Lib Dems announce £17bn fund to fix schools and hospitals

The Liberal Democrats have announced a £17bn infrastructure fund to repair and restore schools and hospitals across England.

Headteachers today are forced to use money that should be dedicated for books, teachers and equipment to fix leaking roofs and crumbling buildings. The new infrastructure fund would give an extra £7bn for schools in England, enough to repair every school to allow them to focus spending on education rather than maintenance.  

Another £10bn would be allocated to hospitals over the lifetime of the next parliament, helping address a £5bn delayed backlog in delayed repairs to NHS buildings and infrastructure. This investment would help transform the NHS – repairing run-down hospitals, bringing them up to date with modern technology and building new infrastructure to reduce overcrowding. It would contrast with the £350m for the Conservatives committed to repairs in the NHS in 2015-2016.

The infrastructure fund would be in addition to the extra £7bn the Liberal Democrats have committed to invest in schools over the next parliament; and the £6bn more a year the party would invest in NHS and social care.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary Sarah Olney said: 

"Under Theresa May’s Conservatives, our children are being taught in crumbling schools and our sick and elderly are being cared for in overcrowded hospitals.

"It doesn’t have to be like this. We will invest an additional £7bn in our schools, enough to repair every school in the country.

"This will allow school budgets to be spent on books, teachers and equipment instead of being diverted to fix leaking roofs.

“This week, you can elect Liberal Democrat MPs who will stand up for you on the NHS, schools and Brexit."

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said:

"We have seen with the recent cyber-attack how inadequate the existing infrastructure is for many hospitals.

"Under the Conservatives, money that is intended for capital investment is being diverted to plug holes in day-to-day spending. This cannot be allowed to go on.

"We will invest an additional £10bn of capital spending in the NHS to fix our run-down hospitals, reduce overcrowding and build a modernise our health service.

"This is on top of the £6bn a year for the NHS and care we would raise by putting a penny on income tax."
 
ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Liberal Democrats will create a £17bn ‘Schools and NHS Infrastructure Fund’ to repair and restore schools and hospitals in England. This forms part of the £100bn set aside in the Liberal Democrat manifesto for additional infrastructure funding, including capital investment in schools and hospitals to support capacity increases and modernisation (link, p.36).

The new infrastructure fund will give schools in England an extra £7bn and hospitals £10bn over the lifetime of the next parliament. This crucial funding will rejuvenate our schools and NHS and make them fit-for-purpose.

An additional £3bn will be provided in line with the Barnett Formula to be spent on capital projects in Scotland (£1.67bn), Wales (£965m), and Northern Ireland (£575m).
 

Schools

• Much of the school estate is more than 40 years old, with an estimated 60% built before 1976. Many are now in need of repair. In March 2017 a National Audit Office concluded: “it would cost an estimated £6.7 billion to return all school buildings to satisfactory or better condition. Common defects include problems with electrics and external walls, windows and doors” (link)
• Schools are spending £1.2bn of ‘revenue spending’ on maintenance. This money should be used for teachers, books and equipment but the desperate situation schools have been left in thanks to Conservative cuts have meant they have been forced into using this money for urgent repairs (link)
• A large number of school buildings require substantial repairs. For example, the Department for Education’s property data survey estimated that it would cost more than £500,000 to return each of 1,300 primary schools (8%) to satisfactory condition; and more than £1 million to return each of 1,200 secondary schools (35%) to satisfactory condition (link)
• The Liberal Democrats would invest £7bn over the next Parliament, ring-fenced for school maintenance and repairs in England, enough to return every school building to a satisfactory or better condition.

• Over half of all NHS Trusts are currently in deficit. (link)
• The NHS has an annual capital budget of £4.6 billion per annum. But because of severe pressures on NHS finances, almost a quarter of this (£950 million) was transferred to cover day to day spending in 2015-2016, and this is expected to continue (link, 1.27). This is diverting funding away from sorely needed infrastructure upgrades.
• Figures from NHS Digital estimate that £5bn will be needed to undertake ‘backlog maintenance’ – or repairs to NHS buildings and infrastructure that have been delayed. The Conservatives invested only £350m for this purpose in 2015/16. (link, Table 8)
• The Naylor Report estimated that the NHS would need an extra £5bn in capital investment on new projects and infrastructure to deliver its objectives in the 5 Year Forward View, including for full digitisation of every NHS Trust. (link)
• The Liberal Democrats would invest £10 billion of capital funding  – bringing the NHS up to date with modern technology, repairing run-own hospitals, and building new infrastructure to relieve pressure on our hospitals and tackle overcrowding.