Government Building Maintenance Backlog is £49 Billion Says Watchdog

THE GOVERNMENT’S building maintenance backlog is at least £49 billion, the public spending watchdog has said.

£49 billion equals around 4% of the government’s total expenditure in 2023-24, or about £710 for each person living in the UK.

Schools, Ministry of Defence properties and NHS properties have a backlog totalling more than £10 billion each. Together, they make up 88% of the total backlog, the National Audit Office (NAO) found. Sites including prisons, job and assessment centres, courts, and museums and galleries have backlogs less than £2 billion each and make up the remaining 12%.

Safety at Risk

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “With my background in property, I am concerned that for too long schools, hospitals and prisons have been left to crumble. This is putting the safety of those who work in and use these public services at risk. It is alarming that more than 5,000 clinical incidents each year are caused by disrepair across the NHS estate.

The true cost of full repairs is not known, but the Office of Government Property (OGP) believes it could be substantially higher because the government’s data on its properties’ condition is incomplete and out of date.

The combination of incomplete data and the lack of an asset management strategy hinder the government’s ability to make effective funding decisions, the NAO says.

Dither and Delay

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown added, “Government’s poor data means it lacks a clear picture of the true state of affairs across the public sector. With the maintenance backlog estimated to have reached at least £49 billion, government must urgently break the cycle of short-term thinking, dither and delay, which only leads to spiralling future costs.”

Government Building Maintenance Backlog

Out of 17 main government departments, 5 have identified unacceptable risks of property failure, safety or suitability. They include the departments with three of the four largest property portfolios: the Department for Education, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice.

Building failures have also affected the NHS. On average, between 2019-20 and 2023-24, approximately 5,400 clinical service incidents occurred in the NHS every year due to property and infrastructure failures. Poor property condition can also negatively affect civil service productivity, staff retention, and the government’s ability to meet environmental targets.

However, there can be resistance in moving out of old buildings, despite them being expensive to maintain and susceptible to faults. These include the historical significance of existing sites, difficulties in finding suitable buildings in the required locations, or the fact that the proceeds from selling existing properties would be low and the cost of acquiring new buildings high.

Maintenance Backlog Rising

Maintenance backlogs have been rising for at least a decade. Just in the case of the NHS, between 2013-14 and 2022-23, its backlog increased at an average of £800 million per year (in 2023-24 real terms).

Government departments say rising backlogs are due to a range of reasons: including cost of work increasing; several buildings requiring replacement at the same time; lost income from the pandemic, meaning there is less money available for maintenance work; and historic underinvestment.

False Economies

Yet the Cabinet Office has estimated that deferring backlog maintenance can increase costs by more than 50% over a 2- to 4-year period. To address the backlogs, government says it is working to improve its understanding of the condition of its estate.

After some delays, the OGP is introducing InSite to improve data collection, and aims to have implemented it by March 2025.

A short-term approach to planning and funding for property maintenance affects government’s ability to deliver the best value for money in the long term. Government organisations operate with annual maintenance budgets and are not allowed to transfer unspent funds to the following year.

NAO Recommendations

The NAO is recommending to government measures to address the backlogs. These include:

• Mandating to departments and arms-length bodies a standardised definition of the maintenance backlog, so it can be calculated accurately.
• Including data on the maintenance backlog in the State of the Estate report from 2026-27 onward.
• Departments producing long-term property plans, setting out capital needs and a plan to reduce their backlog.
• Considering ahead of the next and subsequent spending review periods, how the backlog could be tackled. For example, where feasible, agreeing longer-term settlements for property investment and ring-fencing maintenance funding, or encouraging a thematic approach to bids that tackle similar problems across government property.

False Economy

Gareth Davies, Head of the NAO said: “Allowing large maintenance backlogs to build up at the buildings used to deliver essential public services is a false economy. Government needs better data on the condition of its operational assets and should use it to plan efficient maintenance programmes to deliver better services and value for money.”

Read the report maintaining-public-service-facilities.pdf

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