Dr Luke Evans

I am grateful for the chance to put this on the record. The health infrastructure plan 2019 had the £3.7 billion, which was the seed funding to look into the projects to bring things forward. That also dealt with the first wave—the three hospitals that were brought forward to allow the second and third waves to come on. The hon. Gentleman will also know that, as the Government and the Opposition have stated, all big national infrastructure is done through a series of spending reviews. The money—£20 billion—was committed through those stages on the basis of that plan. The Government throw the same argument back at us when it is convenient for them to say, “We are not increasing defence spending because it needs to come in a spending review.” Both sides are playing politics, but there was money allocated in that plan. I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman was not in Parliament at that time, but he can ask the House of Commons Library to look at it so that he understands it, and he can then pass that on to his constituents to answer that question. If we have a new model, we in this House need to be able to scrutinise it. GPs’ rents and rates are reimbursed, but there is concern that if we have further PPPs, similar to the previous PFIs, GPs may be on the hook for ongoing premises costs. We must have crystal clear guarantees, so they understand what they are and are not accountable for. The 10-year plan states: “We will also work with NISTA to consider the opportunities for health that could be achieved through private financing of revenue-raising assets (such as key worker accommodation and car parks)”. That will set alarm bells ringing, as it looks like the Government will use key workers, or staff and patients coming into car parks, to generate funds. I would be grateful for clarity about what the Government actually mean by that statement, because this is a contentious issue. People know that we need to have funding coming into the health services, but where will those streams come from and what will they look like? If the 10-year plan is looking at revenue-raising assets, I am keen to understand exactly what that looks like. Overall, there is a desire in the 10-year plan, which is shared across the House, to improve healthcare. Nobody disagrees with that, but the criticism of the 10-year plan is that there is no delivery chapter. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington for securing this debate so that the Opposition can ask questions about what delivery will actually look like when it comes to improving the health of the nation.