20/06/2016 - Permalink

Partnership awarded funding to put forward plans to boost economy and develop better-integrated public services

Related topics: Community

Shropshire Estates Partnership (SEP) has been awarded £50,000 to develop plans which could see a huge boost in Shropshire’s economy, along with better and more efficiently integrated public services.

The funding, awarded by the Cabinet Office and the Local Government Association (LGA), forms part of the One Public Estate programme, designed to support and enable local authorities to work successfully with central government and local agencies to make more efficient and streamlined use of the public estate. By using assets more effectively councils, together with their public sector partners, can create local economic growth, and deliver more integrated public services.

SEP, led by Shropshire Council, meets to rationalise how buildings can be used across the public sector. The council submitted an expression of interest on behalf of SEP, which was set up to review public sector assets across the county.

The partnership comprises of:

  • Shropshire Council (the lead authority)
  • Cabinet Office Government Property Officer /Local Government Association
  • Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital Trust
  • Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital Trust
  • West Mercia & Warwickshire Police
  • Shropshire Fire & Rescue
  • Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust
  • Shropdoc (Shropshire Doctors Co-operative Ltd)
  • NHS Clinical Commissioning Group
  • South Staff’s and Shropshire Community Mental Health Trust
  • National Probation Service
  • Ministry of Justice
  • Ministry of Defence
  • University Centre Shrewsbury (University of Chester)
  • Shropshire Town & Rural Housing (STAR Housing).
  • DWP – Job Centre Plus
  • NHS Property Services
  • Place Partnership Ltd

The award has been granted to allow SEP to produce a final detailed Service and Assets Delivery Plan which meets the One Public Estate programme objectives, to the Government by 29 July 2016. If successful, Shropshire could receive up to £500,000 to implement plans which would:

  • Create economic growth (through new homes and jobs)
  • Develop more integrated and customer-focused services
  • Generate capital receipts through the sale of land and assets to boost economic growth, and invest in reforming public services to meet local needs
  • Reduce running costs.

One of the key drivers behind the SEP is to look at and challenge how public sector property is used within Shropshire, and how rationalisation could bring forward revenue savings, capital receipts and surplus sites that will facilitate economic development and inward investment, and support the development of a higher wage economy.

Michael Wood, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for corporate support, said:

“I am delighted our expression of interest has been considered by the Cabinet Office and the LGA.

“Shropshire Council has been recognised for delivering some of the most efficient public sector services in the UK, but we realise to take this further, we need to reduce overheads and back office costs. The most effective way we can do this is join forces with our public sector colleagues to review how we use our assets and to unlock land to create vital homes and jobs, help services to work better together, and bring in money while generating savings for the future.

“This bid is fairly unique in the fact that it covers pretty much all the public sector partners that operate in this area, and is also relevant to bodies such as the Ministry Of Defence because, even though they are moving out of the county, they will be releasing two strategic sites that present fantastic opportunities for regeneration.

“SEP are absolutely committed to completing a final services and assets delivery plan by 29 July, in the hope we can get further funding to deliver our programme.”

For more information about the One Public Estate programme visit http://www.local.gov.uk/onepublicestate/-/journal_content/56/10180/6678286/ARTICLE 

Further information

The aim of the One Public Estate programme, led jointly by the Cabinet Office and the LGA, is to boost economic growth and regeneration by releasing surplus Government land and property through greater collaboration between local and central government.  It also encourages local authorities to share services and buildings with partners to help reduce running costs and to use the money from selling surplus property.

The key objectives of the programme are to:

  • Create economic growth – to enable released land and property to be used to stimulate economic growth, regeneration new housing and jobs
  • Generate capital receipts – to release land and property to generate capital receipts
  • Reduce running costs – to reduce the running costs of central and local government assets
  • Deliver more integrated and customer-focused services – to encourage publicly funded services to co-locate, to demonstrate service efficiencies, and to work towards a more customer-focused service delivery.

Councils who are successful in gaining membership for the One Public Estate programme will be supported to develop and deliver property initiatives with central government and public sector partners which meet these objectives.