News

OGC announces new government workspace efficiency standards aiming to save around £1.25 billion annually for taxpayers

Released on 28/03/2008

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is urging all government departments, their agencies and sponsored bodies, to adopt workspace efficiency standards for offices on the government estate from 1st April 2008. The new standards will enable significant efficiency savings and sustainable performance improvements to be made on an estate that costs £6 billion a year to run and comprises 9,600 holdings in all parts of the UK.

Use of the OGC's Property Benchmarking Service will also become mandatory across the central government estate from April and will allow all government organisations to measure both efficiency and effectiveness performance against industry best practice.

The workspace standards that will apply from 1st April are 10 square metres per person (net internal area) for all new office buildings and major refurbishments of existing office buildings. Standards will be between 10 and 12 square metres per person (net internal area) for workspace improvement opportunities arising from all other refurbishments, from the introduction of flexible working arrangements and from layout alterations. It is estimated that applying these standards across the civil estate will deliver annual savings of around £1.25 billion, which is the equivalent of building around 42 new schools or eight new hospitals every year.

Property Asset Management Boards and Property Champions have already been established within departments. They will play a key role in implementing and monitoring the application of the workspace standards in a way that delivers both cost efficiencies, improved sustainability performance and an improved working environment for the workforce.

Chief executive of the OGC, Nigel Smith said:

"The new standards underline the government's committment to getting the best from the estate, and will give a strong message to the property industry - developers and landlords - about the importance government as a client is attaching to this.

"From the work the OGC is doing 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 government's office property portfolio. It will also have a beneficial impact on the sustainability performance of the estate."

Today's announcement follows an independent study by property performance measurement specialists IPD Occupiers commissioned by OGC to provide recommendations on workspace standards for government property.  

Notes to Editors

About IPD Occupiers
IPD Occupiers is an independent provider of property performance measurement for corporate real estate and facilities management. They provide performance measurement tools, independent benchmarks, and market intelligence for global occupiers across multiple business sectors.

IPD Occupiers report "Efficiency Standards for Office Space" (PDF, 963KB)

Property Benchmarking Service
OGC has put in place the methodology for benchmarking the performance of buildings across the central government estate, which will become mandatory from April 2008. The methodology allows for the measurement of both efficiency and effectiveness performance against appropriate key performance indicators and their data requirements. It provides:

• a standardised framework to enable departments to measure and manage their own estate performance, 
• a consistent, cross-departmental database, which allows performance to be tracked over time and to be compared with equivalent buildings in the IPD Occupiers Dataset; and 
• bespoke reports to participating departments providing both overall results and detailed efficiency and effectiveness analysis for each individual building.

Since 2006 OGC has been rolling out the methodology as a Property Benchmarking Service to central government departments.

Net internal area
This equates usually with an estate agent's floor area available for letting.  It is calculated by subtracting the vertical ducts, structural columns, plant areas, toilets, lifts, staircases and lift lobbies from the gross internal area.

About OGC

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is an office of HM Treasury, responsible for improving value for money by driving up standards and capability in procurement, from commodities buying to the delivery of major capital projects, maximising the effective use of 60% of Government spending and a £30 billion property estate.
 
A new government strategy launched in January 2007, Transforming Government Procurement, highlighted the central importance of procurement in delivering high-quality public services and best value for money.  OGC is tasked with delivering this transformation, and with driving up standards and procurement capability across central government.  The OGC will do this through areas of work including:

• Delivering value for money from third party spend;   
• Delivering projects to time, quality and cost; realising benefits;   
• Getting the best from the government estate.

In March of this year the government announced the creation of a new Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Procurement within the OGC alongside a new post of Chief Sustainability Officer, which will drive forward a culture of change across all departments in sustainable operations and procurement.

Media Contact:
Michael Dunning
T: 020 7271 1318
F: 020 7271 1345
E: press@ogc.gsi.gov.uk

Contact details:
OGC Service Desk
Tel: 0845 000 4999
E-mail: ServiceDesk@ogc.gsi.gov.uk