Joint white paper with NHS England recommends grouping neighbourhood health centre projects into larger portfolios to simplify procurement, speed up approvals and encourage long-term investment.
Neighbourhood health centre construction projects should be grouped into regional portfolios worth more than £100m to streamline procurement and accelerate delivery, according to a new report from Wates and NHS England.
The joint white paper proposes batching projects geographically or by integrated care board area, enabling multiple schemes to be procured and delivered through a coordinated programme rather than as separate developments.
The report argues that a portfolio approach would reduce duplicated procurement, legal and advisory work while allowing lessons learned, standardised processes and delivery standards to be applied across several projects. A single package worth more than £100m could also simplify approvals and shorten the NHS sign-off process.
The proposals relate to the government’s planned programme of 250 neighbourhood health centres across England, with 120 intended to be operational by 2030. The programme, alongside plans to introduce a new public-private partnership model, was announced at the 2025 Autumn Budget.
Wates said grouping projects could give investors greater certainty over future revenue, making it easier to commit capital to supply-chain capacity, workforce skills and manufacturing. A more predictable pipeline could also help contractors and specialist suppliers plan resources and investment over a longer period.
The report recommends involving construction partners from RIBA stages 0 to 2, covering strategic definition, preparation and briefing, and concept design. Early contractor involvement would allow buildability, cost planning, procurement and delivery considerations to influence projects before key design and pricing decisions are fixed.
Wates chief executive Eoghan O’Lionaird said: “That means providing greater certainty over the pipeline ahead, creating the confidence for industry to invest in skills and capacity, and establishing delivery models that encourage long-term collaboration.”
The blueprint also calls for a national delivery framework covering service models, design, procurement, funding and evaluation. National consistency would be combined with flexibility to respond to local healthcare needs and the requirements of individual communities.
For the construction sector, the proposed approach would shift the emphasis from procuring individual health centre buildings towards delivering a coordinated portfolio of public infrastructure. Standardisation could reduce repeated design work and improve cost predictability, while larger packages could provide sufficient scale to support investment in modern construction methods and supply-chain capability.
The proposals build on Wates’ previous advocacy of an Alliance Investment Model for public infrastructure. The contractor has argued for a model covering individual assets or groups of assets worth more than £100m, using standardised designs and shared risk to encourage collaboration between public bodies, investors and delivery partners.
The latest recommendations apply that thinking to the neighbourhood health centre programme, with the aim of aligning healthcare planning, public funding and construction delivery within a longer-term framework.
