Out of Sync:

Local Authority Transformation is Missing Out on the Bigger Picture

Local Government Estates

18th January 2018

Ongoing DragonGate research has established that 2018/19 will be a high watermark for Local Government property transformation, with approximately 70 projects due to be completed over the next 24 months. However, with adjacent sectors such as the NHS, Higher Education and Central Government implementing similar programmes for property transformation there is little evidence that opportunities for place based collaboration are truly being embraced.

DragonGate has been carrying out research over the past year into Local Government estates strategies and has focused on the increasing number of major property asset transformation projects (PATs) which share the following characteristics:

Make use of existing sites in local authority ownership
Look to bring local authority and other public services together to improve service delivery and efficient use of space
Involve either new construction work or major refurbishment

An increasingly familiar feature of this strategy is the public service Hub – a dedicated facility that co-locates and potentially integrates public service providers. These account for the majority of Local Government PATs set out in Figure 1 and often include multiple local authorities and back-office functions from police, fire, and ambulance services.

Figure 1: Local Government Transformation Projects by Completion Date

Figure 1 indicates that while different parts of the public sector are looking at “hub” or PAT models, they are all working to separate timetables with few examples of coordinating strategy; where the potential for working with adjacent sectors has been explored, this has often been perfunctory, with sectors shying away from the difficulty associated with cross-sector integration.

Local Government plans peak too early for new NHS investment, and there is no indication as yet that Local Government recognises either the imminent opportunities presented by investment programmes such as Project Phoenix in the NHS, or the potential opportunities from the creation of the Department of Health and Social Care. The two sectors are being encouraged to collaborate on mental health, housing (Healthy New Towns) and the care crisis, yet in only a few cases are local authorities leveraging their wealth of land and borrowing powers in partnership with the NHS. Similarly the pattern of HMRC hub relocations has little correlation with Local Government plans.

This same pattern is seen again in the data collected from the local authority respondents that knew which organisations they planned co-locate with. Central Government was rarely mentioned as a co-location partner except in a few cases.

Figure 2: Preferred partners for local authority co-locations

*NHS co-locations were almost universally with local CCGs rather than with Trusts or Primary Care providers

The risk now is that local public sector clusters will end up duplicating work in their attempts to rationalise property assets or end up in competition with one another for occupiers, funding and sites. This could lead to them failing to produce the long-term place-based solutions that the wider public sector is looking to develop.

To discuss this research ahead of the Spring Statement On the 23^rd of February, DragonGate will be facilitating a roundtable event chaired by Steve Atkinson – the former Chief Executive of Hinckley and Bosworth Council – intended as a forum for 12 transformation leaders from the public sector to exchange views and share their experience of these issues. Lunch and networking will be provided and places will be allotted on a strictly first-come, first-served basis.

If you are interested in attending, please contact George Evans-Jones at george.evans-jones@dgmi.co.uk or on 0207 603 5086.

The Care Tech Campus Challenge Fund Report

REPORT Essex Care Tech Campus Assessing the Outcomes from the inaugural Challenge Fund The Care Tech Campus Challenge Fund, launched in May 2023, serves as an early demonstration project for the core principles and benefits of the Care Technology Campus in Essex. These core principles and benefits include codesign and development with users, providers and the…

Securing National HQ of Great British Railways to Derby

In the teeth of determined civil service opposition, it was brave of the government to commit 750 top posts in the Treasury to Darlington and 500 in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government to Wolverhampton as part of the imminent Whitehall relocation programme and levelling-up agenda.

Administrating the Government Estate: As Yogi Berra Once Said “It’s Like Deja Vu All Over Again”

The administration of the government estate can be traced back in history to the time of the Anglo Saxons. Throughout this history it has posed civil servants great challenges; with a renewed surge in activity and strategy, the risk today is that government fails to learn from these challenges and repeats the mistakes of the past.

Times Red Box: Plans to force civil servants out of London are far too timid

Moving Out: What are the Benefits of Civil Service Relocation?

