The facts
Client: Salford City
Council
Location: Salford
Services: Workplace design
Sector: Local Government
Value: £6.5m
Start/Completion: 2000 - ongoing
The project
Urban Vision – Capita Symonds’ joint
venture partnership with Salford City Council – has been working
with the Council to develop and implement its property
rationalisation strategy.
Following a detailed review by Urban Vision’s
Property Services team, it was concluded that Salford City
Council’s office portfolio of 58 buildings was extremely fragmented
and consisted of many inappropriate buildings with high running
costs and maintenance levels. In addition, it was also identified
that the space was inefficiently occupied, with the average person
taking up 18 sq m (48,938 sq m across the entire portfolio) as
opposed to the optimum 11 sq m.
In order to tackle this misuse of space, Urban
Vision introduced modern flexible working practices and desk
sharing at the council, resulting in the better utilisation of the
council’s office space. The team also managed the disposal of the
council’s surplus vacant land and properties and are currently
working closely with the council to achieve the best sales outcome
for these surplus property assets which will contribute further to
the savings the council needs to make as part of the comprehensive
spending review.
By identifying corporate space standards and
disposing of target buildings Urban Vision has reduced the initial
occupied space at the council from approximately 18 sq m per person
to 11 sq m per person, resulting in a 44% occupied space
reduction.
This entire exercise has saved over £3m in
capital receipts and reduced accommodation running costs by over
£500,000 per annum.
Other key achievements over the last 12 months
include:
- £1.5m secured in capital maintenance
investment;
- Four core council office sites reduced to
three;
- The number of office buildings reduced from 58
to 34;
- 13,000 sq m of operational accommodation
identified for potential release including possible reuse by
partner organisations as a location for a Local Services Hub
Building;
- Property maintenance requirements significantly
reduced;
- Retained office accommodation refurbished with
modern IT infrastructure;
- Improved working with partner organisations
through shared office space.
Salford City Council has now instructed Urban
Vision to proceed with a localities project that will look at the
space the Council and its public sector partners use to deliver
services across the eight Salford neighbourhoods.