Bute House building costs in the last 5 years: FOI release

Information requested

Could you supply the full costs of Bute House's upkeep from each of the last five years, with a breakdown by year and breakdown of each cost.

Response

Bute House is central to the category A listed buildings to the north side of Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.

It is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and under the terms of the lease, the Scottish Government is liable for all repairs and maintenance.

Annual upkeep includes the following:

• Planned electrical and mechanical maintenance to all building services such as electrical distribution, heating, gas and plumbing services.
• Compliance assurance ie asbestos management, legionella testing, water risk and fire risk assessments.
• Security system maintenance including intruder, CCTV and fire alarms.
• Portable appliance testing.
• Emergency call out response
• Minor building fabric maintenance incorporating all drainage, guttering; and
• Reactive maintenance.

The Scottish Government is charged annually for these services and the costs associated with that, for this, and the previous 4 years are:

• Year 1 (2020) = £25,387.78
• Year 2 (2021) = £26,141.44
• Year 3 (2022) = £12, 636.72
• Year 4 (2023) = £13,456.84
• Year 5 (2024) = £14,310.01

These costs are annual fixed costs and are not broken down per discipline.

In addition to these costs I have also attached the link to the Bute House essential repair costs that were proactively released earlier this year, following work carried out between April and September 2023 Bute House repairs: costs - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

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