Police Property Rationalisation ‘Pretty Much Exhausted’ in West Yorkshire

One of Britain’s biggest police forces is reaching the limits of what it can achieve through rationalising its property portfolio, the Blue Light Estates Development Conference has heard.

Matthew Saunders, Head of Estates at West Yorkshire Police, said that its scope for rationalisation is ‘pretty much exhausted’.

More than 90% of the force’s running costs are now accounted for by buildings housing critical or specialist facilities, he said: “We’re pretty much down to the core and it will be close to 95% by the time we’ve finished. I don’t believe there is much scope for further rationalisation because the special facilities we have now are needed to keep things ticking over.
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Saunders said the force had cut 67,000sq m of its floor space over the last eight years, equating to a 30% reduction. 67 buildings have been disposed of during that time – generating £4.9m of recurring annual revenue savings and £21.5m of capital receipts.

Saunders, who is also a Co-Vice Chair of the National Police Estates Group (NPEG), said that the disposals had included a reduction in the number of the force’s custody suites from eleven to five. In addition a combination of lease disposals and the purchase of the freeholds on three large buildings has slashed West Yorkshire’s rent and service charge payments from £3m in 2011/12 to just £420,000 in 2018/19. Rents and service charges now account for 5% of the force’s estate running costs, down from 21% in 2011/12.

But the biggest savings from the building disposals have largely been achieved with estates budgets expected to grow in coming years due to above inflation increases in costs, he cautioned, and income generation opportunities in police estates are limited by operational and security considerations: “You have to be careful about who you let into buildings.”

Jonathan Garret, Estates & Facilities Manager at North Yorkshire Police, said collaboration projects must often proceed at the pace of the slowest partner. Admitting that one of his force’s shared accommodation projects had started on site a year later than planned, he said: “We’re subject to the capacity and capability of others. We can only project at the pace of the slowest partner. Each organisation wants to position itself for the best organisational outcome. We can quickly frustrate one another.”

The force has reduced the number of its properties from 74 to 56, many of which were ‘very small’ rural facilities. That included cutting the number of North Yorkshire’s customer suites from six to three over the last three years. The force has also generated £4.2m in capital receipts from their estates rationalisation.

Heddwyn Thomas, Director of Estates in the Police & Crime Commissioner’s Office at Dyfed-Powys Police, said a ‘very positive and flexible mindset’ is key to success in collaborative projects: “Some parties can be quite stubborn or strong minded and not open to challenge.”

Thomas, who is also Vice Chair of the NPEG, said Dyfed-Powys is due to award tenders for M&E, cleaning and waster services by the end of 2018. But expressing concern about what he described as the ‘historic low’ level of funding, he said: “You can only cut the cloth so much. Cleaning services are having to pare back the standard of cleanliness to bring it within budgets.”

Laura Haynes, Head of Estates at Devon & Cornwall Police, told delegates that ‘real collaboration takes real work’ and is often a slow burn due to its complexity.

She said the force owns about two thirds of its 94-site portfolio, which have an average age of 45 years – with some more than a century old. The force has retained some freehold sites due to the sensitive nature of some of its activities.

They have 17 shared locations including the Hayle shared police, fire and ambulance pilot hub, which has enabled the disposal of under-utilised buildings in the town. Following an external audit of this pilot project, she said tri-service recruitment is being rolled out across Devon and Cornwall.
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