Economic Significance of Maintenance Report

Repair and maintenance (R&M) expenditure is the cost incurred to bring an asset back to an earlier condition or to keep the asset operating at its present condition. Building maintenance and repairs make an important contribution to the country’s wealth and wellbeing.

BCIS publishes the Economic Significance of Maintenance report annually to evaluate the value of the work carried out in this sector.

Maintenance expenditure in 2023 highest proportion of GDP in last 10 years

Total maintenance expenditure in 2023 (at current prices) is estimated to be £96.46bn, the latest Economic Significance of Maintenance report estimates. At constant prices, this represents a 7.1% increase on 2022.

Further, at current prices, total maintenance expenditure represented 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, the highest level in the past 10 years having gradually increased each year since 2020.

The BCIS estimate is made up of R&M construction output, the estimated amount of work performed by directly employed maintenance workers in private sector non-housing, and the amount of money householders spend on maintaining their properties that is not included elsewhere.

Estimates also show that, at current prices, in 2023:

• Total R&M output accounted for 37% of construction output, almost 5% more than the previous year.
• The amount that householders spent on goods, services, and insurance related to maintaining their homes was 1.1% of total consumer spending, almost equal to 2022 and 11.3% down on the pre-COVID year of 2019.
• Householders spent £9.3bn on DIY goods

^{Source: BCIS, ONS}

The full Economic significance of maintenance report 2025 is published in the BCIS Briefing section, as part of the BCIS OpX.

The 2024 report, covering expenditure in 2022, is available to download as a white paper to illustrate its scope and coverage. Use the button at the bottom of the page to download.

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