Groundbreaking office sharing scheme rolled out to over 100 UK councils ⁰

One of the most intriguing and yet least talked about developments in the UK’s workplace design and management scene over the past couple of years has been the roll out of the One Public Sector Estate scheme, which encourages local authorities to share and divest parts of their vast, messy and under-utilised estate. The Cabinet Office, the central government department behind the scheme, claims that the current programme involving 32 local authorities will yield around £129 million in property sales and savings of £77 million in running costs over a period of five years. Now, more than 100 councils are set to join the scheme including several that are set to acquire greater autonomy through the Government’s plans for devolution. The new regions set to sign up to the programme include Greater Manchester, the City of Liverpool, West Midlands and Sheffield as part of 24 new ‘partnerships’.

Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock announced that 24 new partnerships would be established to involve 107 local authorities and share £31m in additional funding to develop and implement their efficiency and divestment 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. 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.”

The full list of authorities and the partnerships (in bold) involved are:

Bedford and Central Bedfordshire

Bedford Borough

Central Bedfordshire

Cambridgeshire Making Assets Count Partnership

Cambridge

Cambridgeshire

East Cambridgeshire

Fenland

Huntingdonshire

South Cambridgeshire

Cheshire and Warrington LEP

Cheshire East

Cheshire West and Chester

Warrington Borough

Cornwall

Cornwall Council

D2N2    

Derby City

Derbyshire

Nottingham City

Nottinghamshire

East Sussex and Surrey 

Brighton and Hove

East Sussex County

Eastbourne

Elmbridge Borough

Lewes

Surrey County Council

Surrey Heath

Woking

Greater Manchester     

Bury

Manchester

Oldham

Rochdale

Salford

Stockport

Tameside

Trafford

Wigan

Hampshire        

East Hampshire

Eastleigh Borough

Fareham Borough

Hampshire

Havant

New Forest

Test Valley Borough

Winchester City

Leeds

Leeds

Lincolnshire      

Boston

East Lindsey

Lincoln

Lincolnshire

North East Lincolnshire

North Kesteven

North Lincolnshire

South Holland

South Kesteven

West Lindsey

Liverpool City Region   

Halton

Knowsley

Liverpool

Sefton

St Helens

Wirral

London Borough of Barnet and West London Alliance   

Barnet

Brent

Harrow

London Borough of Bexley         

Bexley

Lewisham

London Borough of Croydon

Croydon

Norfolk               

Breckland

Broadland

Great Yarmouth

King’s Lynn and West

Norfolk

North Norfolk

Norwich City

South Norfolk

North East Partnership 

Gateshead

Newcastle

North Tyneside

Northumberland

Place Partnership           

Redditch

Worcester

Worcester County

Plymouth

Plymouth

Sheffield City Region    

Barnsley

Bassetlaw

Bolsover

Chesterfield

Derbyshire Dales

Doncaster

North East Derbyshire

Rotherham

Sheffield

Solent LEP          

Portsmouth

Southampton

West Midlands Combined Authority     

Birmingham

Cannock Chase

Coventry

Dudley

Nuneaton and Bedworth

Sandwell

Solihull

Tamworth

Walsall

Wolverhampton

Suffolk and West Suffolk            

Forest Heath

St Edmundsbury

Suffolk County Council

Wiltshire

Wiltshire

City of York

City of York