IONIT comment on the Audit Commission’s review of Strategic Asset Management in Local Government

The report entitled ‘Room for Improvement’ released on 17th June 2009 by the Audit Commission is a follow-up to the Audit Commission’s last examination of councils’ strategic management of their property assets. This latest instalment reveals that local councils have made little progress on achieving their original objectives.
The report summarises its findings with four statements:

councils have spent £1.2 billion more on buying or refurbishing their offices than they have raked in from sales
only one in 14 (7 per cent) of councils is an exemplary manager of its assets
in 2007/08, while 65 improved, the performance of 46 councils on asset management deteriorated (based on their UOR scores)
a third do not yet share assets with other public services

It goes on to suggest that data collection of estates information is a key stage in local governments working more strategically to deliver better value to its constituents.

‘During our recent consultations it has become obvious that councils are at different stages in achieving a true understanding of the real value of their assets.’ James Messenger, Sales Manager comments.

Messenger continues; ‘Some councils have detailed information contained within bespoke software databases and are easily able to access and report on this information, where as other councils have little more than spreadsheets and know who holds hard copies of vital property information.’

IONIT has developed a Property Asset Management system, Property-I, to help organisations achieve the very objectives the Audit Commission states are key for councils to succeed:

Improve knowledge of their estates and their partner estates by:
- collecting data on size, use, occupancy, condition, running costs and having an eye to the open market value.
- Ensuring that asset management plans include quantification of the potential costs and benefits of proposals
- Publishing maps or details of the properties held by the public sector and inviting proposals for alternative use of them.

Identify areas for improvement and other councils to learn form by:
- Collecting data to populate the corporate value-for-money indicators and participating in their benchmarking services.
- Participating in other benchmarking networks such as those offered by CIPFA Property.

Review property holdings and reduce them where possible by:
- Identifying and disposing of surplus or under-utilised property
- Reconfiguring services and administration so that they occupy less space
- Considering tenure other than ownership such as lease, rent or lease-back.

The full report is available on the Audit Commission Website
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/nationalstudies/localgov/Pages/roomforimprovement17jun2009.aspx