Paul Disley-Tindell, Telereal Trillium's director of corporate real estate, talks about the attachment people have to public sector assets and how public bodies can help their stakeholders understand that change can be good.
Attempts to update the public sector estate to better meet changing demands are often met with an emotional response from sceptical stakeholders arguing against change. Perverse though it may be, this response doesn’t just shape policy, it can lead it, and the business case prepared to justify the change can appear to be barely acknowledged.
High on the change list for central and local government – especially in today’s economic environment – is the need to strip cost out of the public sector’s property holdings. Around the country we can see examples of this happening.
There are, of course, some very special buildings, such as iconic town halls, which will always merit preservation and ongoing public use. However, much of the estate could be working harder for public sector employees and the communities they serve, as well as providing better value for taxpayers.