PSP, formerly known as Public Sector Plc, has created a new consultancy service to help councils boost their income, cut costs, drive regeneration, and improve energy efficiency by rightsizing their land and property assets.
The Strategic Asset Management Service, which provides councils with capacity and technical property skills from PSP to repurpose underused land and property assets, is expected to be in demand as the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23 saw funding levels for councils remain about 30-50% below their 2015/16 levels for all classes of authority.
Covid has also had an effect, with fewer council staff now working in the offices public-sector bodies own across the UK, creating a significant portfolio of underutilised office space.
A survey carried out by PWC in 2021 found that 57% of public sector organisations planned to reduce their office footprint, with three-fifths of those envisaging a reduction of between 11% and 30%.
PSP’s new service will offer strategic and operational asset management services for PSP local authority clients, including, estate rationalisation, energy performance, maintenance, statutory compliance, decarbonisation strategy, stakeholder engagement, and optimisation of expenditure.
The Asset Management Service is fully managed by PSP’s highly skilled and experienced team, allowing local authority partners to focus their time and resources on the other pressing challenges that lie ahead.
An initial PSP Strategic Asset Management review of a typical historical Council building provides the council with an overview of usage, condition, running costs and future requirements. It also identifies the gaps in information available, the costs to obtain this and the business case as to why the next stage of work should be progressed to optimise the asset.
The asset management service is led by Leena Gillespie, Commercial Director at PSP, who has over 18 years’ experience in property , project management, and commercial finance.
Leena said: “While councils vary enormously in size, and thus in the nature of their asset holdings, almost all public sector bodies have faced significant budgetary pressures or budget cuts over the past decade.
“In the age of hybrid working many public sector bodies have underused property assets and face a common challenge in getting the most from their valuable property resources to future-proof their budgets and service delivery.
“PSP has created this new service because our partners tell us they are looking to unlock more value to help navigate the unprecedented changes and challenges that they face. These include meeting climate change commitments and sustainability goals and optimising value for money through new ways of working. To help achieve this, the capacity and technical property skills we bring as part of our service helps our local authority clients speed up the delivery of projects and business case preparation.
“By enabling our partners to unlock new income streams and create significant savings in their asset portfolio, we can help councils free up more time to focus on levelling up inequalities, regenerating communities, reviving local economies, job creation and delivering clean growth.”
PSP, part of Chartway Group, is a UK property services consultant and partner working with councils and housing associations to provide asset and development management services to deliver land and property projects with true social impact.
Header image shows Leena Gillespie, Commercial Director at PSP.
