● Property markets are at best sluggish and are likely to remain so for a few years.


Therefore the challenge for ACES members is that you need to


● Facilitate service change


● Create and maintain fit for purpose buildings, to meet statutory and health and safety requirements


● Deliver property efficiencies


● AND you need to sustain regeneration and development activity to meet wider Council objectives.


And you will need to do all of this with no money.


And there are some interesting contradictions. These extensive service delivery changes and new ways of working will simply not be deliverable in current accommodation. The public sector will need to invest in property to achieve change and deliver efficiencies. We need to INVEST to SAVE.


Available Equipment


I now want to consider the equipment that we have at our disposal to climb the mountain. There was a blizzard of announcements and initiatives before the Election all around public sector efficiencies and saving money from property assets. For example


● Tim Laurence, Head the property asset management profession in government, of OGC, launched PAMCAM, its Property Asset Management Capability Assessment Model.


● John McCready, Head of the Property Unit at the Shareholder Executive, with a remit to develop the government’s response to the challenges, has started to raise the prospect of property vehicles as part of the equipment needed going forward.


● DCLG launched Total Place – a whole area approach to public services – that was evolving as a key plank of the Labour government’s policy; we need to wait and see how it is taken forward.


● The Smith Report, by Ian R. Smith, on the subject of transforming where and how government works ie about more civil service relocations.


● HM Treasury has talked about developing regional property strategies; these could look at the central government estate in the regions, the quango estates and the local estates.


Much of this is worthy material but to me does not feel to be very joined up; at least not yet. There are lots of new ideas and initiatives but not much of it is tried and tested. I am not sure that we know what is missing. Perhaps pilots for Total Place, Total Assets and Total Capital will help, if these initiatives are to continue. We need more clarity but time is short and the pressure to deliver cashable savings will come very quickly, especially now we have a £6 billion savings target for this year.


The Role of Partnerships


One of the slogans of the General Election campaign was “we are all in this together”. I think that there is another coalition to be formed, a coalition of interests between the public and private sectors. We have a private development and investment industry that is struggling to create viable projects but which sees particular value in public sector tenants. We have a public sector faced with the many problems as already outlined. There are many common interests if the public and private sectors can come together and find solutions for the public sector efficiency agenda.


Under this heading I intend to examine


● The case for partnering ● Current approaches ● New approaches to partnerships ● Creating value


● Partnership structures including potential property vehicles


The Case for Partnering


Partnerships are important as the challenge is simply too great for any solo climbing; the public sector cannot deliver on its own. We need to use all of the resources and expertise from across both public and private sectors; we need to access the best talent.


To deliver the required changes we need investment in public sector property. But the public sector will not have any funds and so the public sector desperately needs private investment. And there are investors out there who are searching for good projects in which to put their money. They generally see the public sector as a good bet. But remember everyone is going to be cautious so that it is even more important than ever that we use partnership working to share risks effectively.


Current Partnerships


There are many examples of partnerships that have been formed over recent years but I am not sure that any have yet shown they can deliver to the efficiency agenda that we now face. There are three common types.


● Service delivery partnerships; for example Liverpool 2020. These are really about service outsourcing. The theory is that outsourcing to the private sector delivers better value for money, but value for money invariably means reducing costs.


● Development or Regeneration Partnerships; a local example would be the Speke Garston Development Company. These partnerships are about delivering physical regeneration to meet economic and community objectives, but are not especially focused on rationalising property assets. Local Asset Backed Vehicles (LABV) would fall into this category. This form of partnership is just about keeping development on track in a difficult market and might be able to play a wider role around efficiencies.


ASSET - Liverpool-10 John Keyes 25


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