Rishi Sunak blocked rebuild of hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete

Exclusive: Delay to work on five buildings in 2020 led to warnings of catastrophic' safety risk

Rishi Sunak blocked plans to rebuild five hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete three years ago, prompting warnings of a catastrophic" risk to patient safety, the Guardian has learned.

Just two of the seven hospital rebuilding projects requested by the Department for Health were signed off by the Treasury at the 2020 spending review when Sunak was chancellor and Steve Barclay, now the health secretary, was his chief secretary.