Angus Mylles is right to say that Lord Carter’s property review, part of the Treasury’s Operational Efficiency Programme, has turned up the temperature on managers of the public sector estate.
Almost two-thirds of this land and property (roughly £250bn in book value) is in the hands of local authorities. However, the Audit Commission recent report, Room for improvement, shows that just 1 in 14 councils is taking a truly strategic approach to managing its assets. The new ‘Oneplace’ use of resources assessment will add to the pressure on councils to raise their game.
Central government could do more to help. It could clarify the current mixed messages about what it wants councils to do with property. It could also give them incentives to use receipts more imaginatively.
But the bottom line is that, as we emerge from recession, councils and other public bodies will have to think long and hard about ways to release value from land and buildings.
They have become accustomed, with government support, to spending more on property than they obtain in capital receipts. Now the future looks very different – the days of big capital investment are over and public bodies will have to focus remorselessly on achieving major savings from their estates.
John Kirkpatrick
Director of studies,
Audit Commission
