Plans to improve the efficiency of all central government office space mean the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) will assess all government property.
The Office of Government Commerce’s Property Benchmarking Service wants all office space and other public sector property to become more cost-effective.
With the aim of getting public service property to perform in line with private sector property, the OGC will provide public sector asset managers with the means to asses office space and wider real estate.
The Property Benchmarking Service was launched in 2006 as part of the OGC’s ‘High Performing Property’ initiative, the service is aiming towards a saving of £1.5bn a year by 2013.
The assessment is compulsory in Whitehall for any buildings over 5,000 square feet and the OGC’s chief executive, Nigel Smith, said: “From the work the OGC has already done on improving the government estate, we have concluded that improved use of workspace is the most effective way of achieving significant efficiency savings from the public sector’s property portfolio. It will also have a beneficial impact on the sustainability performance of the public sector estate.”
Tags: OGC