Latest forecast data from the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) All-in Maintenance Cost Indices show that cleaning costs are expected to rise by 23% over the next five years, mainly driven by labour costs, while energy costs are likely to fall by 22% over the same period.
Karl Horton, chief data officer at BCIS said: “The economic outlook for 2024 remains challenging due to high interest rates and constrained funding on the demand side, and a lack of skilled workers and contractors on the supply side.
“While demand for FM services is expected to stay strong, repair and maintenance output will remain stagnant initially, with growth in the latter part of the forecast period. Cost increases will be driven by wages trying to recoup the real falls in recent years and by increases in the national living wage.”
BCIS is expecting annual declines in all repair & maintenance (R&M) sub-sectors apart from public housing and infrastructure in 2024.
While R&M is expected to show growth overall in 2025, non-housing R&M is forecast to remain in decline. BCIS is projecting R&M output to rise by around 8% in the five years to 2029.
Horton added: “R&M output may be significantly affected by the upcoming autumn budget. With a £22bn black hole in the nation’s finances to plug, the chancellor has some very difficult decisions to make.
“We know that funding for R&M projects, including urgent work on schools, hospitals and prisons, as well as other government and local authority buildings, is going to be under extreme pressure.
“There is a large stream of work on backlog maintenance, decarbonisation and repairs to address RAAC [reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete], if funds are available.”
