Crumbling Government infrastructure
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will question how effectively the Government is monitoring and maintaining the condition of public service properties on Monday, 31 March. The session follows a report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) on the same issue.
Meeting details
Well maintained properties are vital to ensure essential public services such as hospitals, schools and prisons are able to operate effectively and efficiently. In order to provide these services, the Government has amassed a range of freehold properties, which recent estimates value at around £187billion.
However, a recent NAO report found that the estimated cost of the maintenance backlog for these properties had reached £49billion, which equates to around 4% of the government’s total expenditure in 2023-24. The growing backlog has raised serious concerns that essential services could be severely disrupted, with some disruption already occurring in services such as the NHS, which saw on average approximately 5,400 clinical service incidents resulting from property and infrastructure failures.
The report also stressed that incomplete and inconsistent data is hindering the Government's ability to make effective funding decisions and consider long-term strategies rather than short-term quick fixes. Findings regarding the difficulty Departments are facing in recruiting property specialists suggest the issue is set to worsen if skills shortages are not adequately addressed.
The Committee will hear from the Government’s Chief Property Officer and representatives from the Cabinet Office and Defence Infrastructure Organisation, with questions likely to focus on:
- Examining how the Government will improve monitoring of the condition of public service facilities through data collection;
- Questioning if the current strategies for monitoring and reducing the maintenance backlog are stringent enough and;
- Ask if the current funding strategy could be refined to provide better value for taxpayer money.