The backlog in maintaining crumbling schools, hospitals and prisons costs at least £49 billion but could be larger, a spending watchdog has said.
Ministers have also been warned by the head of the National Audit Office (NAO) that allowing the waiting list of repairs to Government buildings to linger is a “false economy” which could cost more in the long term.
The Government insisted it was taking “immediate action” to address the issues caused by “long-term underinvestment”.
Schools, NHS properties and Ministry of Defence buildings make up 88% of the works backlog, and each have maintenance costs of more than £10 billion, the NAO said in its latest assessment of Government properties.
Some 5,400 incidents caused by property and infrastructure failures have had an impact on patient care in the NHS every year since 2019, the report said.
The remaining 12% of the maintenance backlog is made up of prisons, job centres, courts, museums and galleries, which have backlogs of less than £2 billion each.
But the watchdog has warned that data on buildings is “incomplete, out of date”, and uses “inconsistent definitions”, and that the Office of Government Property (OGP) believes the cost could be much higher.
Ministers are taking steps to improve data collection on the condition of Government buildings, the report said, but must standardise it and improve it.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves must also tackle the maintenance backlog in the Government’s next spending review, and agree long-term funding to repair crumbling buildings, the NAO added.
The £49 billion price tag equates to approximately 4% of the Government’s total expenditure in the 2023-24 financial year, or around £710 for each person living in the UK, according to the report.
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.”
Public Accounts Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has urged ministers to break the cycle of short-term thinking on repairing Government buildings (Richard Townshend/UK Parliament/PA)
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee said the crumbling estate is “putting the safety of those who work in and use these public services at risk”.
He added: “It is alarming that more than 5,000 clinical incidents each year are caused by disrepair across the NHS estate.
“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.”
A Government spokesman said: “We are taking immediate action to remedy the state of disrepair found across the public estate, which is the result of long-term underinvestment 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 as we deliver on the plan for change.”