Th e Te r r i e r · wonder the valleys are green. Overview The general view seems to be that the conference was well worth attending and equally importantly was very much enjoyed

The Journal of aCeS - The aSSoCiaTion of Chief eSTaTeS SurveyorS and ProPerTy ManagerS in loCal governMenT voluMe 12 - iSSue 2 - SuMMer 2007

T h e T e r r i e rAPC Assessors

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CArdiff ConferenCe

ComPulsory PurChAse exPer tise

ground rent AuCtions

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THE TERRIER - Summer 2007 �

CArdiff-07

lee dawson Junior vice-President of ACes

ACes sPring ConferenCeThis year’s ACES Spring Conference was held in May at the Novotel Hotel in the heart of Cardiff and was attended by 150 people over a two day agenda.

On arriving in Cardiff the first thing I learned was that, as Junior Vice-President, one of my duties was to produce a report on the conference for the pages of The Terrier (and my thanks are due to Hilary Reid of Swansea City Council for additional material in this report). Personally, however, I think it was a ruse by some of my ACES colleagues to ensure that I turned up at the OGM before the coffee break!

The theme of the conference as set by conference organiser, Adrian James (Welsh Water/Dwr Cymru) with the backing of the Welsh Branch was “Delivering the Project”. There was a suggestion on the day that the theme should have been “Delivering the Advertisement Brochures” as the amount of such literature in delegates’ conference packs seemed particularly high!

Thursday AfternoonThe conference was opened by the President of ACES, Ian Hay, who welcomed guests and members alike and

then sat tirelessly and uncomplainingly chairing the proceedings as the two days progressed.

The first speaker on the Thursday afternoon was Cheryl Gillan, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales and MP for Chesham and Amersham since 1992. She is a very lively speaker and for a politician gave a refreshingly frank and honest view on a number of issues, some of which, due to the Chatham House Rule (See page 9), I won’t repeat. However, she did consider areas of how partnership and coalition government in Wales were likely to change due to the recent elections. What got a rousing cheer was that she was against all those targets for local government and for giving more freedom to local government.

T h e T e r r i e rThe Journal of aCeS - The aSSoCiaTion of Chief eSTaTeS SurveyorS and ProPerTy ManagerS in loCal governMenT voluMe 12 - iSSue 2 - SuMMer 2007

ConTenTS:

Cardiff-07 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

ACES Branches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Leveraging Public Sector Land . . . . . . . 17

Exceeding Carbon Reduction Targets . . . . 18

The Quirk Review - Reviewed . . . . . . . 22

Construction Law . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Service Charges. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Ground Rents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Compulsory Purchase . . . . . . . . . . 35

An APC Assessor’s View . . . . . . . . . 36

Sand and Gravel . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The Dilemmas of Ownership . . . . . . . . 48

CLG and ACES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Public Sector Call Centres . . . . . . . . . 51

Commissioner or Provider . . . . . . . . . 53

4Ps Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Valuation Software . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Yesterday’s Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

The Suffolk Scribbler . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Ian Hay and Cheryl Gillan

ConTenTS


Next came Chris Pratt from King Sturge who talked about protecting councils in PFI deals. Chris did a fine job despite IT failures. With no output from the laptop/projector combination holding his Powerpoint presentation, it was a bit like a game of charades as he tried to describe the contents of each slide but in a very slick performance a potentially dry topic was handed to the delegates gift-wrapped.

One of the key points he did get across was that perhaps PFI was yesterday’s vehicle and that the market had moved on. Chris confessed that in his experience, despite the title of his talk he was not sure that local authorities actually needed protection. In his view the private sector did not necessarily have better skills, although clearly had more of them! The other most interesting figure he came up with was that local authorities had surplus assets totalling some £232billion!

Chris’s talk was followed by David Revell of 4Ps who wanted to talk about the new property partnership handbook due to be launched within a few weeks of the conference (See article elsewhere in this edition of The Terrier). For a while we all thought he was talking to himself, but then realised the battery in his radio microphone had gone flat. Before this happened however he mentioned a figure of £180billion in terms of surplus assets. Nobody could accuse local authorities of being slow on the uptake because in the last hour after Chris’s presentation we had already got rid of £52billion pounds worth. There was also talk of local authority and private sector property partnerships becoming “commoditised” (answers on a postcard please).

Following David Revell, we had those stalwarts of the ACES conference circuit, the great double act of Valerie Conway and Andrew Jones from BPS. They jointly took us through the high spots and the pitfalls of building a successful partnership and likened it, quite appropriately, to a pre-nuptial agreement rather than a marriage. One of the key messages they were keen to put across was that councils should invest in proper preparation as time spent there would save time overall. This is what we have become to expect from BPS with them presenting a sound common

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s e n s e approach as usual. Their presentation w a s lively and interest ing and the hall stayed full until the very end! This was despite Andrew (or at least his microphone b a t t e r y ) having to be revived several times

during the speech, rather like a bionic surveyor. All in all t e c h n o l o g y wise we had a good c o n f e r e n c e session with the use of three batteries, two laptops, two projectors and two microphones. Who said ACES was not high tech?

T h u r s d a y EveningThat evening the professional information slots gave way to the professional networking hours in the form of a black tie dinner. The President of ACES started the evening’s proceedings with a warm welcome to the top table guests, including Councillor Peter Rees, Chairman of CLAW (principal sponsors of the conference) and Dinesh Kotecha President of COPROP.

The dinner was very well attended and the noise level remained encouragingly high throughout the night. The comedian, Mr John Martin, took to the floor shortly after coffee was served and proved to be a great success, particularly when he turned the spotlight on particular people around the room!

Friday MorningOn Friday please note your Junior Vice-President was up bright and early and on time for the OGM. Following the OGM we had a presentation on rating consultancy procurement by Peter Legood of Chichester District Council on behalf of the consortium which won the 2006 ACES Award for Excellence.

Cllr Peter Rees of CLAW with Ian HayAndrew Jones

Valerie Conway

Carol and Adrian James

Conference venue - the Novotel Cardiff Centre

THE TERRIER - Summer 2007 7

Steve Foskett of TPS Consult followed with a fascinating presentat ion on the procurement of the Senedd b u i l d i n g . This was all the more i n t e r e s t i n g because the c o n f e r e n c e was set in Cardiff and d e l e g a t e s were staying in a hotel within easy reach of the building itself. The tortuous initial part of the procurement p r o c e s s (not within TPS control) was well publicised and Steve was able to demonstrate how the seemingly out-of-control project was brought in line and finally delivered on time and to budget.

