Labour is expected to postpone plans to replace decaying NHS hospitals promised by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson because the government can't find the funds.

Health minister is set to announce at least half of the 40 new hospitals promised by the previous Conservative government won't be built by the original deadline of 2030.

The announcement is expected next week and could see trusts across the country scramble to figure how to fix their failing hospitals. According to , the health minister is planning to blame the Conservatives for failing to budget for the £30bn project beyond March.

In September, Streeting said 12 of 40 projects would go ahead, including seven which faced the risk of imminent collapse because they contain RAAC concrete. He also ordered a review of 25 others, which are said to be in a poor state.

The Treasury, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England have also reviewed the project and where the money will come from. The cost of repairing the decrepit hospitals will now be spread over a longer time frame.

Street is expected to say the refurbs will happen 'eventually' and provide revised costing for the project. It is understood many of the projects are already at an advanced stage and the hospital in desperate need of a makeover.

The health minister warned of possible delays in a letter to English MPs in September. At the time, he said the Government had "inhereted a programme that was unfunded beyond March 2025" and a wider fiscal sheet that was "hugely challening".

He wrote: "We may have to consider rephasing schemes so that they can be taken forward as fiscal conditions allow. A structured and agreed rolling investment approach will mean proceeding with these schemes will be subject to investment decisions at future spending reviews."

But Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the risks associated with crumbling hospitals are so great that it was "outright dangerous" to operate in them.

Last year, Epsom and St Helier trust in Surrey cancelled around 300 eye operations because the ventilation system in the operating theatre broke down. The Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow, Essex, also cancelled 36 operations and closed two operating theatres for weeks due to air handling units failing, the Health Service Journal reported.

The said ditching the plans was "completely unacceptable". Helen Morgan, the party's health and social care spokesperson said: "Patients in these communities have been told that these hospitals will rescue their local health services. To deny them what they were promised and the better care that they deserve would be completely unacceptable."