Planning matters

The recently published Spending Review 2025 sets out the Government’s plans to invest in Britain’s renewal, its security, health and economy. The Spending Review[1] sets departmental budgets for day-to-day spending until 2028-29, and until 2029-30 for capital investment, with total departmental budgets growing by 2.3% across the Spending Review period.

Noteworthy among the announcements in the Spending Review is the Government’s renewed commitment to spending on healthcare and education estates, which ultimately aims to address longstanding challenges and support future growth across these sectors.

This follows other recent announcements by the Government, such as the New Hospitals Programme, covered in a recent blog by my colleague Jonathan Standen[2].

Launched by the previous Government in 2021, the School Rebuilding Programme[3] carries out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects on school and sixth form college buildings across England, with buildings prioritised according to their condition. The Programme is steadily delivering and over recent years Lichfields has obtained planning permission for new campuses at Whitley Bay High School, Farringdon Community Academy and most recently, St Leonard’s School, across the North East of England. Last month, Lichfields also submitted a full planning application for the re-development of Framwellgate School, Durham, working with the Department for Education as part of a well-established team led by contractor BAM Construction Ltd and Ryder Architecture.

In this vein, the Spending Review has reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to rebuild over 500 schools through the School Rebuilding Programme, providing around £2.4 billion in each of the next four years. The Government will also commit to expanding the programme beyond the current Spending Review period as part of the forthcoming 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, providing long-term certainty for the programme out to 2034-35. The settlement also provides an increase in annual maintenance investment in line with inflation, rising to £2.3 billion in 2029-30 to improve the condition of the school estate, an increase of over £400 million per year by 2029-30, compared with 2024-25.

In turn, this will support the Government’s plan to ensure opportunities for all, by delivering an excellent, inclusive education system for pupils with a high standard curriculum and expert teaching.

The Spending Review also announces a £2.3 billion real terms increase (£4 billion cash increase) in Department of Health and Social Care’s annual capital budgets from 2023-24 to 2029-30 to invest in the NHS, including in new technology, hospitals and primary care. This will deliver the largest ever health capital budget, representing a more than 20% real terms increase by the end of the Spending Review period. This investment also builds on the record capital investment to repair the NHS estate which includes:

This is exciting news for a number of new healthcare schemes in the development pipeline, including major Lichfields projects such as Berwick Community Hospital (due to open in 2026), and Leeds General Infirmary (pencilled in for 2030 to 2035).

In summary, the Spending Review 2025 demonstrates a strong commitment to investing in both the Education and Health sectors, with meaningful funding increases aimed at addressing existing challenges and preparing for future demands. In particular, it emphasises the continued importance of the School Rebuilding and New Hospitals Programmes to the Government’s strategy for education and healthcare estates. 

Please get in touch with Lichfields’ Health and Education team if there are any points raised in this blog which you would like to discuss, or are perhaps relevant to your own projects.