The housing crisis in this country and its supposed solutions

[CarlosCorbewrong]

Hospital space, particularly in new builds, costs significantly more than vacant old office blocks.

Those offices were not vacant

I'm pretty sure it's been widely reported that Sandwell Council have/had huge swathes of unoccupied office estate.  Even if not, the point still stands - it's cheaper to rent/buy non hospital based offices than hospital based ones (particularly in new builds).