Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 2
53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate
Published 12 Nov 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Much of FCDO’s overseas estate is in poor condition, and its estates maintenance backlog would cost an estimated £450 million to resolve. FCDO’s first priority with its overseas estate is providing a safe and legally compliant estate for staff and visitors. However, 933 of its 6,500 properties (around 15%) fail to meet its own condition targets and a £450 million overseas maintenance backlog has built up over time. FCDO acknowledged that the state of its overseas estate was quite shocking and that it was a severe risk to the organisation. FCDO also has an estimated £2.1 billion 2 pipeline of larger estate renewal or replacement projects. Since 2010, FCDO has funded its estate requirements through large asset sales, in particular in Bangkok and Tokyo. However, FCDO and HM Treasury have agreed that major asset sales are no longer viable, and, in the 2025 Spending Review, FCDO agreed with HM Treasury an annual settlement of £50 million resource funding and £100 million capital funding to maintain its estate. This new funding model alone will not address the scale of the current backlog, and FCDO’s estate remains one of its top department risks. FCDO’s 2025 Spending Review settlement also requires it to make 5% efficiency savings annually. FCDO acknowledges that getting its overseas estate right is one of its top priorities. It has committed to reduce the size and complexity of its estate, prioritise its resource and capital spending to have the greatest impact, and to identify efficiencies. recommendation FCDO should: a. Ensure that it builds upon the more certain funding for its overseas estate it received in the 2025 Spending Review to put its overseas estate onto a sustainable footing. b. Alongside its Treasury Minute response, write to the Committee setting out its plans for reducing its maintenance backlog, prioritising its resource and capital funding, and achieving efficiencies from its estate. c. Write to the Committee within six months categorising which build
From: Public Accounts Committee, 53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate (HC 884), 12 November 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-third Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 12 January 2026).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth-third report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the report's recommendations, and reports some as implemented and others with target dates.
- On estate strategy, the government agrees; an Overseas Network Review fully launching in January 2026 will look at the overall size and shape of the FCDO footprint, and the estates strategy is "due to be updated next in Spring 2026".
- On the maintenance backlog, the government agrees; the Overseas Estate Department is developing a more robust approach to its annual programme of works, with a target implementation date of end March 2029, and it will write to the Committee within six months categorising buildings by risk.
- On governance, the government agrees; a new Estates Committee was established in October 2025 and will meet quarterly, and an external review of the operating model and project delivery is due in Spring 2026.
- On lessons learned from capital projects, the government agrees; the FCDO "is re-establishing a comprehensive lessons-learned process across all capital projects", with a target implementation date of March 2026.