Property portfolio and
workplace rationalisation

Introduction

Following the Financial Crisis in 2008, public sector organisations needed to re-assess where cost could be removed with minimum impact on service. Our client was a County Council with 1,110 properties. In 2011, We were included as part of the County Council team to develop a Property Transformation Business Case.

Problem Statement

The County Council, in common with the rest of the sector, needed to remove unnecessary cost from their operational and office property.

Sample
Workflow

Our main role was to work with the Principal Asset Strategy Manager to develop the financial model, ensure information from departments and finance was consistent and tested, benchmark FM and other property costs to test validity of the model, work with the team to develop various option appraisals taking into account variables such as office workstyles, varying levels of IT investment, different client interface strategies, centralised or decentralised administration, different disposal strategies etc., develop the Property Transformation Business Case based on “The Green Book: Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government” methodology.

Solution

To implement a property transformation that meets needs of the County Council reduces cost, had the buy in from key stakeholders and had a detailed plan for implementation (that were subsequently implemented) In 2013 we were asked to update the Property Transformation Business Case to both validate that the change programme had yielded expected outcomes and also to test new scenarios in light of updated business objectives.

Value

The benefits of our involvement in the project were:

The rigorous process that we use helped the County Council approve the “biggest project of its type which (the County Council) has put through this (approval) process and certainly seems to have been the biggest to have been approved”.

The change programme was established and implemented successfully due to the clear strategy identified at all levels within the Council and the robust communication process with stakeholders during the option development and appraisal stage.

Conclusion

The outcome was a property rationalisation programme that was implemented by the County Council.

Client Quote

“After the bruising of the process, we have received many very positive comments: finance have been satisfied (as good as it gets!) with the robustness of your financial model – which has been key – and elsewhere the substantial stakeholder engagement process and the “integrity” of our proposals (visibly taking-on and supporting service requirements) has been praised highly. ” (County Council Principal Asset Strategy Manager