There is increased pressure on central government departments
to deliver quality frontline services at substantially reduced
levels of funding.
One of the key challenges facing government is the public sector
estate. Worth an estimated £380bn and costing £25bn a year to run,
the estate presents a potentially vast source of substantial
savings.
Capita Symonds’ integrated expertise covers the whole property
life cycle, enabling our clients to address and overcome their
property challenges through improved co-location strategies;
stakeholder engagement and management; developer and landlord
negotiations; workspace planning; ongoing property & asset
management; and the maximisation of disposal income.
The key to effective estates rationalisation lies in driving out
excess space, relocating out of inefficient buildings, and
consolidating into new, modernised and flexible property while
introducing new ways of working. For example it is estimated that
through better asset and property management alone the 14.5sqm per
desk that central government occupies could potentially be reduced
to 10.5sqm. Writing in his 2009 Operational Efficiency Programme,
Lord Carter of Coles concluded that using central government's
offices more intensively could reduce its need for office
accommodation by 30%, saving £1bn a year.
Furthermore, slimming down the remainder of the estate by 20%
over the next ten years could cut running costs by between £2-4bn a
year. Through relocation to lower cost, but arguably better quality
accommodation, property can also be used as a catalyst to achieve
the wider transformational aspirations of the coalition
government.
Nevertheless, in order to achieve these savings we will still
require transformational capability of an unprecedented scale,
focused upon people and behaviour, rather than desk utilisation
studies and furniture solutions.
Capita Symonds is currently advising central government on its
property strategy across every department including health,
education, defence, transport and justice. We are also providing a
range of technical services including building design, engineering
and technology solutions.
We are also a major division of Capita plc - the leading
provider of business process outsourcing to central government.
Capita provides complete service solutions on a number of major
government contracts, including the Criminal Records Bureau, BBC TV
Licensing, Home Access and Gas Safe Register.