This was followed by a spirited presentation by John Burrows of Newport ltd about the virtues of Newport and the extensive redevelopment that was taking place in such a strategically important place situated between Bristol & Cardiff. The final presentation was a high standard performance by Alan Couzens of Partnerships UK talking about potential new partnership models.

Ian Hay, the President, then closed the formal part of the conference with thanks and appreciation to all concerned, particularly our sponsors, Cooke & Arkwright and CLAW, and the conference associates and exhibitors.

After lunch members and partners departed for a tour of Cardiff Castle (See front cover), moistened and invigorated (the delegates, not the Castle) by another shower or two of Welsh Water’s raw material. No wonder the valleys are green.

OverviewThe general view seems to be that the conference was well worth

attending and equally importantly was very much enjoyed by all who attended. There was a high number of delegates attending an ACES conference for the first time and I believe this is encouraging for the organisation as a whole.

In terms of the social calendar, my wife, Clair, reported that it was excellently organised and great fun - nice to see so many friends once again.

All in all a wonderful conference, well organised by the Welsh branch, and as was noted at the conference many thanks again to Adrian James and his wife, Carol.

They especially deserve a mention for despite Adrian leaving the local government field (he is now with Welsh Water/Dwr Cymru) he continued the work he had started in organising the conference, so many thanks once again to them and to all members of the Welsh branch who made the visit to Cardiff so pleasurable.

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Peter Legood

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John Burrows

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Lee and Clair Dawson

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ACes brAnChes

eAstern brAnChA select group met in Bury St Edmunds for the summer meeting. Unfortunately it did not seem like summer to most of those attending who fell victims to the cloud outburst which started just as they were walking from the car park to the Borough Offices!

As our secretary was holidaying probably in a more equable climate, our chairman John Cowin agreed to take the minutes and I agreed to do the write-up, on the understanding that both would be brief.

A large slice of the meeting was taken up with a really interesting discussion about the Quirk Review and how it fits into our property services. As we have pointed out to the government, most ACES members can already cite innovative examples of leases to community groups and we should be encouraged to carry on, without imposition of such new tools as “Community Call for Action” and “PRODs” (see my other article in Terrier if this doesn’t make sense).

The discussion strayed into all sorts of anecdotal experiences about tender processes, user rights, property databases, freedom of information requests for tenant lists and before we knew it, we had overrun and our buffet lunch was in danger of spoiling.

betty Albon

heArt of englAnd brAnChThe Branch welcomed Ian Hay, the ACES President, to its meeting on 21 June held in the Mansfield District Council Civic Centre. Considering that we were competing with an IPF Asset Management seminar in Nottingham on the same day the turnout of twelve members was pleasing.

In the morning the Branch received a presentation from Carl Towner, Chief Executive of the Lenton Centre. The Centre is a new pioneering social enterprise in the heart of the inner city of Nottingham. It has recently purchased the freehold interest in a former leisure and community centre from Nottingham City Council and aims to establish itself as a self-sustaining business for the benefit of the mixed community of Lenton. There was general agreement that it had been one of the best presentations at a branch meeting, providing a timely practical insight into the real life experience of asset transfer to the community as promoted by the ‘Quirk’ review.

After lunch the President referred to the networking strength of ACES and gave us an update on national ACES issues.

The meeting discussed the proposed guidelines on ‘Tenanted non-residential property’ and the government’s ‘Leveraging public sector land’ initiative which was anticipating the new Prime

the ChAthAm house rule

With thanks to Wikipedia!

The Chatham House Rule is a rule that governs the confidentiality of the source of information received at a meeting. Since its refinement in 2002, the rule states:

“ When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.”

The rule originated in June, 1927, at what is now best known as Chatham House (formerly known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs) with the aim of guaranteeing anonymity to those speaking within its walls in order that better international relations could be achieved. It is now used throughout the world as an aid to free discussion. The original rule was refined in October 1992 and again in 2002.

Meetings, or parts of meetings, may be held either “on the record” or “under the Chatham House Rule”. In the latter case, the participants are understood to have agreed that it would be conducive to free discussion that they should be subject to the rule for the relevant part of the meeting. The success of the rule may depend on its being considered morally binding, particularly in circumstances where a failure to comply with the rule may result in no sanction.

The Rule allows people to speak as individuals, and to express views that may not be those of their organizations, and therefore it encourages free discussion. Speakers are then free to voice their own opinions, without concern for their personal reputation or their official duties and affiliations.

The Chatham House Rule resolves a boundary problem faced by many communities of practice, in that it permits acknowledgment of the community or conversation while protecting the freedom of interaction that is necessary for the community to carry out its conversations.

editor


Minister’s announcement to increase the house building target by 20% to provide 3 million new homes by 2020, mainly on brownfield sites currently in public sector ownership

The valuation approach to Nottingham City Council’s interest in the Nottingham Forest Football Ground was discussed. The club had just announced that it was to move to a new 50,000 stadium between the city and M1 junction 24 and it was expected that the club would suggest that the value of the existing ground would be put into the scheme.

The valuation of a rule 5 CPO case to support a lottery bid to provide better premises than those being acquired was raised.

Increasing branch membership was also on the agenda and that prompted an open and frank discussion on the benefits of ACES, on whether or not potential new members might perceive the Association as welcoming or cliquey, as easy or difficult to join and as good value. It was suggested that a buddy arrangement be introduced for new members.

The President undertook to take these views back to the next Council meeting and, as a member of Council, I look forward to the discussion with interest.

richard Allen

london brAnChAs usual the Branch has had a number of meetings throughout the spring and summer months and we now take a break until the autumn.

During this period we have formally submitted a paper to the Greater London Assembly on the potential effect of Listed Buildings on public sector property portfolios and also attended a GLA Planning Committee meeting on the subject as an invited expert guest.

In May the Branch Chairman, Steve Howe, welcomed the ACES President, Ian Hay, to our meeting. Ian outlined his major themes for the year and, as you will see from the accompanying photo it was a good turnout. Ian’s themes were discussed within the Branch at the meeting and received full support. As is the custom with London at the end of the meeting the President enjoyed a more informal debate of current issues in another place (a local hostelry). Ian also took the opportunity to remind us of his Presidential conference later this year in Morpeth.

