Surgeons welcome first allocation from NHS Estate Safety Fund, but warn sustained investment is needed
09 Sep 2026
Responding to the government’s allocation of £1.5 billion from the £6.75 billion NHS Estate Safety Fund to improve NHS buildings, address maintenance issues and strengthen resilience to extreme heat, Tim Lane, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said:
“We welcome this first allocation from the Government’s NHS Estate Safety Fund. It comes at a critical time. This summer, surgeons reported that extreme heat, ageing ventilation systems and deteriorating hospital buildings were making it harder to keep operating theatres running and patients treated on time.
“Investment in cooling, ventilation and other measures to make hospitals more resilient to heat is a positive start. But while we must future-proof the NHS against increasingly frequent heatwaves, we also need to expand surgical capacity if we are to meet the 92% elective waiting time target and ensure patients get the operations they need without unnecessary delay.”
ENDS 2. The £1.5 billion announced today is the first allocation from the Government’s £6.75 billion Estates Safety Fund, which was announced as part of the 2025 Spending Review. The £6.75 billion will be distributed over nine years from 2026/27 to 2034/35.
Notes to editors
1. The Spending Review 2025 announced a £2.3 billion real-terms increase (£4 billion cash increase) in the Department of Health and Social Care's annual capital budget between 2023/24 and 2029/30 to support investment in the NHS, including new technology, hospitals and primary care. The government said this would deliver "the largest ever health capital budget", representing a more than 20% real-terms increase by the end of the Spending Review period. This funding settlement underpins the capital plan's projection that NHS capital spending will rise to £14.6 billion (around £15 billion) a year by 2029/30. See more: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html
3.The £1.5 billion allocation will support around 950 hospital projects, including work to address fire safety, ventilation and ageing electrical equipment. More than £32 million of the allocation will support cooling and ventilation, while £200 million will fund 10 major schemes.
4. The NHS maintenance backlog is now estimated at £15.9bn: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/estates-returns-information-collection/summary-page-and-dataset-for-eric-2024-25
5. The Royal College of Surgeons of England provides world-class education, assessment, and development to 30,000 surgeons, dental professionals, and members of the wider surgical and dental care teams at all stages of their careers. Our vision is to see excellent surgical care for everyone. We do this by setting professional standards, facilitating research, and championing the best outcomes for patients.
6. For more information, please contact the press office: telephone: 020 7869 6053/6054/6060; email: pressoffice@rcseng.ac.uk; out-of-hours media enquiries: 0207 869 6056.