Pictured above: Laura Stamboulieh, Director of Corporate
Real Estate Consulting at DTZ
A study published yesterday by DTZ, the global real estate
services firm, has revealed a drastic reduction in the number of
public sector organisations who believe a desire to improve quality
of service is a major reason for Whitehall urging them to
collaborate.
DTZ, which advises one in three local authorities and more than
30 central government departments, surveyed almost 150 key decision
makers across a range of local government bodies, including
councils, emergency services and health organisations, to gauge
sentiment towards the collaboration agenda following the
Comprehensive Spending Review. The results were then compared to
those of the same survey carried out by DTZ in August 2010.
Whilst a large proportion (80%) of public sector bodies
confirmed that 'improving the quality of services to customers
would be a major driver behind their own decision to collaborate
via asset sharing, there is a view that this sentiment is not
echoed by the Government. In the original survey, 43% of senior
local government officials said they believed a desire to improve
services was a major driver behind the Government's push for them
to collaborate. However, this figure has now fallen to just 24%,
compared with the 95% who feel that the collaboration agenda is
driven by the need to save money. Meanwhile, the number of those
who view generating capital receipts as a key motive at Whitehall
grew from 25% to 46%.
In the Midlands, 100% of senior local government officers who
responded believed that collaboration was high on their
organisation's agenda, with 86% saying that collaborating around
asset sharing was taking place. Only 20% of respondents in the
region believed that an improvement of services was seen as an
important driver for the government.
The pilot government property units in London and Bristol have
signalled the Government's intent to rationalise its use of
property, and as a result 20% more local government bodies (63%)
now believe that the Government's move towards a smaller state is a
major factor underpinning the collaboration agenda.
Laura Stamboulieh, Director of Corporate Real Estate Consulting
at DTZ, covering the Midlands and South West, comments: "There has
been a remarkable fall in the number of local government bodies who
believe that the Government wants them to collaborate in order to
improve the services they provide. Instead, our study shows that
far more local government officials now see financial objectives as
the main drivers behind policy direction from Whitehall, whether
that's in the form of cost savings or capital receipts.
"Although collaboration remains high on the agenda for 88% of
local government bodies and collaboration is now seen as less of a
'threat' to their organisations, remarkably 35% still have no plans
to collaborate around real estate services. Clearly the Government
still has some way to go to convince local government
decision-makers of the real benefits which can be achieved through
collaboration at a local level.
"Despite this, in the Midlands the proportion of organisations
collaborating around asset sharing is well above average though
there appears to be a genuine nervousness that, in seeking to drive
out cost savings, the Government is prepared to forego the quality
of local services."