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Local authorities increasingly accept that making improvements in asset management are necessary to maximise the returns from their property portfolios. The efficient management of local authority property has the potential to free up funds, which can be redirected towards services and much-needed local regeneration. Moreover, the need to realise ever-greater efficiencies means it is more essential than ever that authorities improve their asset management. But asset management can only deliver so much and, on its own, is not always enough. It often requires a more strategic consideration of how property is used and owned. Frequently, local authorities will choose to use the revenue savings from improved property management to invest in existing or new services. However, by looking more closely at the ownership and scale of their estates, councils can also identify opportunities to unlock underlying capital values to increase capital receipts for existing capital programmes or new development. 4ps is urging local authority chief executives to ask whether they are getting the most out of their ownership of property assets. Local authorities across England have around £52bn tied up in local authority offices and corporate accommodation, excluding housing and school buildings, and maintaining this stock is estimated to cost them up to £5bn a year. If these council-owned estates were exploited in innovative ways, it is estimated that savings of up to 20% could be made. We have just published, The estate we're in, a guide for councils to assess the contribution their estates make to public service delivery, and how they might realise the latent value of their property holdings. Increasingly, councils also want to become leaders in regenerating their run-down town centres and urban areas to create attractive places in which to work, shop or spend leisure time – to become place-shapers as well as place-occupiers. With declining central government resources or grants, this ambition is becoming harder to fulfil. But, by thinking radically about how to exploit their property, councils are well-placed to lead regeneration that would not otherwise take place. Rather than simply selling surplus or underdeveloped sites to the highest bidders, councils are proactively looking at ways they can use their assets to support regeneration programmes. This involves them taking a long-term approach and working in partnerships to develop programmes over which they can have long-term influence and reap lasting benefits. In this way, councils are able to guide and direct the form and nature of development, as well as having a stake in it, helping to make sure it delivers the economic, social and community benefits the locality needs. However, none of this is easy or quick. Successful regeneration is a lengthy, complex process requiring real collaboration between local government and other public stakeholders, and real and lasting engagement with private sector partners. But, there is a need for local government to define its role in an increasingly-complex stakeholder landscape. Only by doing so can an authority know whether it has the skills and capacity to lead and deliver successful regeneration. Furthermore, there is a bewildering range of options and partnership-delivery vehicles for taking regeneration schemes forward. Local authority chief executives are facing increasingly complicated patterns of service delivery on the one hand and complex choices for regeneration on the other. No two councils are the same, and there are no standard processes. The only certainty is the need for future flexibility and speed of adaptability for council accommodation. We are, therefore, currently developing a regeneration handbook for local authorities. Finally, we are very conscious in all our work with local authorities that at all times, the end-user, the ultimate customer, is the community that the local authorities serve. In view of this, we are giving considerable thought on how best to advise authorities to empower and capitalise community groups. In urging local authorities to unlock the value of their estates positively, we believe that, with the right safeguards, there can be a double-win for the council and the community. The transfer of assets at discounted value to community groups can be decisive in facilitating local entrepreneurship and the diversification of service delivery. This is investment in the community in the truest sense as the Quirk report (Making assets work – the quirk review of community management and ownership of public assets) underlined. Placing such thinking at the heart of innovative approaches to the exploitation of property portfolios and the promotion of regeneration schemes can make the difference. Click here for a free copy of The estate we're in Andrew Rowson is 4ps director for housing and property

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