Hancock said the plans would survive future spending decision rounds: “We’ll have that debate in the spending review. But the thing is I’ve got absolute rock-solid support from the prime minister for what I’ve needed to do.”

He also said the £3bn extra would be in addition to an already announced £1.8bn tranche of funding for NHS building repairs.

Hancock also claimed that Labour would not support the extra spending, something rejected by Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, who said he was simply querying the opaqueness of the plans.

The news about the hospitals was heavily trailed in newspapers on Sunday as part of a government PR push on the NHS, with Boris Johnson calling it “the biggest hospital building programme in a generation”.

However, Ashworth said, this had “quickly unravelled as spin”. “This isn’t 40 new hospitals, it is just reconfiguring six,” he said.

“New investment is desperately needed and of course we welcome any genuine new money, but patients and demoralised NHS staff are fed up of being taken for fools like this.”

The subsequent announcement of spending on roads, buses and internet connectivity, was unveiled by the chancellor, Sajid Javid, as “the first step in our plans to deliver an infrastructure revolution”.

“Investment in our infrastructure will be key to making the next decade one of renewal – boosting our economy and making life easier for people all across the country,” Javid said.

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However, the Treasury said that the only new element in the main part of the announcement, £25bn to upgrade roads over five years, was confirmation of which specific projects had been chosen as the first to go ahead.

The actual sum was announced last year in the form of the government’s second so-called road investment strategy, with many of the 14 specific road projects, such as making all the A66 trans-Pennine road dual carriageway, also unveiled at the time.



Another major element, £220m for what is billed as a national bus strategy to improve services across England, including money on electric buses, was announced at the last government spending round, with the only news being how it will be spent.

The Treasury said, however, that all but £200m of an announced £5bn to improve full-fibre and 5G internet networks was new.

However, Labour said that according to the National Infrastructure Commission, building and maintaining a national full-fibre network would cost more than £33bn.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said: “This combination of re-announcements and damp squibs shows up the real difference between the parties: the Tories tinkering around the edges, versus Labour’s fundamental shift of power and wealth from the few – to the many.

“A hundred and thirteen times more for roads than for public transport makes a mockery of the Tories’ so-called green credentials.

“And yet another headline pledge, this time on broadband, turns out to be false: Boris Johnson called for full-fibre for all premises by 2025, but the chancellor now says he’ll invest £5bn in lower grade ‘gigabit-capable’ technology, less than a sixth of what it will take to deliver full fibre to all.”