Search Results for: one public sector

March 7, 2014

Large and small firms demand greater transparency in government procurement

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, Facilities management

The whole thorny issue of public sector procurement is never far from the news, but this week gained new prominence as one contractor walked out on a £1 billion contract because it felt the Ministry of Justice hadn’t grasped the idea of intellectual property amongst other things, while the Confederation of British Industry raised the stakes overall by claiming that a culture of secrecy in government purchasing continues to foster mistrust and waste taxpayers’ money. The CBI goes so far as to claim that even the most high profile botched contracts over recent years have not deterred the government from its move to inculcate a culture of opacity rather than transparency when procuring goods and services. It called on the Government to move to open book contracts so that all parties are aware of contract terms and margins.

February 5, 2014

Corruption in procurement perceived as widespread across EU

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Public Sector

According to the EU’s newly published Anti Corruption Report, around 15 percent UK firms believe that corruption has prevented them from winning a public contract at at least one point during the past three years. Although this rate compares favourably with an EU average of 32 percent, the report concludes that the total cost to the European economy of corruption is some €120 billion. The most commonly cited practices cited by the firms responding to the survey included specifications and procurement processes tailored for certain firms, conflicts of interest in bid evaluation and collusion between suppliers. Although under a fifth of UK businesses claim to have been directly affected, nearly half (46 percent) feel corruption is widespread compared to an EU average of 75 percent.

January 27, 2014

Cities report highlights skewed nature of UK economic recovery

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

The Centre for Cities has today published its seventh annual report into the economic conditions in the 64 largest urban areas in the UK. The Cities_Outlook_2014 report paints a picture of a patchy economic recovery across the UK, with many cities such as Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool and Leeds seeing an upturn in their economies, but one that lags significantly behind that of London. The capital continues to disproportionately attract investment and people from across the UK and overseas, sometimes to the detriment of other towns and cities. The report argues that more power and finding needs to be devolved away from London to ensure that the UK enjoys a sustainable and balanced economic recovery.

January 23, 2014

DEFRA confirms Montagu Evans is to manage its UK-wide estate

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Public Sector

In one of the largest public sector portfolios to be re-tendered in recent years, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has appointed Montagu Evans to manage its UK-wide commercial estate. Montagu Evans takes over the three-year contract to manage the estates from DTZ, which has been advising Defra in its role as estates asset manager for the past four-and-a-half years. Montagu Evans will take over the management of the estates, which consists of over 180 properties, from 1 March 2014. Montagu Evans managing partner Steve Thomas said: “We are delighted to have secured such an important appointment. We have been highly impressed with the Defra team and believe there is an excellent fit with Montagu Evans’ tradition of delivering high-quality services.”

January 16, 2014

Workplace is in a state of flux, with many more changes to come

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Although we remain wary of predicting the workplace of the future, it is useful to discover what managers think is likely to happen, even if some of it is pretty obvious. In a new survey, HR decision-makers forecast the workforce of 2018 will look fundamentally different from that of 2013; including more workers opting to work part-time rather than retire (92%), managing an older workforce (88%), individuals maintaining and developing skill sets in multiple simultaneous careers (79%) and more than half of all workers being temporary / on contract or freelance (60%). A whopping 98 per cent of organisations have already experienced some kind of major organisational change over the last five years – the most common being restructuring (74%), a change in leadership (64%) and downsizing (64%). More →

January 14, 2014

The BYOD conundrum remains how to strike the right balance about control

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology

We predicted that the practice of Bring Your Own Device would remain an insoluble conundrum for many firms throughout the year and two recent pieces of conflicting advice on the subject make the point point for us. On the one hand, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK has issued fresh guidance to organisations about the possible perils of BYOD and the need to establish formal policies and procedures, including the ability for the firm to wipe ALL data from lost or stolen devices, determine applications and operating systems and decide on what happens to devices at the end of contracts. On the other hand a Gartner analyst has predicted that the dead hand of organisational control will mean around a fifth of BYOD policies will fail within the next two years, rendering the efforts at control completely counterproductive.

