UK National Health Service destruction continues with mass land sell-off
By
Dennis Moore
11 July 2017
The Conservative government of Theresa May is proposing to sell off billions of pounds in National Health Service (NHS) property.
The move was prepared by a review by Sir Robert Naylor. The former boss of the NHS trust that runs University College Hospital published his report in March after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt commissioned him to look at what could be done with “surplus” NHS property and old buildings and to “develop a new NHS estate strategy.”
A number of proposals include selling off £2 billion of NHS land, equivalent to 5 million square metres, more than five times the size of London’s Hyde Park. The land could be used to build 26,000 new homes. This figure could rise to £5 billion if extended to high-value land in London.
Naylor’s review is based around the cynical justification that because many NHS units are “unfit for purpose and will continue to deteriorate”—which is entirely due to a lack of investment going back years—the health service faces a £10 billion infrastructure funding gap.
Writing in the manner of a company executive, Naylor states there is “no traditional business case” to justify the cost of fixing and maintaining buildings and equipment. What is required instead is the sale of land occupied by NHS services that are no longer used in order to facilitate further billions in cuts to be imposed throughout the NHS in sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) by NHS trusts nationally. Naylor’s review notes that Hunt has already taken action to begin the design of a new NHS Property Board. This “powerful new NHS Property Board … provides leadership to the centre and expertise and delivery support to…