£450m Hartlepool hospital and Denton Corker Marshall Stonehenge visitor centre among those culled

Plans for a £450m hospital in Hartlepool and £25m government funding for the Denton Corker Marshall-designed Stonehenge visitor centre have been scrapped after a review of government funding decisions made this year.

The schemes are just two of a total of 24 government projects worth £10.5bn that have been either cancelled or put on hold following today’s announcement.

Other schemes affected include:

  • £1.1bn A14 upgrade
  • £12m for the regeneration of Sheffield city centre
  • £23m for transport improvements in north Kent under the Thames Gateway regeneration
  • £94m for a new magistrate’s court in Birmingham.

All of these have been put on hold pending the autumn spending review.

In total £2bn of schemes are to be cancelled and £8.5bn put on hold.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said he was determined to tackle the “unprecedented budget deficit and bad financial management” left over from the previous administration.

“As a result of the poor decisions made by the previous government, I have taken the decision to cancel certain projects that do not represent good value for money, and suspend others pending full consideration in the Spending Review.”

He added that the coalition government had also discovered a further £1bn black hole in government spending plans which were not properly funded, meaning further savings would have be found, with an announcement likely next week.

In addition the statement did not include projects which had been approved under agreed departmental expenditure limits, but were also being reviewed.

Building Schools for the Future schemes were being considered separately, he said, with an announcement about the programme to be made imminently.

The full list of affected schemes are here.

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