January 2, 2014

Why we should be wary of expert predictions for 2014

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

As ever the first day back at work coincides with a flood of forecasts about what will happen in the world in the year ahead. But predictions are often more interesting in retrospect than they are in their own time. For example, each year The Economist produces its one-off ‘The World in…’ publication which asks well-informed academics and writers to tackle an issue that relates to their own specialism. This year these relate to issues such as Scottish independence (it’s a ‘no’, by the way), the rise of African economies and a potential customer backlash against technology businesses and the rich geeks who own them. Interesting though it is to read all of this, The Economist is at least honest in publishing a list of its hits and misses, whereas most people appear to just pretend the misses never happened.

December 16, 2013

Book Review: The Emergent Workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

Looking for patterns in the mash
© Columbia Pictures

It’s rather refreshing to see a book or report in which the word ‘Workplace’ in the title is prefaced by ‘Emergent’ rather than something misleading like ‘Tomorrow’s’ or ‘Future’. And so the authors Clark Sept and Paul Heath define their vision of the workplace presented in this slim but engaging book as a thing which is ‘in the process of becoming prominent’ to use the dictionary definition of the word emergent. By using this particular epithet, they are describing the consequences of the various forces that drive today’s workplace rather than lapsing into the fallacies most commonly associated with works of this kind; principally those of either assuming there is an evolution of all offices towards an ultimate model, or that already commonplace factors such as technology which frees us to work anywhere and at any time can in any way be associated with ‘the future’.

December 2, 2013

Mid-sized firms are unsung champions of the economic recovery says CBI

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Medium-sized businesses (MSBs) are making a significant contribution to jobs and growth across the UK. Between March 2010 and March 2013 they have created 185,000 jobs, a 4.1 per cent increase compared with 1.9 per cent by large companies and 2.8 per cent by small firms. New CBI research published today shows that despite only accounting for 1.8 per cent of the UK private sector, MSBs, which employ between 50-499 people and have a turnover of £10-100 million, now employ 4.7 million people across the UK – 16 per cent of the total UK workforce. The CBI has launched #MSBMonday to boost recognition for MSBs and is calling on local government and policy makers to do more to recognise and support medium-sized businesses as their local champions. More →

November 19, 2013

RIBA says rise in architects’ workloads signals recession is coming to an end

by Sara Bean • Architecture, News, Property

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) says all the signs are that the recession is coming to an end, after recording the highest workload forecast figure for architects since its Future Trends Survey begin in January 2009. The RIBA Future Trends Workload Index sustained a significant increase this month, rising to +35 in October 2013 from +26 in September 2013. Welcome news also comes from the latest quarterly returns for the levels of actual work in progress which are now showing an annual increase for the first time since the financial crisis. RIBA practices reported an 11 per cent aggregate increase in workload between October 2012 and October 2013 and are increasingly optimistic about their medium term future work flows. More →

November 15, 2013

Quarter of the UK workforce report they’re suffering long-term ill health

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace

Administrative and support activities, which includes facilities management, is one of five UK industries where employees have reported the highest levels of long-term ill health. However across all the sectors a staggering eight million people, or a quarter of the UK’s workforce (27%) say they suffer from a health problem that’s lasted more than a year. According to the new Health at Work Index from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) one in ten workers (12%) – approximately 3.5 million people – said their ability to do their job is limited by poor health. This includes over half of diabetes sufferers (58%) and the same proportion of people suffering from depression, mental illness or panic attacks (58%). More →

November 4, 2013

Leading US organisations pledge to promote healthy buildings and communities

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

Adobe, one of the first companies to adopt the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard, is to conduct a study of its LEED certified workplaces to determine if they measurably contribute to more collaborative, creative, innovative and healthy employees. The move is part of a new Building Health Initiative launched last week by the California chapter of the USGBC. Google, Arup and Interface are amongst the founding partners, along with approximately 20 other organisations from a range of sectors. The movement aims to elevate green building as a benefit to public health as well as encourage the development of transparency standards in building materials. More →