Treasury savages plans for new health body’s £350m HQ
THE new body set up by Matt Hancock to replace Public Health England has already hit a major obstacle after senior Treasury figures savaged a £350million plan for a new HQ in Essex.
It can be revealed that the planned location for the new National Institute for Health Protection has been cast into doubt, with Treasury insiders describing the current business case as “appalling and incredibly expensive”.
The Health Secretary is said to be in favour of the move, which includes the creation of state-of-the-art public health laboratories, although a source close to him last night said he was “ambivalent” about it.
The Sunday Telegraph has been told that Steve Barclay, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has privately expressed deep misgivings about the project and is in the process of making major changes to the proposals submitted by the Department for Health.
It comes several months after The Telegraph revealed that original plans for PHE to move its headquarters to Harlow by 2025 had been met with fierce opposition due to concerns over value for money. Treasury insiders believe the cost to the taxpayer is unjustifiable under the current plan and have challenged the proposal to relocate staff currently based at its facilities in Porton Down, Wiltshire.
The decision by the Government to abolish PHE, disclosed by The Sunday
Telegraph last week, had led some to believe that the move would be called off. However, it has emerged that the Department for Health is still pressing ahead with the plans, with the NIHP replacing PHE as the occupant of the site.
The business case for the project is being examined by Mr Barclay and his team of officials, who are closely liaising with the Department for Health.
A Whitehall source with knowledge of the controversy said: “The Treasury don’t want it to happen because it’s a vanity project.
“Basically Hancock has lost the plot. He spends money like water. It’s a waste and he doesn’t know what he’s getting for his money. They’ve spent five years planning that move.”
The source also claimed that Duncan Selbie, the chief executive of PHE, had chosen to stay on as an adviser to the Department for Health in order to ensure the move went ahead. “That’s why Selbie is hanging about,” they added.
It is understood that Mr Barclay will now put together a revised business case for the project before he and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, decide whether to sign off on funding it.
Hitting back last night, a Health insider acknowledged that Mr Selbie had driven the original plans for the move but insisted that he was focused on wider transition to the NIHP.
They also defended the Harlow plans, stating: “Clearly we need 21st century public health labs. But the leadership of that has moved over to the new National Institute. It’s also about strengthening Porton Down. It’s an issue for the spending review.”
The row comes three years after the Government acquired the 40-acre site in Harlow for £35million. Under the original plans for PHE, staff were to be relocated from Porton Down and its facilities in Colindale, its current headquarters in central London.
The NIHP will respond to health threats including infectious diseases, pandemics and biological weapons.
It will merge the Covid response work of PHE, NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre in the “first step towards becoming a single organisation”, the Department of Health and Social Care said.