Report criticises failure to open PHE labs in Harlow

An artist's impression of how the public health labs planned for Harlow would look

The UK's future resilience to dangerous pathogens is being undermined by failures to open a new health security campus in Essex, a report claimed.

The government planned to open the site in Harlow at a cost of £530m ($670m) - but costs have skyrocketed to more than £3bn ($3.8bn).

Concerns have been raised that current laboratories in Wiltshire, which are 55 years old, are not fit for purpose.

A government spokesperson said it was "committed" to protecting the public.

Officials have been considering how to replace high-containment facilities at Porton Down, Wiltshire, and Colindale, north London, for 18 years.

In 2015, HM Treasury approved Public Health England's outline business case for a new £530m national integrated hub for public health science.

Thousands of new laboratory jobs were promised for Harlow by 2024 - but it is now anticipated the site will not open until 2036 at the earliest

Funding for this programme was used to purchase land in Harlow in 2017 and the plan was to relocate both the laboratories and the workforce from Porton Down and Colindale.

But, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report, there has been "little progress since", despite the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and its predecessors spending more than £400m ($506m) on the programme to the end of October 2023.

By this point, the cost estimate for the project had risen to £3.2bn and it was estimated to open in 2036 at the earliest, according to the NAO - 15 years later than originally planned.

HM Treasury has said it was not willing to offer funding of more than £2bn.

'Critically important'

"In 2006, government determined that replacing and modernising its high-containment laboratories was critically important to ensure the UK has the capabilities to identify, study and respond to the most dangerous pathogens in the world," Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said.

"In the eighteen years since, it has made very little progress at significant cost.

"Unrealistic cost estimates, uncertainty over scope and location and escalating forecast costs have undermined both the UK's future resilience to public health emergencies and value for money."

A UKHSA spokesperson said there was an "urgent need" to modernise and replace its highest containment facilities, and that it would continue working with the Department of Health and Social Care, which added that it was "committed to protecting the public from infectious diseases".

A spokesperson said: "We have always been focused on ensuring this project delivers value for the taxpayer."