The UK's National Audit Office (NAO) has reported that the government's building maintenance backlog has reached a minimum of £49bn ($60.43bn).
This figure highlights the need for the government to manage its assets effectively alongside long-term investment plans.
According to the NAO, the government properties owned by the Ministry of Defence, schools, and the National Health Service (NHS) have a backlog exceeding £10bn, accounting for 88% of the total backlog.
Other public sites such as job centres, prisons, courts, and museums, which have backlogs of less than £2bn each, contribute to the remaining 12%.
The Office of Government Property (OGP) suggests the actual remediation cost could be higher due to incomplete data.
The NAO report indicates that these building failures have impacted public service delivery, government productivity, and shock resilience.
Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, the NHS experienced an average of 5,400 clinical service incidents annually due to infrastructure failures.
Poor property conditions have also affected staff retention and civil service productivity.
Maintenance backlogs in the country have been increasing for at least ten years. For example, NHS England’s backlog increased by an average of £800m per year from 2013-14 to 2022-23.
Rising costs, simultaneous building replacements, pandemic-related income loss, and historic underinvestment have contributed to these growing backlogs.
The NAO recommends several measures to tackle the backlog. These include standardising the maintenance backlog definition across departments, incorporating backlog data into the State of the Estate report from 2026-27, and developing long-term property plans.
Additionally, the government should consider longer-term property investment settlements and ring-fencing maintenance funding, according to the body.
NAO head Gareth Davies 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.”
