The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts report on the ‘Condition of Government Property’ has been published, together with minutes relating to the Report on 11 June 2025.
Parliament UK writes:
The government has extensive property holdings, which it uses to deliver services to the public. As of March 2024, the value of its freehold properties was approximately £192 billion. Ministry of Defence properties, National Health Service properties and the school estate make up approximately 89% of government property by area and 84% by value.
The maintenance backlog of government properties reached at least £49 billion by October 2024. The poor condition of property is responsible for affecting service delivery, including through the closure of 4,100 prison cells since 2010, and an average of 5,400 clinical service incidents a year in the NHS; these are localised incidents where the level of disruption results in the organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver services, which can include closing departments, suspending services and cancelling appointments. The government’s efforts to tackle the backlog are undermined by incomplete and inconsistent data. Departments use different definitions to calculate the scale of their backlogs and the Office of Government Property (OGP) lacks data on the condition of 36% of central government property.
The OGP, which is part of the Cabinet Office, expects each department to develop an annual Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP). Developing a SAMP is a mandatory requirement for all departments with a property portfolio but not all departments prepare comprehensive plans. Departments’ SAMPs are currently of varying quality, and different levels of maturity. Poor data and poor strategic planning impacts the governments’ ability to make well–informed wider strategic decisions, including the prioritisation of funding and driving cross–government initiatives.
Long–term planning of property maintenance would enable better planning and offer better value for money. However, the short–term funding available to departments further hinders their ability to design strategic, preventative and long–term property plans. The government has set out longer–term capital funding plans, but the quality of funding bids submitted by departments still varies, which prevents HM Treasury from making well–informed strategic investment decisions. Government departments often lack the skills and capabilities to manage their property portfolio effectively. Despite recruitment and training initiatives by the OGP, there remains a shortage of experienced professionals across government. The OGP is working with departments to adjust their workforce plans but has an incomplete picture of overall capability levels.
There are many organisations involved in overseeing property strategy, condition and funding, including government departments, HM Treasury, Cabinet Office and the Office for Government Property (OGP), the Government Property Agency, and the newly developed National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. This risks duplication of effort, inefficiencies, and bureaucratic burdens. While the Cabinet Office is committed to reviewing its organisation to eliminate duplication, concerns remain about the lack of a central authority capable of mandating departments to act.
Our Committee has had to return time and time again to the issue of maintenance not being sufficiently prioritised, budgeted for or even properly considered when individual decisions have been made on acquiring or constructing new physical assets. This report illustrates how government’s overall ability to manage the state of the property it holds directly impacts the delivery of the public services we all rely on. We will continue to monitor how well lessons are learned and applied by individual departments and the central teams in the OGP and GPA to improve the condition of our public sector buildings.
