Leighton Hospital

The existing hospital would be replaced. Credit: MCHFT

Leighton Hospital

Land deal inked to unlock £740m Cheshire hospital campus

21 March 2024 10:25

(article by Dan Whelan @ https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/land-deal-inked-to-unlock-740m-cheshire-hospital-campus/ )

Mid-Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has acquired around 24 acres close to the ageing Leighton Hospital in Crewe to facilitate a replacement facility as part of the government's £20bn New Hospitals Programme.

Whitehall announced last year that Leighton Hospital would benefit from funding from the NHP due to the amount of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete within the estate.

RAAC has a 30-year lifespan and Leighton Hospital is 50 years old.

Earlier this year, the NHS trust began the search for a design team for the £740m new-build campus and now it has acquired four parcels of land that will be required to build the campus.

The new campus will be developed in line with the government's standardised Hospital 2.0 model, providing a health and care campus that aims to address health inequalities and transform health outcomes in the local population.

The New Leighton campus is expected to be delivered by 2030.

Hill Dickinson and Sanderson Weatherall advised on the land purchase.

Rebecca Wakefield, senior associate in Hill Dickinson's health real estate team, said: "We are delighted to have supported Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust through negotiation of the land purchase and to have secured this land for them to move forward with their exciting NHP plans.

"We worked closely with the trust's internal project team and its surveyor, taking a collaborative approach to advise the trust on the terms of the deal and guiding them to completion of the acquisition."

John Goodchild, partner at Sanderson Weatherall, said the importance of the land deal "could not be understated".

"It has propelled the trust into the vanguard of new hospitals to be delivered under the NHS's New Hospitals Programme and Hospital 2.0.

"The new hospital will be complemented by a network of new roads and the delivery of more than 1,600 new homes in adjacent development plots. This really opens up the prospect to see transformational change in this part of Crewe with the benefits of significant public and private sector investment likely to be felt across Cheshire."