Bristol City Council

Overview

Laura led an independent review of the Council’s approach to Strategic Estate Management to support a case for investment in the service and infrastructure.

With over 2,000 properties and more than 5,000 hectares of land, property represented the third highest cost to the Council after staff and service costs. Pressure to close the Council’s significant financial shortfall was mounting, and strategic estate management was identified as an opportunity to unlock greater capital and revenue returns, and drive efficiency savings.

Laura worked closely with Officers to review the Council’s current approach to estate management using the Property Asset Management Capability Assessment Model (PAMCAM), recognised by the RICS, as a benchmark, alongside other metrics that were bespoke to the Council.

Laura’s investigations highlighted some areas where attention was required. These included: setting clear financial targets for ownership by the ‘property service’; systems to evidence compliance across the whole estate; and having greater visibility of how the estate could support corporate and service delivery objectives.

The Baseline Assessment was intended as an enabler for service transformation to achieve strategic estate management excellence. Laura’s work culminated in an Outline Business Case for investment in: setting property strategy; growing property staff and their skills; acquiring data management infrastructure; and strengthening governance.