4.10 The fast-tracked one-year Spending Round in September 2019 allowed government to focus on exiting the EU, with a full spending review postponed to 2020. The postponement of the 2019 Spending Review created some uncertainty regarding future announcements by the Department on capital planning. For example, the Department is currently undertaking a review of capital as requested by HM Treasury and had planned to announce its capital strategy from 2020-21 to 2024-25 to support The NHS Long Term Plan (and the revenue settlement for NHS England, agreed to 2023-24), in the autumn 2019 Spending Review. Instead the Department's Health Infrastructure Plan, published in October 2019, provides an overview of their capital strategy.
4.11 The 2019 Spending Review had also been an opportunity to explore alternative views about how to remedy the lack of available capital in the NHS, for example, the Chair of NHS England Lord Prior's proposal to raise a £50 billion government bond for infrastructure spending. In June 2019, HM Treasury closed its consultation on the broader government approach to the role of private finance in infrastructure projects, after ending the use of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI)/Private Finance 2 but is yet to set out whether it will make a mechanism to enable private investment in capital projects available to the NHS.