The Institute has produced a thought-provoking piece as Government prepares for a programme that will see 22,000 civil servants relocated to the English regions and devolved nations during the current decade. But there some important gaps in the paper with too much emphasis on the costs and too little on the very real savings and improvements that can be made, both in the short and the long term.

Farewell Quarry House!

The BBC’s news today about the Leeds DWP office failing to enforce social distancing following an Health and Safety Executive inspection brought back many memories of Quarry House – a building which carries the rather unkind soubriquet “The Kremlin”.

You Know When You’ve Been Quangoed

For Boris Johnson’s shellshocked government, there has been little instructive from the worlds of ed and med in recent weeks.

Blame has flown and political heat applied to previously little known quango Ofqual and the much criticised Public Health England (PHE) before its demise and absorption into the National Institute for Health Protection. Before this, the secretary of state for health and chief strategic government advisers were, apparently, unaware that they had the power all along to direct and control PHE.

Track and Trace – Why is Serco in the Frame?

Serco was awarded a track and trace contract valued up to £400m, apparently without competition.

Actually, there was a competition – kind of. Serco competed for, and won a place on a government “framework” contract. In effect, it is a catalogue – enabling governments to call off goods and services, without the need for further competition. In this case, the contract was for call centre services, and awarded by the Crown Commercial Service.

Times Red Box: No 10 must be ruthless to wrench the civil service from London

In his March budget the chancellor indicated the government’s intention to move 22,000 civil servants out of London by 2030. Michael Gove, in his recent Ditchley speech, spoke of relocating Whitehall decision-making centres to not only the main regional centres such as Manchester and Bristol but different parts of the UK.

But this will be nowhere near enough, and the leisurely timescale will provide ample opportunity for further delay and obfuscation, as it has done in the past. What is needed is a truly ambitious programme to relocate the majority of the 85,000 civil servants in London leaving only a core elite of a few hundred.

Spending Review 2019

George Evans-Jones presents a brief overview of the main points coming out of yesterday’s Spending Review

Connecting the Regions Through Clean Growth

In light of DragonGate’s recent “Connecting the Regions Through Clean Growth” Roundtable, DragonGate Programme Manager George Evans-Jones answers our questions regarding the Clean Growth Grand Challenge

Out of Sync

Tim Philpott reflects on how local authority property transformation spending may be missing out on the bigger picture

Away with the Ferries

Simon Lydiard asks how could it all go so wrong for the Department for Transport’s “no deal” ferries contract

Unravelling Government Estates Strategy

DragonGate Associate Steve Atkinson remarks on the “Unravelling Government Estates Strategy” – Local Government Roundtable hosted by Kinnarps 1st February

Passport Blues

Simon Lydiard reflects on the outcry over the contract for new, post-Brexit passports being awarded to a company based in the EU

Building Transformation in the Public Sector

The demand and financial pressures on the public sector are not going away; but policy activity from central government could nevertheless be the basis for far-reaching local transformation – well beyond the aims of the individual strategies – for the benefit of those who really matter: local citizens. That was one of the conclusions of a recent DGMI round table, hosted and facilitated by Kinnarps.

Relocation is Good for Our Nation’s Health

In his interesting piece in The Times on the 20th January, Matthew Parris uses the recently published ONS figures that highlight the severe health inequality across the nation. The figures present a jarring picture of imbalance between the London population and the rest of the country…

Outsourcing is Too Big, Time to Manage it Back Down to Size

The collapse of Carillion was an accident waiting to happen. To understand why, just reflect on Theresa May’s claim at PMQs that the Government were customers of Carillion, not its manager…

Out of Sync: Local Authority Transformation is Missing Out on the Bigger Picture

Ongoing DragonGate research has established that 2018-19 will be a high watermark for Local Government property transformation, with approximately 70 projects due to be completed over the next 24 months. However, with adjacent sectors such as the NHS, Higher Education and Central Government implementing similar programmes for property transformation there is little evidence that opportunities for place-based collaboration are truly being embraced.