Under the One Public Estate programme, 32 councils have already developed initiatives that are expected to deliver £129m in property sales and £77m in lower running costs over five years.
In an extension confirmed today, 24 local partnerships of 107 local authorities will now develop plans to share buildings and services in order to reduce running costs and release land to boost development.
Areas include the West Midlands Combined Authority, the Sheffield City Region, the Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester, all places which have agreed devolution deals with government that include extra local powers over development.
Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock announced the 24 partnerships would share £31m in additional funding to develop and implement their improvement plans.
Welcoming the expansion, LGA chair Lord Porter said: “Through One Public Estate, councils have shown that they are perfectly placed to act as leaders of place and deliver effective cross-public-sector asset management.
“Councils are already the most efficient part of the public sector, and they have reaped impressive rewards for their communities through their leadership on the programme, unlocking land to create vital homes and jobs, helping services to work better together, and bringing in money while generating savings for the future.”
He added that a national expansion of One Public Estate would help to roll out those benefits to even more areas across the country.
“I’d like to see all councils signed up by 2018 to drive growth in their areas through the strong local leadership that we’ve already seen in the early phases of the programme,” Lord Porter stated.
Liverpool City Council chief executive Ged Fitzgerald highlighted that the programme has already helped the city bring central government and public bodies to the table to look at how to best manage public land and property. Now £340,000 of additional funding will allow this approach to be extended to the other five councils of the city region.
“By working across sectors and the region, it will allow us to deliver the big growth and service integration schemes that will have the biggest impact for the people of the city region,” Fitzgerald added.
The full list of authorities is:
| Partnership | Local authorities | Allocation |
| Bedford and Central Bedfordshire | Bedford Borough Central Bedfordshire | £500,000 |
| Cambridgeshire Making Assets Count Partnership | Cambridge Cambridgeshire East Cambridgeshire Fenland Huntingdonshire South Cambridgeshire | £280,000 |
| Cheshire and Warrington LEP | Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Warrington Borough | £250,000 |
| Cornwall | Cornwall Council | £470,000 |
| D2N2 | Derby City Derbyshire Nottingham City Nottinghamshire | £75,000 |
| East Sussex and Surrey | Brighton and Hove East Sussex County Eastbourne Elmbridge Borough Lewes Surrey County Council Surrey Heath Woking | £100,000 |
| Greater Manchester | Bury Manchester Oldham Rochdale Salford Stockport Tameside Trafford Wigan | £250,000 |
| Hampshire | East Hampshire Eastleigh Borough Fareham Borough Hampshire Havant New Forest Test Valley Borough Winchester City | £400,000 |
| Leeds | Leeds | £100,000 |
| Lincolnshire | Boston East Lindsey Lincoln Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire North Kesterven North Lincolnshire South Holland South Kesterven West Lindsey | £340,000 |
| Liverpool City Region | Halton Knowsley Liverpool Sefton St Helens Wirral | £340,000 |
| London Borough of Barnet and West London Alliance | Barnet Brent Harrow | £350,000 |
| London Borough of Bexley | Bexley Lewisham | £130,000 |
| London Borough of Croydon | Croydon | £250,000 |
| Norfolk | Breckland Broadland Great Yarmouth King's Lynn and West Norfolk North Norfolk Norwich City South Norfolk | £115,000 |
| North East Partnership | Gateshead Newcastle North Tyneside Northumberland | £130,000 |
| Place Partnership | Redditch Worcester Worcester County | £150,000 |
| Plymouth | Plymouth | £420,000 |
| Sheffield City Region | Barnsley Bassetlaw Bolsover Chesterfield Derbyshire Dales Doncaster North East Derbyshire Rotherham Sheffield | £140,000 |
| Solent LEP | Portsmouth Southampton | £400,000 |
| West Midlands Combined Authority | Birmingham Cannock Chase Coventry Dudley Nuneaton and Bedworth Sandwell Solihull Tamworth Walsall Wolverhampton | £150,000 |
| Suffolk and West Suffolk | Forest Heath St Edmundsbury Suffolk County Council | £230,000 |
| Wiltshire | Wiltshire | £350,000 |
| City of York | City of York | £250,000 |
