The cost of renovating state owned buildings, NOK 142 billion

The cost of renovating all state owned buildings in Norway and bring them up to a satisfactory standard is a whopping NOK 142 billion, according to a study carried out by the companies Multiconsult and PwC, on behalf of KS (Norwegian municipality’s interest grop).

The failure to carry out maintenance work on state owned buildings have proven to be costly.

- It will cost NOK 142 billion to get all the buildings up to a satisfactory level. If however one allows for some minor defects to go unfixed, the bill will drop to NOK 94 billion over a ten year period, Chairman of KS, Olav Ullern tells Norwegian newspaper Nationen.

The study includes more than 10 000 buildings in 116 municipalities and 11 state regions.

One third of the buildings are in a good or a satisfactory condition. Another third of the buildings are in a reasonably good condition and are in need of some maintenance work. The remaining third of the buildings are in an unsatisfactory condition and are in urgent need of attention.

The responsibility of the municipalities

- The State is responsible for allocating funds for renovations, but the municipalities are responsible for making sure that the renovations goes ahead, and the municipalities have failed to do so, Ulleren says.

The municipalities claim that they need to prioritize more pressing short term needs over long term maintenance work to state owned buildings. Many municipalities also feel that the State doesn’t allocate sufficient funds for this purpose. Ulleren also points out that there isn’t much political prestige involved in renovating kinder gardens, school buildings and hospitals.

- The odds of getting re-elected are a lot higher if a politician inaugurates a new building, rather than allocating much needed funds to renovate old buildings.

Source: VG Nett