In the current economic climate, striving to deliver more with less will likely be a common mantra in management.
After people, the agenda will soon get on to your most valuable asset, your land, and property. Your estate should be shaped to meet the challenges of your business going forwards and be worked hard to maximise its efficiency.
If you’re an established organisation, with legacy land and property assets or a new venture with expanding property requirements, estate rationalisation can bring vast benefits to your business.
Whether your organisation is in the public or private sector a well-developed estates strategy linked to your business plan can identify where efficiencies, income generators or capital receipts can be realised.
The public sector is being driven by various government pressures, initiatives, reviews and reports. The One Public Estate initiative, Area Reviews of the Further Education sector and the Lord Carter Review into the NHS are just three examples. Releasing public sector owned land for residential development is also a government agenda for delivering new housing targets.
Private sector businesses are under increasing pressure to increase productivity while maintaining profit levels through more efficiency in an increasingly competitive global market. Whether delivering goods or services, the facilities should be matched to the process and the highest quality workplaces will help retain and attract the best quality staff in the marketplace.
Furthermore, the side benefits of making changes to the workplace are quite often overlooked as a new working environment, but is a great opportunity to change inappropriate cultures or working practices.
There may be many potential blockages to starting the journey ranging from a lack of funding to a fear of failure. Any in-house Estates team may lack the necessary skills and resources to deliver change and doing their day job can sometimes mean this never becomes a priority.
Not knowing where to start and what a successful process looks like may add to the inertia and procrastination. Investing in change today to realise savings over a longer period also adds to the mystery which means the urgent decisions overtake the important ones.
We have extensive experience in change management and estates strategies which can lead to estate rationalisation and transformation opportunities. We understand that no two scenarios will be the same and we have a suite of solutions and processes that can help to unlock the opportunities for our clients. We’re happy to assist in reviewing what you have, and each requirement, based on your specific asset database.
Keep up to date with industry best practice and legislative changes via our website. Alternatively, you can contact one of our technical team members who will be happy to help you further.