FOI - NHS land in Greater London [Mar 2023]

Our response

1. What is the total number of plots, and the land area in hectares, of the NHS 
estate in Greater London?

From the 2021-22 Estates Returns Information Collection, NHS owned estate in London 
currently totals 758 hectares.

Further details on the NHS estate in London can be found here.

2. Since 2018, how much NHS land in Greater London has been released for housing 
development, and how many homes have been built?

London Estates Delivery Unit (LEDU) updates its reports on an annual basis. For the reporting period April 2017 to March 2022, 84 hectares of surplus NHS land has been released.

The number of homes forecasted that could result from the disposal of surplus NHS land, up to the end of March 2022 is 6,651 homes.

3. Of the homes referred to in question 2, how many have been sold or let to key 
workers and, of those, how many to NHS staff?

The GLA does not hold this information. 

4. Please provide a copy of the London Estates Board’s most recent Health and Care 
Estates Strategy.

The London Health and Care Estates Strategy was published in July 2019 and is the first strategy of its like to have been developed for London.

The ambition was for the strategy to be refreshed annually which has been somewhat derailed by the diversion of efforts to the Covid response and the changing priorities on health care estates as a result.

It is hoped that the refresh work will be completed in 2023-24. 

5. The 2019 Strategy states the delivery of homes for healthcare workers and  Londoners as one of its 7 key objectives. Please provide any reports, briefings or 
papers reporting on progress since 2019 on delivering homes for NHS workers in 
London.

As part of the overall London health and care devolution programme, the London Estates Board and LEDU led on estates and property matters and provided the governance and a delivery framework for the homes for NHS staff pilot in collaboration with One Public Estate.

Guidance for the pilot was published by the NHS in 2019 and accompanies the toolkit.

Progress on all LEDU activity, including the Homes for NHS Staff pilot, is reported 
to the Mayor’s Homes for Londoners Board and Housing Delivery Sub-Committee. The LEDU reported to the Homes for Londoners Board on:

8 May 2019
4 March 2020
2 December 2020
15 June 2021
9 March 2022
6 December 2022

• All papers are available here.
• Homes for Londoners Sub-committee 6 March 2023 is available here.

6. The 2019 Strategy identified that ‘there is currently no mechanism for 
incentivising Trusts to relinquish surplus property’(page 19). What work has been 
done to identify solutions to this issue, and what changes have been made?

The examples provided in the papers referenced in response to question 5 provide examples of some approaches that have encouraged Trusts to relinquish surplus sites for alternative use.

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting 
reference MGLA130323-2555.