The NHS faces a record £16 billion maintenance backlog, according to new ERIC 2024/25 data. Ageing buildings, safety risks, and rising repair costs threaten patient care and service delivery across England
The NHS estate is under mounting strain, with new figures revealing a maintenance backlog nearing £16 billion. The latest Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC) 2024/25 data paint a worrying picture of ageing hospitals, mounting repair bills, and critical infrastructure risks that could impact patient safety and care standards unless urgent investment is made.
Billions of funding backlog
The 2024/25 Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC) provides a detailed snapshot of the NHS estate across England, covering all NHS and Ambulance trusts. It tracks a wide range of data, from the costs of maintaining buildings and hospital equipment to essential services such as cleaning, catering, and utilities.
Since 2018/19, NHS England has strengthened the process to improve data accuracy, including validation checks, more precise guidance for trusts, and mandatory Chief Executive sign-off. Support through webinars and a dedicated help service also ensures consistent reporting. Some data fields may still be flagged as unreliable due to recent changes or new inclusions, so users are advised to review the data quality notes carefully.
The latest NHS Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) data reveals a record £13.8 billion maintenance backlog, surpassing the annual £13.6 billion cost of running the entire NHS estate. Energy use across NHS facilities reached around 11.1 billion kWh, while £1.5 billion was spent on cleaning services and £800 million on inpatient food. The figures highlight the growing strain on the health service’s infrastructure, with delayed repairs and ageing buildings posing increasing challenges for patient care and staff safety.
Crumbling and unsafe buildings for patients and staff
Responding to the publication of the latest NHS Estates Returns Information Collection data showing the estimated cost to eradicate the NHS’s backlog maintenance has risen to £15.9 billion, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
“The continued rise in the NHS maintenance backlog bill is deeply worrying but unfortunately not surprising, given the health service has been starved of capital investment for more than a decade. This has left the NHS with crumbling buildings and ageing infrastructure and estate in desperate need of extensive repairs that can be unsafe for patients and staff.
“Health service leaders welcomed the extra capital investment the government has already committed, as well as its prioritisation of trusts that need to tackle issues around reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (raac).
“But the scale of the rising maintenance backlog – up 15.7 per cent on 2023/24 with the cost to eradicate the high risk backlog rising 28 per cent to £3.5 billion – shows just how much of an impact private investment could make across the service, including in primary and community care. So we are urging the government to reconsider allowing provider trusts the freedom to explore private capital investment opportunities to build new facilities, which would free up public funding to tackle the maintenance backlog.”
