THE county's hospital trust has asked for more than £7 million from housing developers to relieve some of the pressure brought on by almost 5,000 homes new homes being built on the outskirts of the city – but is unlikely to receive it.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has requested £7,723,287 from developers building thousands of homes on the edge of the city and in villages near Worcester to ensure new and future patients are cared for properly and to prevent the already-packed hospital from becoming even more oversubscribed.

The hospital trust warned that if no funding was provided patients would receive substandard care, safety would be affected, the hospital would be forced to run over capacity, waiting times would increase and operations may have to be cancelled, according to a report to be discussed by Malvern Hills District Council's planning committee next week.

But council planners have said the multi-million-pound request has come too late in the negotiation stage and would jeopardise existing agreements made after the planning applications were approved.

The huge developments, which form part of urban extensions to the west and south of Worcester and were approved between 2017 and January this year, include a massive £500 million, 2,204-home 'super village between St Peter's and Kempsey, a 255 homes plan between Taylor's Lane and the A4440 on the edge of the city and two massive plans in Lower Broadheath near Worcester which total 2,365 homes.

Planning applications are usually approved in principle before planners and the developer work out legally-binding funding agreements - known as section 106 money - to pay for other public infrastructure and facilities such as bus routes, schools, community centres and parks.

If the multi-million cash boost for the hospitals trust was approved by councillors, it may come at a price for affordable housing with council planners saying the percentage required to be built would have to be slashed by half to make the funding agreements fair.

The council sets a minimum requirement of 40 per cent of homes in new developments to be affordable but that would drop to 20 per cent to allow for the hospital cash boost.

Council planners said the hospital trust has left the request for funding contributions too late and allowing the extra money to be paid to the hospital would mean existing agreements would have to be reevaluated and renegotiated.

The extra money for the hospital could also mean schemes to improve roads and build schools could lose money.

The council has said roads, schools and affordable housing still remain the council’s top priority and shortfalls in hospital funding should be addressed by the government and not necessarily councils or developers.

The hospital trust put forward its methodology for finding the £7.7 million figure to the council but planners were not convinced all of the money was completely relevant for developer contributions.