A report from the National Audit Office warns that the true cost of full remediation for all public buildings is unknown because government data on the condition of its properties is “incomplete and out-of-date”.
The NAO says that 88% of the total maintenance backlog is made up by Ministry of Defence properties, NHS properties, and school buildings.
A maintenance backlog is the value of work that has not been done when maintaining property, including the cost of works that should have already taken place.
Maintenance can cover all manner of work, including repairing and replacing walls, roofs, windows, electrics, water, heating and so on. Remediation refers to the real cost of repairs to improve property condition, rather than simply maintaining it.
The NAO cites several reasons for the backlog, including historic underinvestment, increasing costs including inflation, and many old buildings reaching the end of their operational life.
However, the NAO is clear: “Well-maintained government properties are more cost-effective, less likely to break down, more valuable and longer lasting than poorly maintained buildings. For the people who work in them, well-maintained properties contribute to higher levels of wellbeing, reduced absenteeism and higher productivity.”
The NAO also points to estimations from the Cabinet Office showing that deferring backlog maintenance can increase costs by more than 50% over a two to four-year period.
The NAO’s £13.8bn estimate for schools is based on the Department for Education’s own estimate of “schools’ total condition need”, which is defined as “the modelled cost of the remedial work to repair or replace all defective elements in the school estate”.
However, the DfE’s estimate is based on data collected between 2017 and 2019 and “does not account for any subsequent investment to improve schools or deterioration of their condition”. The DfE is due to complete a new data collection exercise in 2026.
The NAO acknowledges that the DfE has not been given enough money to fix the maintenance backlog in school buildings, pointing to the 2020 Spending Review when the DfE estimated £5.3bn a year would be needed, formally requested from the Treasury £4bn a year for 2021 to 2025, but was only allocated £3.1bn.
Research by the House of Commons Library in 2023 also revealed that overall DfE capital spending declined by around 37% in cash terms and 50% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2021/22.
In November’s Budget, the new government allocated capital funding of £6.7bn for 2025/26, including £1.4bn for the School Rebuilding Programme, an increase of £550m, and £2bn for school maintenance.
However, this funding will only be enough to get the 10-year School Rebuilding Programme back on track and this will only benefit around 50 schools a year.
It is not the first time the NAO has raised concerns about school buildings. In 2023, a damning NAO report warned of a “significant funding shortfall” in capital investment which it said has contributed to the “deterioration of the school estate”.
In 2023, the NAO judged that an estimated 700,000 students were learning in schools that need major rebuilding or refurbishment work. It said that of the 64,000 or so individual school buildings in England, 38% (around 24,000) are “beyond their estimated initial design life”.
It also warned that thousands of schools still contain asbestos, including 3,600 where asbestos could be susceptible to deterioration. And it raised warnings about the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) – a precursor to the crisis that came to a head in September of that year.
This report was followed by yet another damning report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee in the autumn of 2023 criticising the DfE and concluding it did not “have a good enough understanding of safety risks across school buildings for it to fully quantify and mitigate these risks and keep children and staff in schools safe”.
Fast forward to now and the NAO’s report this week raises similar concerns: “The government’s data on the condition of its properties and the maintenance backlog are incomplete, out-of-date, and use inconsistent definitions, which hinders the government’s ability to make effective funding decisions.”
The NAO recommends that the government mandates a standardised definition of the maintenance backlog to enable a clear picture to be created. Departments concerned should also produce long-term property plans “setting out capital needs and a plan to reduce their backlog”.
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.”
School leaders this week said that the report should be the catalyst for faster action and better investment from the government.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “We frequently hear from school leaders of the unacceptable conditions with which pupils and staff are having to contend – from crumbly concrete to leaking roofs, draughty portable cabins and school dinners being served in corridors.
“The true cost of restoring crumbling school buildings is now likely to be far greater than the £13.8m cited here and it is vital that the on-going national condition survey is completed without delay so the government has a more accurate picture of the funding needed.
“Returning the school estate to at least a satisfactory condition and setting out a major long-term school rebuilding programme must be top priorities for government investment in the spring Spending Review.”
Julia Harnden, funding specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, added: “Recent government investment looks tiny compared with the cuts that have taken place over the last 15 years and the level of need this has inevitably created down the line.
"We agree with the NAO’s recommendations and particularly the need for the DfE to set out an ambitious, long-term plan of how it will ensure school and college buildings are fit for the future, but we also need the Treasury to support the plan with investment. Short-term thinking and small-scale investment is just not going to cut it.”
- NAO: Maintaining public service facilities, January 2025: www.nao.org.uk/reports/maintaining-public-service-facilities