A number of London colleagues attended the Cardiff Conference and once again the general feedback was that it was both an enjoyable social occasion and worthy of a CPD event. Closer to home, the annual social event for London Branch Members was a successful tour of the Dennis Seagers building and the surrounding Spitalfields area. It was organised and led by Gene Mitchell who is now a Blue Badge Guide, having retired from Camden where she was a longstanding supporter of ACES. She


ACes welsh brAnChfroM lefT To righT:

roger barrett-evans - Pembrokeshire CC (rtd.)gwyn Jones - Carmarthenshire CCJonathan fearn - Carmarthenshire CCian hay - ACes PresidentAndrew harries - Ceredigion CC

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tony bamford - flintshire CCPauline James - torfaen County bCian Aitken - bridgend bChilary reid - swansea C&CC (Chairman)Adrian James - united utilitiesAlan stonehouse - neath Port talbot CbCneville henstredge - Pembrokeshire CCnigel baldwin - Powys CC (secretary)

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ACes london brAnChfroM lefT To righT:

roy gregory - redbridge James naughton - nhs James young - brent Andrew wild - City of london martin white - hillingdon howard Joy - merton John rayner - greenwich Abdul Qureshi - newham Ade Adebayo - sutton malcolm dawes (partly hidden) - haringey Angela rench - hounslow

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marcus Perry (partly hidden) - westminster Jeremy Pilgrim - southwarkian hay - President of ACes brian smart - barnet roman Prychidko - tower hamles eileen flanagan - haringey ian doolan - kensington and Chelsea steve howe - kensington and Chelsea bryn harries - newham / southwark richard barrett - brent Jane Pocknall - bromley lee dawson (partly hidden) – hounslow don baker – valuation office derek barnden – westminster stephen dunevein – islington

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is of course now available for bookings should anyone wish to go on an interesting accompanied guide around London.

On the technical front the Branch have more recently discussed accommodation strategies and how or if they should be property led. The Community Assets Fund Paper and the publication of the Quirk Review have both also engendered a good debate and the CLG/Treasury proposal surrounding a proposed register of surplus public sector land left a few of us bemused as to where all this spare land is hiding. We have also discussed how to encourage usage of the ACES website and all ideas and suggestions would be gratefully received as the current London Chair (Steve Howe) is particularly keen to see a greater level of use throughout the organisation.

richard barrett

north eAst brAnChThe North East Branch tries to hold its meetings at different locations throughout the year and as it represents quite a wide range of authority types and sizes, I thought I would include some facts about the host authority area in this and future reports as an indication of the diversity of our region. Craven District Council covers an area of 117,876 hectares (450 sq miles) with a population of 53,600 which is about 18% of the UK average density per sq. km. Two thirds of the district lies within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The district is predominantly rural with a diverse economy, including tourism, agriculture and quarrying.

The summer branch meeting was held at Craven District Council’s Skipton offices with spectacular views from the council chamber over the surrounding countryside including spectacular cloud formations which were more like that of a winter day. Despite the floods which had seriously affected some of the areas covered by member councils, we had a very good turn out including three members who are in the process of applying for national membership.

For the first half of the morning session the meeting was chaired by Alison Johnston of Northumberland CC as the branch chairman was stuck in a six-mile tailback of traffic on the motorway and turned up half way through the guest speaker’s presentation.

Amongst the matters on the agenda were acting as APC assessors, affordable housing, the ACES and RICS websites, accounting for leases, CPD courses and the Quirk Review, which was also the subject of considerable discussion during the guest speaker’s slot.

The guest speaker was Alex Gray who gave a presentation and facilitated a discussion forum entitled “Recognising and responding to developments in local authority asset management and property services”. As many of you will know, Alex is a management consultant specialising in public sector property and asset management and has

undertaken an impressive range of work for a growing number of authorities. His short presentation gave an overview of the development of AMP’s but was very much focussed on current issues and initiatives and as intended, it provoked a great deal of discussion and a much longer debate on the Quirk Review and the agenda for the transfer of assets to the community. As would be expected from the audience present, the barriers and difficulties associated with transfer were discussed but members also recognised the advantages of community transfer and the need to establish clear policies and procedures to allow an open and transparent process for the benefit of the whole community.

The Branch Treasurer also gave his report and the Branch agreed to continue with its support to the education sector by sponsoring an award at the Northumbria University School of Built Environment prizegiving in late July. This is seen as an opportunity to raise the profile of ACES and promote the role of the public sector surveyor to new entrants to the profession. The Branch chairman will be attending the award ceremony to present the award to the successful student “and say a few words on behalf of our sponsors”.

Before close of play, Brian Ablett our representative from Government Office for Yorkshire and Humber gave his usual summary of relevant issues including local area agreements and the sustainability agenda and announced that he will be leaving GOYH in September this year.

Our next meeting will be in November hosted by Northumberland County Council when we hope that Ian Hay will be able to join us and reflect upon his busy presidential calendar. To assist members with their travelling arrangements and to reduce the carbon footprint of the meeting, Northumberland have offered to provide a shuttle service from the train station to their offices for those who may wish to travel by train.

John read

welsh brAnChTo coincide with the visit of the President, Ian Hay, to our Summer Branch meeting, the Welsh Branch arranged to meet at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), near Machynlleth, Powys. The Centre is renowned for its research into all things sustainable, including energy production, energy conservation and demonstrating the practical applications of its findings.

Our journey to the Centre commenced with a ride on the water powered funicular railway up the steep cliff face of the former slate quarry where CAT is based, an original re-use of a brownfield site. Each car load is weighed and a computer calculates the exact amount of water required to pull it up the slope. On the downward journey, the weight of the car is used to pump some of the water back to the top, approximately 10%. Being in Wales there is plenty of water available to operate the railway.

THE TERRIER - Summer 2007 1�

After an interesting meeting, which prompted a lot of points for discussion, and lunch, the Branch was addressed by Trish Andrews, a Consultant Architect at CAT on the topic of “Green Design”.

The main elements of Green Design are:

Location - the revised BREEAM standards include a requirement to be on a public transport route, which make it impossible to achieve in many rural locations;

Land use, e.g. brownfield or previously used sites,

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The CAT welcome sign and Funicular Railway

kAte ChAdwiCk wedsKate Chadwick is becoming well known to ACES members. She was one of the speakers at our Bury St Edmunds conference last September and she also came to the Cardiff conference as a delegate. Kate is a partner in Donaldsons’ Development Consulting team but on the 6th June this year she entered an entirely different partnership when she married Andy Anstey.

Andy is Director of New Business at Limelight Sport, a firm which arranges mass participation sports events for public and private sector clients.

Kate confesses that on one very significant day Andy’s event organisation skills almost let him down. The couple met on a blind date but Kate says they very nearly didn’t meet as the pub which Andy had picked for their rendezvous had closed down!


Resources used and …

Energy use; 30% of the energy use in Britain is for domestic use and 83% of that energy is used for space heating and hot water;

Pollution and waste, including water conservation and recycling;

Healthy impact;

Community impact;

Flexibility;

Adaptability in design and construction and Mixed Use, e.g. providing many services from one area of development, are the other important elements.

