Search Results for: one public sector

May 16, 2014

UK one of the top global business destinations for sales growth and profitability

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, News, Workplace design

Global manufacturing executives rank the UK as one of the top destinations for future sales growth and profitability, according to KPMG’s latest Global Manufacturing Outlook report published this week. This places the UK ahead of Germany, India and Japan and alongside China, beaten only by the US. The report also notes that the UK is leading the world in the growth of 3D printing. The survey of 460 executives representing business with an annual turnover in excess of $5 billion reveals that the UK is ranked third in terms of those countries in which global companies expect profit growth over the next two years. The focus on new technology and materials in the report reveals that 85 percent of UK manufacturers are already moving to 3D printing to reduce their product development life cycle, as British office furniture maker Senator did in prototyping its Ad-Lib range (pictured).

April 25, 2014

Innovative public sector property scheme to be extended

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

One of the UK’s most innovative property strategies, the One Public Sector Estate programme is to be extended, the Government has announced. The initiative was established in June of last year in 12 pilot areas as a way for central and local government departments to share offices and other public sector property. The programme will now be extended to as many as 15 new authorities across the country with the Cabinet Office claiming that the pilot schemes have already saved around £21m in under a year and that the sale of property freed up by the scheme will raise an additional £88 million. The strategy is jointly managed by the property arm of the Cabinet Office who are responsible for similar initiatives in central government, and the Local Government Association.

April 14, 2014

UK to miss out on overseas public sector procurement growth, warns CBI

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

Public procurement of goods and services in twelve key emerging markets will almost triple to £452 billion by 2030, according to new research from the Confederation of British Industry. But the report warns that UK will only capture £11 billion of this growth, if its current market share stays the same so the UK needs to do far more to capture a higher share of the extensive growth in global public procurement in emerging markets. The procurement of goods and services in key emerging markets will soar to £452bn by 2030 as public sector organisations in rapidly developing countries increase their procurement of goods and services, driven by the needs of aging populations and a growing middle class. China will lead the growth in public sector procurement with its market increasing by 7.4 percent each year. Indonesia and Turkey will also rapidly increase their spending by 6.2 percent and 6 percent respectively.

March 12, 2014

Interminable UK public sector procurement deters suppliers, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

Last week’s story about the jaded view UK organisations have of the way public sector organisations buy goods and services provoked a great deal of discussion on LinkedIn. Now new research from specialist purchasing data analysts Spend Network has revealed that the UK government is the third slowest in the EU when it come3s to tendering. The UK government takes 53 days longer than the EU average, with only Greece and Ireland taking longer, and they’ve had their own particular economic problems to deal with over the last few years. The data is comprehensive, covering 1.8 million EU tenders over a period of five years. It found that it takes 172 days for the UK government to award a contract after the posting of an OJEU notice, at a cost to the economy of £22bn.

February 21, 2014

Businesses remain sceptical when it comes to public sector procurement

by Mark Eltringham • News, Public Sector

The jaded view that most UK businesses have of public sector procurement practices and winning Government work is evident in two new surveys, from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE). The CBI survey of 100 of its members found that 60 per cent have not seen an improvement in commercial skills applied in public procurement and one in five think they have actually deteriorated over the last year. Two thirds (67 percent) claimed that performance in standardising procurement processes is poor and a similar number said lowest cost was still driving most contracting decisions. The RAE meanwhile is calling for Government to integrate procurement processes into projects at an earlier stage and make it easier for smaller firms to win parts of major contracts.

