Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 11
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)
Since 2010, FCDO has funded its overseas estate capital and maintenance projects through property sales. It has generated £1.47 billion from sales, largely from a sale in Bangkok in 2018 and a partial sale of its Tokyo site in 2022. FCDO has been able to access these funds flexibly, subject to the standard HM Treasury spending controls, and this has allowed it to complete or start around 200 capital projects since 2018. However, the NAO report concluded that this approach to funding its estate requirements was unsustainable.27 As part of the Spending Review 2025 negotiations, HM Treasury agreed with FCDO that the system of funding its estate through major sales of estate was no longer viable, and that FCDO required a more sustainable funding model for the overseas estate portfolio. Subsequently, in the 2025 Spending Review, FCDO secured an annual settlement of £50 million resource funding for day-to-day spending to maintain its estate and £100 million capital funding for larger projects.28 20 Qq 30, 65 21 Qq 49, 65 22 C&AG’s report, paras 8, 14 23 Q 27; C&AG’s report, para 2.7 24 C&AG’s report, para 3.5 25 Q 49 26 C&AG’s report, para 14 27 C&AG’s report, paras 1.18-19 28 Q 27; C&AG’s report, paras 1.18-20; Spending Review 2025, CP 1336, 11 June 2025; Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Main Estimates Memorandum 2025 to 2026, 16 May 2025 10
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.