An energy efficient building will make the maximum use of passive solar gain by its orientation, include high levels of insulation, good airtightness standards and high performance glazing. Efficient heating systems and appliances are also a very important part of achieving the best results. Despite the introduction of improved standards in Britain our domestic energy use is still 350% more than in places like Denmark and Germany.

A green building will incorporate the principles of energy efficient design, but it will also have regard to the materials used for its construction. Ten per cent of our total energy consumption is embodied in the construction of buildings and half of the raw materials we use are used in construction. The erection and demolition of buildings produces 35% of our annual waste. Regard should be had to the energy needed to produce building materials,

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e.g. cement manufacture is responsible for 7 to 10% of CO2 emissions, which is more than is produced by transport! Aluminium and steel have a high amount of energy embodied in their production whereas home grown timber has a low amount of energy embodied in it.

CAT uses a lot of timber in its construction projects and avoids the use of chemically treated timber products. Instead, it uses longer lasting timber species such as larch, Douglas fir, pitch pine (recycled where possible) and oak. Locally grown timber is preferred to minimise transport costs. The Centre has also experimented with the use of alternative materials such as rammed earth for walls and floors, “limecrete”, which is like concrete but uses lime instead of cement because lime has a much lower amount of energy embodied in it and lime hemp plaster (The hemp used is a legal variety with no mind-altering properties!).

Finally, an important element of the green design of a building is to have regard to its deconstruction. An “asset register” of the building could be produced which shows the materials used in its construction and their potential for recycling or demolition.

The Branch also heard details of the WISE project at CAT. This is £6.1 million building project, currently under construction, to provide the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education, a centre of excellence for sustainable education with lecture theatre, laboratories, workshops and accommodation etc. It aims to have one of the lowest energy consumptions in the country. The building is due for completion in 2008 and so a return visit by the Branch

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in a couple of years’ time to visit this exciting building could well be on the cards.

All in all this was an interesting and thought provoking talk by Trish Andrews and much of what was covered can be applied to the local authority estate. CAT is well worth a visit if you are in the area. For more information visit www.cat.org.uk

nigel baldwin

south eAst brAnChThe branch has met only once since my report in the last issue of the Terrier. This meeting, our third of the year, took place towards the end of June at Horsham District Council’s offices in leafy West Sussex.

Fifteen members were in attendance from councils in Berkshire, East Sussex, Kent, Surrey, West Sussex, and also from the Valuation Office Agency. Nine apologies were received. The branch welcomed four new members: Richard Butler of Brighton and Hove City Council; Chris Carey of Horsham District Council; Mike Timmins of Mid Sussex District Council; and Jason Christou of Runnymede Borough Council.

A report was given on the Spring Conference at Cardiff, which had been attended by several branch members including Peter Legood of Chichester District Council. Peter was one of the speakers at the conference and had given a presentation on a joint procurement exercise for rating work that had been undertaken by some SE Branch authorities and which had won the ACES Award for Excellence.

The main item of business discussed was the potential for further joint procurements and opportunities for shared services. Work is going on in and between a number of South-East branch member authorities to look at the potential for sharing services between authorities and for joint procurement of external consultants.

The usual eclectic range of other business and exchanges of comparable information included the SORP regulations governing asset valuations, social housing, the Quirk Review, sale and leaseback transactions, wind turbines and crane oversailing rights.

Future meetings were confirmed as 24th September at Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and 26th November at Arun District Council.

steve mcleod

south west brAnChThe South West Branch summer meeting took place in Barnstaple on 22 June. The town has recently benefited from a £40 million pound investment, in the form of a new bridge across the River Taw and associated link roads. This and the various schemes being planned or under construction, designed to capitalise upon the reduced traffic congestion within the town, were the subject of a walking tour after the formal business meeting. This was led by Diana Hill from our host authority, North Devon District Council.

We were delighted to welcome Ian Hay on his presidential visit. Ian had spent the previous day in Mansfield at the Heart of England Branch and by coming to North Devon was a long way from home! He gave us a detailed briefing on current issues and of the work being done by the Association at a national level. While for most of us ACES is most closely identifiable with the Branch it is clear that there is a lot happening nationally and it was very interesting to learn of the scale of this activity.

One piece of work which the Branch has picked up on independently of any national initiative is the need to recruit new members from a wider range of local authorities and other relevant public bodies. We have compiled lists of all authorities within our region, and compared this with those bodies where we have members – and those members who come, either regularly or less frequently, to our meetings. This will inform a local recruitment initiative which we intend to undertake later in the year.

The Branch finances are in good heart, but with Alison Fisk, our Treasurer, about to go on maternity leave we shall need a new holder of this post in the near future. Those who had attended the recent Spring Conference in Cardiff reported on the high quality of the presentations, and Ian used the opportunity to promote the Presidential Conference to be held in Northumberland in September.

The heart of the meeting was the usual eclectic mix of professional topics raised by members, and this gave rise to a good and wide-ranging discussion on issues which included performance indicators, the Quirk Review and the sale of land for affordable housing. We confirmed that our AGM would be held in Wiltshire in November, and that the spring meeting in 2008 would take place in Taunton. With the 2012 Olympic sailing events taking place at Portland it was suggested that it would be good for us to return to the National Sailing Academy there for a future meeting, and this will form part of our ongoing programme.

bob Perry

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leverAging PubliC seCtor lAnd

richard Allen nottingham City Council

Richard Allen wrote the article below for the pages of “Property Week”

The new Prime Minister has announced that his priority will be housing and that 3 million new homes are to be built by 2020, increasing the current annual target by 20%.

Speeding up the planning system as also proposed will help. But it is intended that these homes, including a number of ‘eco’ towns, be developed on mainly brownfield sites currently in public sector ownership. The government recognises that ownership and control of land is often critical to the delivery, particularly where there has been significant market failure in housing supply or regeneration in the past.

But, in the locations where there is the highest demand and most employment opportunities, will there be sufficient public sector land identified as being surplus to meet the supply required to achieve this development target?

Surplus public sector land owned by bodies such as Defence Estates, Health and Transport currently has to be put on a register and offered for other public sector uses before being exposed to the open market. This register does not include local authority land, which just has to be classified as non-operational surplus on their asset registers.

In both cases land is only brought forward for transfer to other uses once it is formally declared surplus. But neither case identifies ‘potentially’ surplus land. This is where the real challenge lies in meeting the new housebuilding target. Leveraging public sector land, as it is being referred to, will become a principal theme for the foreseeable future.

Local authorities are ahead of the game in rationalising their assets. For a number of years they have been required to do so to improve services and achieve annual savings through the more effective use of their property. This is being achieved by identifying property that is no longer fit for purpose and developing strategies through their asset management plans to deliver services in a more joined-up way.

