The large capital replacement programmes for schools, hospitals, etc that have taken place over the past 10 years have distorted the maintenance spend for several reasons:

• buildings with the highest maintenance spend were replaced;
• backlog maintenance was allowed to accrue in anticipation of replacement;
• low life cycle cost spend in early years in a new building.

Public sector spending cuts are likely to severely restrict future capital spending, so the maintenance requirements of the existing stock are likely to rise significantly as the inverse of the above take effect eg:

• lack of funds to replace inefficient buildings;
• the need to address the backlog generally and specifically in those buildings which were due for replacement;
• new buildings will be hitting their first cycles of redecoration, and component replacement.

It is imperative that future maintenance budgets should be sufficient to ensure that older buildings are brought up to an acceptable standard and that new buildings are not allowed to deteriorate.

In particular, where PFI schemes have 'locked in' a proportion of the operating, budget the non-PFI buildings should not be allowed to suffer as a result.

BCIS Building Running Costs Online provides estimates for annual average maintenance for a wide variety of building types including:

• general hospitals £35.50/m2/annum;
• secondary schools £27.50/m2/annum.

Of course the budget for any stock of buildings needs to meet the requirements of those buildings and will depend on a wide range of factors including their design, specification, age, current state, etc.

It should be the needs of the buildings that sets the budget not an arbitrary allocation of funds. We must not waste the benefits of the recent investment by underfunding maintenance now.