The NRC will be one of the early schemes to be delivered under the government’s commitment to build 40 new hospitals by 2030.

The IHP alliance of Vinci and McAlpine can now start pre-construction activity on the site and main construction will start subject to final agreements from Government.

Procurement was run under the P22 Department for Health and Social Care framework.

The NRC is a unique and brand-new facility with the potential to transform clinical rehabilitation across the NHS.

It will combine under one roof clinical rehabilitation, research, development and commercial innovation, and training and education.

The impact of the NRC for patients is anticipated to be game-changing in terms of the quality of life potentially achievable after serious injury or illness.

Miriam Duffy, NRC Programme Director, said: “This is excellent news for all of us eager to see the benefits of the NRC realised and the facility become operational as soon as possible. IHP is a great fit and I’m impressed not just with their technical capability but with their understanding of the uniqueness of the NRC.

“We’re confident of creating a great construction partnership that will see the outstanding NRC building come to life and help us to get on with treating patients.”

The NRC is a 70-bed facility designed to integrate with the natural landscape of the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate and specified to the highest standards of sustainability.

It has been designed to ensure it will continue to achieve net zero carbon over the entire life of the building. It will not require any fossil fuels, and carbon-free electricity will be generated through solar panels on the site.

The building will be highly insulated to minimise energy loss and will be built using low carbon materials such as timber for its structure.

The NRC will be built 400m from the counterpart Defence facility – the ‘Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) Stanford Hall’ – which is operated by the Ministry of Defence and opened in 2018.

Both the NRC and the Defence facility are part of the overall Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) Programme.

Alongside IHP, the NRC project team includes Ryder Architecture, Arup and Fira (landscape architects).