But experience has shown that to persuade individual services within a local authority to free up land and space can be a difficult and a lengthy task unless a totally corporate approach is adopted throughout the authority.

A similar proactive approach, particularly involving more joined-up working and use of property, needs to be adopted by all other public sector landowners in order to identify more quickly possible surplus assets that can be brought forward for housing development.

One of the roles of the soon to be formed Communities England (merger between English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation) will be to speed up this process by reviewing the sources of available public sector land and the constraints on its release. But from having identified such land the time to actually starting on site can also be very protracted. In this connection English Partnerships are keen to develop appropriate business models by working closely with local authorities, many of which have wide experience of unlocking the regeneration potential in brownfield sites, with complex land assembly, contamination, valuation and planning problems.

The idea of building ‘eco’ towns is not new. In their day model villages such as Saltaire and Port Sunlight and the garden cities of Welwyn and Letchworth successfully met the then green criteria. But in the race to meet housing shortages in the past there have been major housing development failures. For example in the 50/60s poorly designed and constructed high-rise flat schemes replaced horizontal slums with vertical slums, many of which have since been demolished and replaced at some considerable cost to the public purse. And much of today’s social problems are associated with the design of much recent inner city housing and the isolation created by the lack of facilities and opportunities on some edge of city housing estates.

A recent CABE housing audit concluded that 82% of homes built in the last five years are not good enough, with the main failures being that schemes have not recognised their local context or had a good sense of place. They have demonstrated poor urban design, used limited public realm and have not created an adequate distinct identity.

In addition to the quantitative challenge the accelerated house-building programme must learn lessons from the past and equally rise to the qualitative challenge of developing long-term sustainable communities.

Achieving both these quantitative and qualitative targets will require property professionals throughout the whole of the public sector to develop in partnership innovative solutions to deliver this ambitious housing programme that meets the people’s needs.

richard Allen nottingham City Council


exCeeding CArbon reduCtion tArgets

dick bradford barnsley metropolitan borough Council

Dick Bradford CEng, FCIBSE is the Principal Designer (Building Services) and Energy Engineer for Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. This article was compiled, using additional material supplied by Dick Bradford, following Dick’s presentation to the March meeting of the ACES North East Branch.

A history of freedomThe strong environmental position enjoyed by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council today is firmly linked to a background of progressive energy efficiency carried on over a twenty year period. This is now set to culminate in the Council not only reaching, but surpassing by a sizable margin, its 60% government-imposed carbon dioxide reductions target from 1990 levels by 2010, forty years ahead of the 2050 deadline!

Back in 1986 the Council’s “Energy Efficiency and Conservation Policy” was formulated with an initial goal of reducing the then £4M energy budget by 15% in five years linked to a programme of investment. Within four years the Council actually achieved a 20% reduction so that by 1990, (the base year that would feature in future government targets but which was not known then), Barnsley Council had already made significant headway.

Principal to this success had been the application of computerised energy management systems (EMS) in particular applied to coal-fired boiler plant – which in 1986 supplied more than 80% of the council’s heat. The

introduction of the radical concept of ‘Airless Kindle’, pioneered within Barnsley, applied to these boilers realised fuel savings of around 40% in buildings operating office hours including schools.

Progressively AdoPting new teChnologiesChanging design philosophy in line with emerging technologies has served to further reduce the energy requirements of buildings significantly. A concerted shift away from “convective” to “radiant” solutions has led to marked improvements in comfort levels even with reduced occupation temperatures. By employing under-floor heating solutions incorporating “conductive” screeds in new buildings, or radiant ceiling panels in cases of refurbishment, has resulted in operating costs reducing by some 20%. Subsequent analysis of these installations shows they operate better than published best practice with the spin-off advantage of unobstructed walls and no hot pipes needing to be encased.

sheffield roAd flAts

the first biomass wood chip installation involved 166 flats in three 7-storey tower blocks.

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bArnsley mbC’s trACk reCord in ConservAtion

By adopting emerging technologies – BMES controls, radiant heating solutions instead of convective, heat exchangers in ventilation systems etc.;

20% target for 2010 was achieved during 2001;

40% target for 2020 was achieved during 2005;

Now only the 60% target for 2050 remains…

And that is achievable within this decade.

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Dick Bradford

A092_PlanningAd_P1.indd 1 30/8/06 11:40:57 am

Paul Ellis DevelopmentGraeme Tulley Planning & Regeneration

James Grierson Real Estate Strategy

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Ventilation systems, incorporating passive heat reclaim as the norm, along with “scavenging” buildings at night, have lowered the demand for air conditioning. Lighting control incorporating occupancy sensing, automatic dimming, and/or photocell control is also now standard practice.

The benefits of building this level of savings momentum into the system has led Barnsley Council to reduce its energy consumption by over 50% by 2000 and passing the government’s 2010 CO2 reduction target of 20% from 1990 levels during 2001. This was followed by further meeting the 40% target for 2020 during 2005 thereby putting the authority at least fifteen years ahead of where it might otherwise have been expected to be. But the best still lay ahead!

AdoPting biomAss teChnologyThe Government’s Energy White Paper of 2003 painted a sorry picture of Britain rapidly approaching an energy crisis. This was evidenced during the winter of 2004 when Britain became a net importer of gas. With the North Sea oil fields becoming exhausted by 2010 and the mines closed, the nation faced the uncertain prospects of fuel supply and price instability as well as being victim to the political whim of foreign nations – which latterly has been seen to be precisely the case through escalating energy prices.

Barnsley though was better placed than most to deal with this situation. Following the demise of the coal mines in the late 1980s and early 1990s many coal-firing authorities saw that as an opportunity to switch away from coal to gas firing. Barnsley resisted such a move simply because, with its long standing ability to effectively control and operate coal plant efficiently, it saw no overriding reason to change. The wisdom of that stance now becomes abundantly clear.

In June 2004 Barnsley Council adopted a “Biomass Fuel Heating” policy. This would provide the driver for future ‘zero carbon’ biomass-fired heating installations being rolled out across the borough for all new buildings or where major refurbishments were being undertaken. The risk in this was seen to be minimal in that continental Europe had been installing this kind of technology for decades. This was not new technology, but technology that stemmed from a tried and tested manufacturing base. If there was any concern at all it was whether the fuel supply chain would be sufficiently robust which is why the initial schemes incorporated 100% standby alternative plant (all grant-funded). Notwithstanding the historic mining background of the borough this policy was readily adopted by the council members without any voice of dissent.

