Report reveals government building maintenance backlog

A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that the government building maintenance backlog is at least £49 billion.

This includes maintenance backlogs across schools, hospitals, prisons and more.

The NAO found that Ministry of Defence properties, schools and NHS properties have a backlog totalling more than £10 billion each and make up 88 per cent of the total backlog. The remaining 12 per cent is made up of sites including prisons, job and assessment centres, courts, and museums and galleries.

Due to limited government data, the true cost of full remediation is not known, but the Office of Government Property (OGP) believes it could be substantially higher than estimated.

Building failures are impacting delivery of public services. 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.

It can also affect civil service productivity, staff retention, and the government’s ability to meet environmental targets.

The data shows that maintenance backlogs have been rising for at least a decade; for instance, between 2013-14 and 2022-23, NHS England’s backlog increased steadily, at an average of £800 million per year (in 2023-24 real terms).

The NAO has recommended that the government implements measures to address the backlogs. This includes mandating to departments and arms-length bodies a standardised definition of the maintenance backlog, so the true figure across government can be calculated and including data on the maintenance backlog in the State of the Estate report from 2026-27 onward.

It also recommends departments producing long-term property plans, setting out capital needs and a plan to reduce their backlog and considering ahead of the next and subsequent spending review periods, how the backlog could be tackled, by 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.

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”.