MPs have warned that wave 1 – a £8.9bn pipeline of 16 hospital schemes – could trigger wider delays across the programme if early projects slip.

The Public Accounts Committee said the Department of Health and Social Care has set aside just 3% contingency funding for the 2025-30 period, leaving “very little buffer” to absorb cost increases or disruption.

With enabling works still to begin on many schemes, MPs warned any early overruns could have knock-on effects across later hospital builds.

The risk is heightened by the fact wave 1 will be the first to use the unproven Hospital 2.0 design, which is still not expected to be finalised until summer 2026.

The standardised model is meant to drive efficiency but includes a shift to 100% single-bed wards, raising concerns among NHS trusts about higher staffing costs and operational challenges.

Alongside delivery pressures, the programme is also carrying ongoing risk from seven RAAC hospitals, which will remain in use until at least 2032-33.

MPs said around £1bn will now be spent keeping those buildings safe, warning that “there remains a risk of serious deterioration” despite mitigation works.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “Per our findings this much-overdue programme faces likely further delays, particularly in today’s volatile economic environment from a lack of contingency funding.

“There are also concerns about what these new hospitals will look like – the rationale behind extra beds being provided in the context of a continual insistence of care moving to the community looks dangerously like potentially wasted resource in the future.

“We further have deep concerns that providing solely single bedrooms in the new Hospital 2.0 model risks isolating more frail and vulnerable people in particular.”

Watchdog MPs have called for greater scrutiny and oversight of the programme, demanding regular progress reports to parliament and granting the programme Government “mega project” status.