Councils are being urged to take a much more strategic, performance driven approach to their property portfolio in a bid to improve customer services, realise efficiencies and help them tackle climate change and the introduction of flexible working for staff.
Published jointly by the Local Government Task Force for Construction and the East Midlands Centre of Excellence, ‘Making the Most of Your Assets’ calls on councils to concentrate less on immediate matters affecting their property and recommends instead that they:
- ensure senior councillors and officers are fully involved in asset management policy
link asset management plans to wider council objectives set challenging targets for property performance base plans on accurate and comprehensive data introduce clear internal structures and staff roles The guidance is published to coincide with the start of the Comprehensive Spending Review era in which councils are expected to realise up to £300 million in cash savings a year from smarter use of their assets.
Under the forthcoming Comprehensive Area Assessment regime, councils’ Use of Resources will be judged partly on how well they use their assets to deliver greater benefits for their communities.
Peter Bishop, Director of the Local Government Task Force, said, ‘Council assets offer huge potential for better services, generating efficiencies and introducing new ways of working. But this potential will only be fully realised if councils focus less on immediate issues and do more by taking a strategic long-term horizon.
‘While councils have greatly improved the way in which they manage their assets, they can do more, as our report recommends, to deliver better value for money and a more effective use of their asset base as the foundation for delivering high performing public services.’
The guidance brings together the lessons learnt from peer reviews carried out by CIPFA and the Improvement and Development Agency of councils’ approaches to asset management.
Download the document from the following link:
http://www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/sectorforums/lgtf/publications.jsp