The Sheffield Road flats have a 470kW wood burning plant providing heating and hot water via prepayment heat meters with ‘smart-card’ readers together with time and temperature controls in each flat. The work, which comprised the total replacement of the heating systems within the flats, due to their age and poor condition, was complemented with double glazed windows and cavity fill

westgAte PlAzA 1 – new hQ building

500kw wood chip boiler

Capable of dealing with both phases of the development and servicing town hall and Central library via accumulator vessels at night.

wood Pile AwAiting ChiPPing

700 tonne woodChiP drying store holding APProx 200 tonnes of ChiPPed mAteriAl

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insulation. Tenants have reported heating costs savings of around 50% to 70%.

Other schemes have followed rapidly:

A 500kW installation serving the main engineering depot at Smithies Lane;

A 320kW plant to serve the Digital Media Centre now under construction.

A 500kW plant now installed at the new civic HQ building “Westgate Plaza One”

Fuel Wood Natural gasCapital cost £150,000 £18,000Annual fuel use 350 tonnes 1,400 MWhUnit cost £35 / tonne 3.25p / kWhAnnual fuel cost £12,000 £45,500Annual CCL Nil £2,10025 year cost £450,000 £1,208,000

In addition, smaller installations are currently taking place at a branch library as well as a new Youth Enterprise Centre. Others are also in the planning and design phases.

The Biomass Policy also set the scene for other initiatives to be pursued. Concurrent with the above schemes the authority was moving into a position whereby it could produce some of its wood chip fuel requirements by recycling arboreal material which previously had been of little or no use thereby effectively closing the supply loop. The construction of a 700 tonne capacity ‘Wood Fuel Production and Storage Facility’ was approved by the Council in September 2005 and is now completed and operational.

In a parallel operation carried out during 2004/5 the Council project-managed trials, funded by Yorkshire Forward, to test the viability of burning wood pellets on conventional coal-fired boilers. This was found to be totally successful, needing no actual conversion of mechanical plant only a change to the air/fuel mixing ratios.

Therefore by now it should be clear that Barnsley not only has a policy to meet the Government’s CO2 target for 2050 it also has a strategy and an action plan by which all can be achieved. It has been found that almost no investment is required (other than, of course, for new schemes). Thus the Council is set fair to exceed the 60% target by a further 10% by the single measure of biomass alone. Any other low/zero carbon technologies it may choose to invest in as they become more cost effective will only serve to strengthen this position still further. Looked at another way, and ignoring any other technologies, that will represent a massive 78% reduction in carbon emissions from where it all began twenty years ago.

dick bradford barnsley metropolitan borough Council.

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the Quirk review - reviewed

The Quirk review and The governMenT’S iMPleMenTaTion Plan

betty Albon ACES Immediate Past-President

This article deals with the Quirk Review and the government’s implementation plan, launched on 15th and 22nd May respectively. Both documents can be accessed from the ACES website, but the main points are contained in this article, together with what Betty Albon sees as the major implications for ACES members involved in asset management.

Quirk review - ConClusions And key ACtions And ProPosAlsThe Review has made three firm conclusions:

Any transfer of public assets to community ownership and management needs to realise social or community benefits without risking wider public interest concerns and without community purposes becoming overly burdened with asset management;

Benefits of community ownership and management can outweigh the risks and opportunity costs. There are no substantive impediments to transfer of assets providing all risks and opportunity costs are considered thoroughly;

Risks can be minimised and managed, if all parties work together. This needs political will, managerial imagination and a business focussed approach.

The Review has concluded that the following five key actions could make a decisive difference:

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The publication of comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative guidance on local authority asset management, particularly on transfer of assets to community management and ownership;

The publication of a toolkit for public bodies on risk assessment and management in asset transfer;

Much greater access for local authorities and community organisations to expert advice and support, particularly on property management;

The smarter investment of public funds designated for community-led asset-based developments, including financial intermediaries to exploit high leverage ratios;

A major campaign of publicity and training, dissemination of good practice and promotion of community empowerment through Community Call for Action and PROD.

key ProPosAl on PubliC seCtor Asset mAnAgementQuirk’s key proposal on public sector asset management is that the government, RICS, CIPFA and the LGA work in partnership with key third sector stakeholders to produce comprehensive and authoritative guidance on local authority asset management. This will also reflect the government’s views on best practice in asset management as will be set out in the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007. It will cover:

Powers to support transfer of assets to community management and ownership;

Processes that ensure inclusion in option appraisals;

Advice at how to compare tangible and less tangible community benefits of transfer as against maximum capital receipts through sale of assets;

Guidance on assessment and management of risks;

Guidance on State Aid and clawback;

How to conduct area property reviews to facilitate asset transfer to communities.

supporting proposalsQuirk’s supporting proposals are:

Commissioning the Audit Commission to develop methodologies for Comprehensive Area Assessment, inspection and audit of asset management;

Promotion of the use of Community Call for Action where community organisations do not feel their council is giving asset transfer serious consideration;

Promotion of Public Request to Order Disposal (PROD) which enables any member of the public to request the Secretary of State to direct a local authority to dispose of unused or underused assets;

Involving the LGA, IDeA, CIPFA to drive this agenda forward and promote good practice;

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The Quirk Review findings contained a number of risks which would be relevant to councils in considering the transfer of a property asset or management interest to the community. In summary, these could include the areas listed in the sidebar.

risk AreA ControlsOrganisation does not have the capacity to take over and manage the asset

Review organisational capacity; ensure ongoing third party advice; incremental transfer of asset

Community organisation cannot raise the cash to purchase or refurbish the asset

Review disposal value against future use; involve community finance institutions to maximise leverage; LA maintains funding budget

Restrictions due to State Aid rules

All parties to understand clearly the rules

Inability of community organisation to manage asset effectively

Develop a viable business plan; access to specialist information; incremental transfer of asset; involvement of larger development trust

Asset not used in public interest, taken over by unrepresentative or unaccountable minority, access to asset not inclusive

Develop an ‘expectations document’ involving partnership; transfer asset to multi-purpose community organisation; covenants in transfer document; ‘asset lock’ to restrict onward transfer to third parties for alternative uses

Community organisation not able to invest in asset to meet liabilities for maintenance and improvement

Develop business plan which encourages income generation; transfer with commitment to fund, at least for initial period; involvement of larger development trust to cross-subsidise

Reliance on volunteers without professional support staff

Consider wider community-based partnership network; access to specialist advice and training; involvement of larger development trust

Fragmented ownership of assets could impair strategic objectives of LA and/or LSP partners

Partnership working at LSP level; develop multi-partner strategies for use of assets; active engagement of third sector in development of Sustainable Community Strategy and LAA; involvement of multi-purpose community organisations

Confusion over roles, responsibilities and liabilities between landlord and community organisation

Clear documentation; formal service level agreements; access to specialist advice; local authority co-ordinator

Conflict between competing community organisations for use, ownership and management of asset

Revised AMP guidance to cover inclusion of community ownership and management in options appraisal process for surplus or underused assets; develop criteria for selecting appropriate organisations for partnership working


the government’s resPonse And imPlementAtion PlAn

the government’s responseThe government has confirmed that it will implement the Quirk proposals in full and Quirk’s five key actions are reflected in the government’s implementation plan. The successful transfer and management of assets need to be achieved not through more legislation, but a culture change. The most appropriate way forward is through partnership working involving all sectors of government, third sector organisations and calling on the specialist advice from professional bodies and using resources and expertise of third sector funders.

