New vs Old

Good morning. I hope that you all had a good Easter weekend. My last week, and indeed a good part of the weekend, involved using a jack hammer on a 100-year-old concrete floor to prepare it for a makeover. This all started about nine months ago when my wife and I decided to purchase a run-down 19th century former pub. Having moved into the pub over 4 months ago, we have been battling against the entropic forces of nature to restore the building into a family home.

On one of my many tea breaks I read an article stating that the New Hospitals build is now going to cost almost double the original estimate – now a whopping £35bn. Perhaps now is a good time to pause and re-evaluate the cost/benefit of building new against refurbishing and renewing old?

While Directors of Estates across the country are in the process of compiling their data ahead of the new ERIC submission, I am confident that the level and cost to rectify the backlog maintenance position of NHS England will rise once more. With high levels of inflation and low levels of staff and contractor availability, the £10bn will grow by a further 5%-10%. But will this still be more cost effective than building new? One thing is certain – it is more sustainable than building new. Around 60% of all UK waste comes from construction and demolition (1).

It is recognised that some of the new builds are because existing buildings have reached obsolescence, and because the demand on the NHS means we do still need to build new clinical space. However, I would question whether the obsolescence test has been fully explored?

Our decision to bring back to life a run-down old pub is a romantic notion to bring a beautiful building back to life. The decision to bring back to life run down old hospitals is not only an economic one but one which affects many people's lives.

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1. https://buildpass.co.uk/blog/new-build-vs-re-use-whats-better-environmentally/#:~:text=It%20might%20be%20surprising%2C%20but,creation%20of%20a%20new%20building.