Rose Hill will house the borough’s new secondary school, Sutton and Cheam’s new MP has revealed, just months after Sutton Council heralded the £8m purchase of land at the alternative Sutton Hospital location.

Paul Scully, a long-time supporter of building a new school in Rose Hill, closed his maiden speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday, June 9, by stating “a couple of days ago we had an announcement that has helped us build a school in my preferred area”.

The Sutton Guardian understands that the Government department in charge of making the final decision over where a new school should be placed in Sutton, Education Funding Authority (EFA), is in discussions with Sutton Council to agree terms on the site.

The school would be run by the Greenshaw Learning Trust, which runs Greenshaw High School.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Scully said: “It is my belief the Government has seen that the Sutton Hospital site is too small.”

Feasibility studies conducted into both potential locations confirm this with the land purchased in Belmont considered “very restricted” in size.

Both the EFA and Sutton Council have refused to confirm or deny Rose Hill is the preferred site.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “We are working closely with the Greenshaw Learning Trust and the London Borough of Sutton to find a permanent site for the school. We consider a range of factors when deciding on a site, including the best outcomes for pupils and value for money.”

Sutton Council said: “As we have publicly stated, this is a matter for the EFA and we await their decision with interest.”

A school in Rose Hill would leave the future of the recently-purchased land at Sutton Hospital up in the air.

The borough only bought the land from the NHS for £8m in April, with workers scheduled to demolish existing buildings at the site in July.

In a press release issued at the time, the council said it had “bought a site in Belmont from Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust in order to build a new secondary school”.

It said: “The council had been looking for a site for a new secondary school to open in 2017 and approached the trust after the old Sutton Hospital site in Belmont was identified as a favoured location, linked to the world-class opportunity for developing life sciences with the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Cancer Research.”

In the past year the borough has created 600 additional school places by expanding current sites, with a further 825 pupils to be placed in schools expanded in 2016.

The new school is hoped to be ready to open in September 2017.

The Sutton Hospital site’s future is muddied further as leaked plans suggested Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust is planning a potential super hospital after 2020 on the site.