24 October 2011
Capita Symonds was sponsor of Movers & Shakers’
Public Property breakfast event at The Dorchester, London on 21
October.
Over 400 attendees sat in The Dorchester’s Ballroom to listen to
a keynote opening address by Francis Maude – Minister for the
Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, followed by a debate chaired
by Giles Barrie – Editor, Property Week and featuring Neil Warsop –
Chief Operating Officer, Government Property Unit, Shareholder
Executive; Cllr Sir Merrick Cockell – Chairman, Local Government
Association; Francis Salway – Group Chief Executive, Land
Securities; and Jonathan Goring – Managing Director, Capita
Symonds.
Francis Maude gave his thoughts on central government property,
and how its estate can contribute to the twofold challenges of
dealing with the deficit, and at the same time promoting
growth.
The public sector estate is, he conceded, too dispersed, in the
wrong location, of poor grade and badly occupied in terms of
utilisation of space. There is also currently too much of its
estate under lease rather than freehold occupation.
The solutions to these issues, he outlined, are relocation,
co-location and the better use of space – freeing up surplus
property for redevelopment. A moratorium on the renewal of any new
leases (the so-called ‘Stop’ element of the government’s current
strategy) is also focussed on increasing the amount of freehold
property being utilised.
Maude also emphasised that the government approach was not only
about saving money, and that ‘thinking differently about how we use
property’ was also paramount – including the encouraging of
hot-desking and more flexible working practices across
departments.
Housebuilding was also a priority, he said, to meet current
demand. Central government departments are looking at ways to make
available surplus land for development - with the Ministries of
Defence, Health, Transport and DEFRA already publishing their plans
to make available land for a further 50,000 homes - and an
extension to the ‘Build Now, Pay Later’ scheme.
In the debate that followed, Property Week Editor Giles Barrie
questioned the panel on the government’s property challenge – and
how the Government Property Unit (GPU) was faring so far.
Francis Salway (Land Securities) felt that by not renewing
leases, the GPU was “doing what its said it would do”, however he
conceded that this does present problems for property owners in the
private sector. He pointed out however that many of these vacated
buildings are now ripe for a change of use, with many being
redeveloped for residential use.
Jonathan Goring (Capita Symonds) urged the need for central
government to ‘know what it owns’ and the need for a more
comprehensive database of its assets so that the opportunities for
co-location, alignment to departments and leakage are fully
addressed; Neil Warsop (GPU) admitted that the GPU still had some
work to do in gathering this information across its estate.
Goring also challenged the private sector to “prove it can be
responsible” in supporting the public sector with its property
challenges, and pointed to the good examples of best practice that
already exist.
While the ‘Stop’ agenda was clearly working, and generating
savings, Warsop conceded that the ‘Go’ agenda – of closer working
across government departments, the better utilisation of space, and
the availability of surplus land for redevelopment – was still ‘a
challenge’, and one that he encouraged the private sector to engage
with the GPU to help address.
Giving the audience an insight into how local government was
addressing its own public sector property challenges, Sir Merrick
Cockell (LGA) outlined how Councils needed to be more commercial in
the use of their property and how many of their challenges – in
regions across the UK – were not currently a focus for central
government, which is focussed on getting its own house in
order.
The event was an engaging and well-informed discussion on the
ongoing property challenge from a panel representing all parties
that have a role to play if the rationalisation of the public
estate is to play a key role in the Government’s deficit programme.
As chair Giles Barrie concluded, the scale of the challenge is such
that ‘there are opportunities for everyone’ to benefit from getting
it right.
Capita Symonds is lead
sponsor of UBM’s Public Property Summit on 02 November 2011 at the
Business Design Centre, London.