The government’s proposed seven actions are:

Raise awareness and share ideasThe government intends to use all media channels to disseminate the review findings. In particular, workshops and seminars of various organisations will be used. £100,000 has been committed by Communities and Local Government (CLG), to target local authority issues;

Demonstrate how asset transfer can be doneOver the next year, 20 selected local authority areas will be used to establish models for effective partnerships [announced in July]; 40 asset transfer projects will be advanced. £400,000 has been made available;

Strengthen ‘bottom-up’ pressureGovernment will promote Community Call for Action and PROD, to prompt local authorities to give serious consideration to community ownership and management of identified assets; LGA will be asked to reinforce these tools. The effectiveness of the levers will be reviewed in 2009.

Develop specialist adviceAsset management guidance is to be improved by 2008; a risk management toolkit will be developed, particularly to focus on long term sustainability and proper inclusive use of transferred assets; capacity building for all partners will be strengthened;

ResourcesThird sector funders will explore the potential for more collaboration between them, eg Charity Bank, to help community organisations capitalise its assets more effectively and make best use of existing resources. There is potential to maximise leverage through investment (ie using the value and collateral of holding a long-term property interest to support borrowing). Additionally, £30 million has been put into a Community Assets Fund, which will be managed by the Big Lottery Fund, to assist in putting unused and underused assets into repair;

Promoting the benefitsThere will be a pro-active promotional campaign over the next three years, to ensure people are aware of the improved support and guidance available;

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Reviewing achievements and measuring successGovernment will review progress and consider modifications. Surveys will be conducted in November 2007 and May 2008, and compared against a base survey to be undertaken immediately.

the government’s implementation PlanThe government’s implementation plan is based on the proposed actions outlined above. It is a very practical plan, involving national partners in the public sector, the surveying and finance professions and the third sector umbrella organisations. At the invitation of Communities and Local Government (CLG), ACES is assisting in advising both the Local Government Association (LGA) and Development Trust Association (DTA). The plan covers a period until January 2009.

imPliCAtions for CounCilsThe main thrust of the community ownership and management of assets is the government’s response to the frustration felt by community groups that land and buildings are not being properly used, but that equally, many groups are not sufficiently informed to manage property assets. Because of a lack of partnership working, both the public sector and the third sector were not able to make assets work to lever in private sector funding.

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“If there is a barrier, it lies in the fact that people, both in the public and community sectors, are often not sufficiently equipped to understand, assess and manage the risks that are inherent in the process of asset transfer and asset management” (Quirk).

Barry Quirk’s recommendations are designed to harness the energy of ‘disorganised organisations’, but must not ‘municipalise’ them in the process. While both the government and Quirk now recognise that there are many examples of good local authorities working in partnership with the third sector, in innovative property arrangements, there are also a lot of areas where encouragement and learning is needed. This takes the form in the proposals as a few opportunities for funding, the promotion of grass roots empowerment, and the promotion of good practice advice.

Although the headline is the transfer of assets, the government is using this as a means to an end – the revitalisation of communities through their direct involvement in providing services to complement public sector provision. Councils’ land and property assets should be viewed in terms of how they can best be utilised to help deliver the aims of sustainable community strategies and local area agreements. As such, consultation on asset management must be linked to community and corporate strategies and needs to be more focussed if property assets are to be a part of community involvement. Additionally, community ownership and management needs to be considered as an option throughout the life of a building rather than only when it is considered surplus to requirements. To achieve this, the asset and area review processes should be transparent to enable community organisations to be aware early on if assets may become available.

One potential area of conflict between the community and public sectors is what is meant by “ownership”. There is a desire among some third sector organisations to own the freehold of property assets, and a contrary determination of local authorities to retain ownership. This is recognised by Quirk and the government, which has retracted on its initial intention of ‘Community Right to Buy’. Many of the exemplar partnership projects are based on innovative leasehold arrangements and it is anticipated that leasehold transfers will continue to be used to support community involvement, particularly in the early years of projects.

Community empowerment is intended to encompass a much broader range of assets and services than community centres and may include supporting economic development, running multi-use resource centres, or “from waste to transport, from parks to libraries” (Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP, 15th May 2007 at the launch). For those councils that do not own a large number of unused and underused assets, to involve more community organisations in ownership and management, there will need to be innovative partnership arrangements considered in option appraisals.

betty Albon St Edmundsbury Borough Council

ConstruCtion lAw

rob langley watson burton

Avraamides -v- bathroom trading Company [2007] blr76. Court of Appeal

Restrictions upon the Application of the Contract (Rights Of Third Parties) Act, 1999** Mr. & Mrs. Avraamides contracted with Bathroom Trading Company (Putney) Limited to refurbish two bathrooms. Unfortunately this was done badly and the Avraamides were very unhappy and lost money. Meanwhile the Bathroom Trading Company (Putney) Limited sold all its assets and liabilities to a new firm “Bathroom Trading Company (BTC)”. BTC agreed as part of the deal to complete outstanding customer orders and to pay the company’s liabilities.

The Avraamides could get no money out of Bathroom Trading Company (Putney) Limited because it was insolvent. Their lawyers ingeniously argued therefore that the 1999 Act gave them rights against BTC as “customers” whose “liabilities” were due to be paid.

The Court of Appeal held: The Act quite clearly states that a person who is not a party to a contract in his own right can enforce an obligation of a contract made between two other people if either the contract expressly provides that he can do so, or if there is a term which “purports to confer benefit upon him”. The Act makes it clear that even if there is a such a term, the third party has no rights if “it appears that the parties did not intend the term to be enforceable by the third party”.

The Court of Appeal robustly decided that the contract between BTC and Bathroom Trading Company (Putney) Limited was not sufficiently clear on its face to identify the Avraamides either as specific beneficiaries or as part of a class of people who could benefit. The Court also found that there was no evidence that either of the actual parties to the contract had intended to convey a benefit upon people such as Mr & Mrs Avraamides.

