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UK government buildings have been “left to crumble” causing disruption to public services, the National Audit Office warned on Wednesday.
Poor building conditions and a maintenance backlog of at least £49bn across government departments has disrupted services, hit government productivity and put safety at risk, according to a report by the spending watchdog.
“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,” said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the public accounts committee.
Recent incidents caused by poor building conditions have included a partial roof collapse at Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport in March 2024, forcing patients to be evacuated and procedures to be cancelled, and the failure of a fire alarm system at Birmingham’s Victoria Law Courts, leading to a loss of 4,176 courtroom days between May 2022 and January 2024.
The NAO’s report said the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and schools represented 88 per cent of the total £49bn maintenance backlog — schools and the NHS have backlogs of £13.8bn each while the MoD’s properties have a backlog of £15.3bn. The remainder includes courts and prisons.
The maintenance backlog has increased steadily in recent years, with the Office of Government Property (OGP) estimating it has risen from £14.8bn in January 2019.
The NAO cited “historic under-investment” by governments, cost increases and the loss of income during the pandemic as reasons for the recent growth in the backlog.
However, data from individual organisations suggests maintenance backlogs have been rising for at least a decade — between 2014-15 and 2023-24, NHS England’s backlog had an average increase of 11 per cent every year.
The OGP believes the actual cost of fixing government buildings could be “substantially higher” than the NAO’s £49bn estimate due to incomplete data on building maintenance.
Some departments were found to have last surveyed the conditions of their properties more than five years ago. Other departments were found to be surveying property conditions regularly but not routinely publishing the data, preventing the OGP from forming a complete view.
Organisations also include differing costs in backlog calculations, preventing comparisons across departments.
The inconsistency of the data affects the government’s ability to be strategic when prioritising funding, the NAO found, as departments with poor data are less able to build strong cases to present to the Treasury.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “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”.
The OGP said: “We are taking immediate action to remedy the state of disrepair found across the public estate, which is the result of long-term under-investment in maintenance and upkeep.”
“As part of this, we are already investing billions of pounds to deliver critical repairs and rebuild our public services, to tackle maintenance backlogs and improve our hospitals, schools and prisons.”
