Kettering General Hospital £620m rebuild postponed until at least 2030

The delay to the new hospital rebuild programme was announced by the Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting MP in the House of Commons this afternoon (Monday, January 20).

Mr Streeting told MPs that the plan was ‘honest’ and ‘credible’.

He said: “The plan we have laid out today is honest, funded and can actually be delivered. It is a serious, credible plan to build the hospitals out NHS needs.”

Last year KGH bosses confirmed that the rebuild of Kettering General Hospital (KGH) would not be complete by the previous Government's 2030 deadline as the funding programme remained in review.

In July 2024, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a ‘reset’ of the New Hospitals Programme, leaving many sites across England that were promised millions of pounds to revitalise sites effectively in limbo.

Today, KGH was confirmed to be in ‘wave two’ of the rebuild programme for seven facilities – with hospitals in wave zero and wave one ahead of the Kettering project.

Hospital bosses had previously been given written confirmation to continue with its planning for the main hospital rebuild scheme and for ‘early enabling works’ that will need to take place before the main section of the rebuild can start.

This includes installing new electrical infrastructure and building a new energy centre for the hospital, which is currently reliant on ‘very old’ steam-based infrastructure.

Works to support the RAAC roof in the Rockingham Wing separate from the Government’s hospital programme review has already taken place.

Rosie Wrighting, MP for Kettering said: “Years of false promises for people in Kettering is the unforgivable legacy left by the Tories. Time and time again they led us up the garden path, raising expectations that we could expect a new hospital overnight when the money simply wasn’t there.

“We all know how important Kettering General Hospital is for our community and that's why local residents, staff and patients expect an honest, realistic and deliverable timetable. I’m relieved that is what the Government has given us today.

“I will continue to campaign for Kettering General Hospital at every opportunity and keep local residents updated on the progress of the programme every step of the way.”

Wes Streeting, added: “Since the election, Rosie has used every single possibility to stop and remind me just how important Kettering General Hospital is for Kettering.

“The New Hospital Programme we inherited was unfunded and undeliverable. Not a single new hospital was built in the past five years, and there was no credible plan to build forty in the next five years.

“When I walked into the Department of Health and Social Care, I was told that the funding for the New Hospitals Programme runs out in March (2025). We were determined to put the programme on a firm footing, so we can build the new hospitals our NHS needs.

“Today we are setting out an honest, funded, and deliverable programme to rebuild our NHS. I am committed to delivering Kettering General Hospital and to rebuilding our NHS.”

KGH has been contacted for a comment.