The Worcestershire “Place Partnership” Project Herding Cats? The Worcestershire “Place Partnership” Project Nigel Snape (Hereford & Worcester Fire) Nathan Holden (Freeths LLP)

Why herding cats? Cats are intelligent Cats like to do things their own way Cats like to change their minds

History of the project Cabinet Office policy to support the “one public estate” programme LAs hold £165bn of assets (without schools and housing) £31m support from HMG to pay for consultancy / legal costs etc (largely unspent!) Efficiencies from rationalisation / shared use of assets Released land can support housing need and stimulate regeneration

Why Worcestershire? Group of authorities willing to work with government Building on earlier Asset Management Pathfinder Project Drivers – Professional / Political/ Government Policy Project partners: HWFRS WCC Worcester City Council Redditch Borough Council West Mercia Police Warwickshire Police “Almost” partners – Herefordshire Warwickshire CC

How progressed? Outline business case/ full business case Strong dedicated project management Leadership in all groups Support of member and officer level Separate groups for key areas, eg finance, legal, facilities, HR Appointment of an MD with property consultancy experience Chair (Bruce Mann) from Cabinet Office

What does “Place Partnership” do? Manages all property Provides FM services Carries out (or outsources) property consultancy Looks strategically at LA property within particular towns

What Place does not do Take ownership of sites Tell LAs what they have to do – declaration of “Property Sovereignty” Mandate joint working

Structuring of the project Legal – fortnightly meetings Heads of terms Key agreements: - Transfer (Equipment / TUPE / Service Contracts) - Shareholder Agreement - Service Agreement - Pension Documents (including transfer between LGPS schemes and indemnities)

What worked well? Member and officer support Lawyers – external + in-house Identifying issues, termination, indemnity, share transfers Defining the “business” Identifying reserved and board matters Creating a Limited Company with free-standing operational and its own lease Go live at the stated date “Cut-off” date for entrants

What worked less well … Defining the service requirement in all areas Establishing common service requirements, KPIs It’s not “them”, its “us” ! Establishing scope of cost base Costing for redundancy and employment costs Additional items, eg security services / weapons transport (!)

The Result

The result (1) The Ideal

The result (2) Place Services Asset Management Strategy Investment Analysis Corporate Landlord Planning Acquisitions and disposals Lease re-gearing / sales and landlords

Lessons Learned Importance of ‘People’ issues – both hard & soft Importance of communications between project groups with staff Need to ensure engagement at the right level across all partners

Any questions?