NHS land to be sold off for development

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 22-07-2011

Ministers have asked NHS managers to highlight land that could be sold off to raise cash for the health service.

Deputy NHS chief executive David Flory has asked trusts to identify surplus land which could be sold to make way for new homes.

But as much of the NHS land is in city-centre locations, it is likely to be in demand for office development.

The money raised by any land sell-off would be ploughed back into NHS services, according to the Department of Health.

A Department of Health spokesman said that "financial accounting procedures" would ensure the money went back into frontline services.

The DoH said that between now and 2016 around £2.5 billion could be earned by selling off the almost 8% of unused NHS land.

Health minister Simon Burns said: "If we want to modernise the NHS and make it more efficient, then we need to be proactive and identify land that is no longer used or needed.

"Any money raised from surplus land will be used to benefit patients."