A new hospital planned for Sussex will not be completed by the government’s initial 2030 target date, it has been revealed.

In 2020 Eastbourne was one of 40 sites in the UK earmarked for a new hospital in 2020, which would inlude the creation of a new outpatients department and theatre suite at Eastbourne District General Hospital.

The proposal was part of £3.7 billion in NHS funding announced by the government and had been due to be completed by the end of the decade.

However, health secretary Steve Barclay said while work on the planned hub in Eastbourne would start next year, not all construction would be complete by 2030.

Addressing Parliament, he said it was a reflection of delays "that two years of the Covid pandemic caused, as well as the pressure from construction inflation.”

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The news comes just days after the government slammed claims that no funding had been provided for the hospital.

A Freedom of Information request found that no money had been spent on proposed building work for the site, with no planning permission submitted.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care refuted the claim and said that £9 million had been given to East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust to “support development of their plans for their new hospital”.

The new hospital is in “cohort four” of the government’s hospital-building programme, which had a target for all new hospitals to be built by 2030.

Mr Barclay claimed the government would still deliver on its manifesto promise to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030 by adding some sites at risk of collapse and in need of an upgrade.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting slammed the government and claimed they had “overpromised and underdelivered”.

He said: “People in these places were made a promise and the secretary of state has the audacity to repeat that promise when surely he knows that even if the will is there and even, if as he says, the money is there, practically I simply do not see or understand how he will be able to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030.”

A spokesman for East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust said: "As part of the rolling new hospital programme, we are in discussions about the work that needs to be carried out to improve our facilities for the people of East Sussex.

"We look forward to progressing our Outline Business Case and planning work to ensure we are able to proceed with the redevelopment as soon as possible.

"We are also progressing with separate projects including work to reduce our carbon footprint and a scheme to develop an elective care hub in Eastbourne by 2025."

Conservative MP for Eastbourne Caroline Ansell said that plans for the new hospital "continue at pace".

She said: "The government committed itself to this huge once-in-a-generation investment in Eastbourne's healthcare and it is nothing but positive news for local people.

"The Trust is now working with the government's New Hospital Programme on what type of new hospital will be built and timeframes as to when it will be completed. This is a matter for the experts.

"What is absolutely undeniable is this: Eastbourne will be getting a new hospital. I will push for it to be completed as soon as practically possible."