The government has agreed to put up an extra £60m funding to enable the redevelopment of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton to get under way
Laing O’Rourke, the main contractor on the scheme, expects work to start on the project this year after the government agreed to an extra £60m funding.
Preparatory works on the redevelopment of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton were completed in the autumn of last year. However, soaring costs put the project on hold.
A total of £420m had already been committed to the project by the Treasury and the Department of Health last year. However, the cost of the project has now increased by £60m to £480m since the original budget was decided in 2009.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “This government is a huge supporter of this hospital. It’s a hospital that has needed a big new development for very, very many years.
“The costs have gone up since then because of inflation and I can today announce that we will be putting aside an extra £60m to deal with those additional inflationary costs so that the project can go ahead.
“There still got to be a final business case that’s got to be approved and we’ve got to go through the normal processes.
“But the extra money that we are announcing today was the big block because costs have gone up since last year. We’re very pleased to have been able to find that extra £60m.”