October 15, 2013

New Smart City Forum to capitalise on $400 billion global sector

by Sara Bean • Environment, News, Property, Public Sector, Technology

Infographic Smarter Cities. Turning Big Data into Insight

IBM Infographic

London, Dublin, Barcelona, Boston and Bristol have something in common – they’re smart cities that use intelligent technology to monitor their urban infrastructure. The data is used in a variety of ways; to save money, minimise waste, measure water usage and manage transport routes. Solutions range from utilising IBM’s ‘Big Data’ to analyse traffic congestion on Dublin’s public transport network, to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from Boston’s buildings. The smart cities industry has been valued at more than $400 billion globally by 2020, with the UK expected to gain a 10 per cent share ($40 billion). Now the government has announced it is to set up a new Smart Cities Forum, chaired by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts and Cities Minister Greg Clark, with representatives from cities, business, and scientists. More →

September 24, 2013

If you are moving to new offices, make sure you can get rid of the old ones first

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Property, Public Sector, Workplace design

Building 1000 – seemed like a good idea at the time

One of the most common reasons for large organisations to move to new offices is a consolidation of an extensive and disparate estate that has developed over a long period of time. But what happens when the benefits of the move are scuppered because the organisation finds it impossible to get rid of its old buildings? That is the question facing Newham Borough Council as it emerges that it may have to quit the controversially swanky £110 million offices it moved to in 2010 and back into some of the 26 properties it left at the time and has struggled to unburden itself of since.

July 23, 2013

Government report highlights failings in UK public sector procurement

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, Knowledge, News, Public Sector

In the wake of a number of recent procurement failures including the G4S and Serco overcharging fiasco, the UK Government has published a highly critical report of the way it buys some £227 billion of goods and services annually. The report from the Public Administration Committee (PASC) says that in spite of steps to improve procurement which include using better data, aggregating demand across departments and renegotiating with major suppliers, the number of failures remains conspicuously high. The G4S and Serco contracts with the Ministry of Justice, under which payments were made regardless of the service being delivered, are the most high profile examples but the report indicates that problems are widespread.

July 4, 2013

Government public sector construction reforms net £447 million in savings

by Sara Bean • News, Property, Public Sector

Reforms to strip out inefficiencies in public sector construction – including the use of building information modelling (BIM) and the creation of a sustainable supply chain have generated £447 million in savings and will deliver up to 20 per cent savings in project costs by 2015, Cabinet Office Minister Chloe Smith has announced. By making links across departments the Government has also been able to act as a single customer to the construction industry and provide clear benchmarks for budgets by setting out the average price it expects to pay for projects. The Government has now published a new set of benchmarks that are designed to drive down project costs even further and encourage the industry to offer more competitive and innovative solutions. More →

June 3, 2013

Infographic: how work related social media use varies by country, gender and sector

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, Technology, Workplace

A new survey from Microsoft has highlighted a widespread mismatch in the use of social media in a business context across regions and between gender and age groups. It also claims that firms should be more open to social media use and that their unwillingness to adopt them more openly is hampering personal productivity. In the survey conducted in conjunction with Ipsos, nearly half of employees report that social tools at work help increase their productivity, but more than 30 percent of companies underestimate the value of these tools and often restrict their use. An infographic of the survey’s main results can be found here.

May 30, 2013

UK public sector leading the way in procurement and sustainable building

by Paul Statham • Comment, Facilities management, Public Sector, Technology

Nottingham City Council’s Loxley Building

Over the last few years, the UK Government has grown increasingly interested in finding ways of making its £30 billion property portfolio more efficient. Both the last Labour government and the current Coalition administration have been driven by the opportunities offered them with the advent of new technology, new ways of working and new procurement models. They’ve pursued these issues to cut costs by reducing and changing the way property is designed and managed but have also found how that can also help to establish best practice in sustainable building. What is increasingly apparent, especially given recent news from the Major Projects Authority about cost savings in procurement is that the public sector is now leading the way as models of good practice.

May 22, 2013

Flexible working going into reverse in parts of UK public sector

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, Public Sector, Technology, Workplace

A briefing from the Society of IT Management claims that while nearly all UK public sector organisations have adopted some form of flexible working, the practice remains far from universal and is going into reverse in some departments. The report found that around 97 percent of UK public sector organisations have now adopted the practice in the form of home working, desk sharing and mobile working in four of the public sector functions surveyed. While while there have been large increases in adoption the adoption of flexible working in the revenues and benefits functions and some in education, four other services show a significant decline with others appearing to be static.