The Government owns and manages all kinds of property for the delivery of public services and to support its own operations – from hospitals, schools and prisons, to courts, museums, warehouses and more. The estate overall is valued at around £187.1bn, as of March 2023, with annual running costs of £22bn. Ministry of Defence and NHS properties (such as military bases and hospitals) and schools make up approx. 89% of the estate’s area, and 84% of its value.
In 2022, Government graded just 61% of its estate as in good or satisfactory condition. The PAC’s 2022 report on Government property, which focused on offices, found that Government plans to manage its UK-wide property portfolio lacked ambition and were out of date. It warned that planned reforms were handicapped by ageing IT systems and incomplete data on post-pandemic office usage, with the risk that taxpayers were locked into long-term, high-cost leases. Past reports have also scrutinised the condition of school buildings, hospitals and the prison estate.
The National Audit Office’s (NAO) 2025 report considered the non-office property estate, and examined the roles of the Office of Government Property and of Departments in managing and planning property maintenance. Based on the NAO report, the PAC will hear from senior Cabinet Office officials on subjects including:
- Plans to improve the estate’s condition; and
- Risks to delivery of public services, and government’s productivity and resilience.
Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere.
If you have evidence on these issues please submit it here by 23:59 on Thursday 13 March 2025.