Comment:When this Act first came out a number of commentators feared that it would give rise to considerable litigation from Third Parties but in fact its operation is very limited. In particular the accidental or unintentional creation of third party rights is unlikely to occur under this legislation. Nevertheless, in complex building projects, best practice must always be to delete the Act, which can be done by

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agreement between the parties. If the operation of the Act had been deleted from the asset sale then BTC would have been spared a great deal of time and trouble caused by this litigation which went all the way to the Court of Appeal.

multiplex -v- honeywell [2007]

Time At Large/Extensions of Time/Conditions PrecedentMultiplex were main contractor on Wembley National Stadium. They subcontracted with Honeywell for design and installation of electronic systems. The subcontract works fell into delay. Honeywell applied for extensions of time which Multiplex said did not comply with the subcontract notification provisions (which also made it a condition precedent that compliance with a notification requirement was a precondition of an entitlement to an extension of time even in respect of employer’s preventions).

Honeywell argued in response that the contractual time period no longer applied. They said time was now at large so that they were entitled to complete in a reasonable period of time. An adjudicator agreed with Honeywell, so Multiplex began High Court proceedings for a declaration that time was not at large.

TCC held:Time was not at large. The court identified a general “prevention principle” that an employer can’t hold a contractor to a specified completion date if the employer has by act or omission prevented the contractor from completing by that date. Instead time becomes “at large” and the obligation to complete by the specified date is replaced by an implied obligation to complete within a reasonable time. These preventions relate to all acts and omissions by the employer, including a legitimate exercise of the right to vary.

The judge further held that the condition precedent was reasonable and indeed remarked that contractual terms requiring a contractor to give prompt notice of delay serve a valuable purpose. The notice gives the employer the chance to investigate the matter while it is still current or even sometimes the opportunity to withdraw instructions where adverse consequences have become apparent. Consequently, the fact that the contractor could in theory lose his right to delay compensation in respect of an employer’s prevention if he did not comply with the condition precedent was not unreasonable and was not contrary to English law.

Comment:Honeywell threw all the standard claimant arguments at the delay situation including

breakdown of the extension of time mechanism,

Unfair condition precedent.

Employer’s legitimate acts cannot be acts of “prevention”.

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The Court brushed these all aside. The outcome would have been different if the condition precedent had not itself been mildly worded, requiring the contract to do his best rather than to give strict compliance. Nevertheless, this is an important public policy decision which applies the Scottish appellate Court’s decision in City Inn -v- Shepherd Construction [2003] in English law.

melville dundas v george wimpey [2007] blm vol. 24 no. 5. house of lords

HGCRA 1996 Withholding provisions lose out to insolvency arrangementsMelville Dundas had a design build contract to build a residential development in Glasgow for Wimpey. The contract was the Scottish Form WCD modelled on JCT WCD 1998. Wimpey certified a payment of £396,000 during the course of the works. Unfortunately 3 weeks later Melville Dundas went into receivership. A week later, Wimpey determined MD’s employment for insolvency in accordance with the contract. Clause 27.6.5.1 purported to release Wimpey from any further payment in those circumstances pending the completion of the contract by others and a general accounting of debts and liabilities in due course.

Melville Dundas by its receivers challenged this refusal to pay as an unlawful withholding which had not been covered by an appropriate Withholding Notice issued under section 111 of the HGCRA.

House of Lords held:On the face of the legislation, section 111 would require a withholding notice to be issued before a sum which was otherwise due could be lawfully withheld. Nevertheless, it was important to look at the purpose of the legislation and the court concluded that it was not the intention of the Parliament to apply the withholding rule to insolvency situations covered by a reasonably balanced clause such as this. Melville Dundas’s challenge failed.

Comment:One of the three Scottish Appeal Court judges took the view that Melville Dundas were right. Three of the five House of Lords judges took the view that Melville Dundas were wrong. In other words, eight of the most senior judges in the United Kingdom looked at this issue, four of them took one view and four took the other!

This is always the dilemma in dealing with disputes such as this - should one look at the plain reading of the words, or should one go beyond this and look at the intention behind the case law and behind the legislation? Here the judges decided that the insolvency provisions of the contract were a reasonable balance and had effectively created an exception to the withholding rule where the construction contract creditor is in an insolvency process. This is a major departure from the courts’ previous unwavering


commitment to enforcement of the construction law reforms made by the HGCRA.

domsalla building services v dyason (2007)

Consumer protection law defeats HGCRAMr Dyason’s house was burnt down and his insurers agreed to fund reconstruction of a new home. They told him to appoint Domsalla Building Services on a JCT Minor Building Works for a contract which included an adjudication clause. Certified sums were not paid so Domsalla began an adjudication. Dyason’s defence consisted of set-off and counterclaim in respect of alleged defects on the part of Domsalla. This defence failed because Dyason had not served an appropriate withholding notice under section 11 of the HGCRA. Dyason refused to pay the adjudication award.

TCC held:The adjudicator had been wrong in law to rule out the set-off and counterclaim defence since it was contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations to use the lack of a withholding notice against a consumer.

Although the general rule was that the court would not take notice of substantive errors of law or fact by adjudicators (Macob v Morrison, etc.) that rule only referred to statutory adjudications whereas this was a contractual adjudication arising under the adjudication clause in the contract.

Comment:The HGCRA 1996 is expressly excluded by s.106 from application to an individual contracting to have a house provided for him to live in (“residential occupier”). Clearly, that would be a “consumer” transaction (whether the individual was rich or poor) and the construction industry must beware of tangling with individuals given the court’s fundamental policy towards protection of consumers.

Disclaimer This article is not intended to be a definitive analysis of legal changes and professional advice should be taken before any course of action is pursued. If you have any queries or comments please contact [email protected] 01 912 - 444 300

rob langley watson burton

serviCe ChArges

louise kelly Partner, watson burton

Louise Kelly works as part of the Commercial Property Department team in Watson Burton and has over six years’ experience in dealing with the full range of commercial property work. Louise’s main areas of expertise are dealing with Landlord and Tenant issues and commercial site acquisitions and disposals.

Code ComPliAntAs the management of estates is vitally important for local authorities, particularly in terms of maintaining an income stream from vacant space, the Service Charge Code of Practice for commercial property introduced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is certainly worth considering.

Louise Kelly

THE TERRIER - Summer 2007 �0

The Code, which came into force on 1 April 2007, was introduced due to concerns over the conduct of the management of service charges within leases. Service charges in the UK amount to an annual spend of approximately £13bn. According to the 2005 RICS tenant satisfaction survey, tenants were generally dissatisfied with the services they were provided with, having particular concerns with the lack of communication.

Even though compliance with the Code is not a legal requirement the indication is that, as it is an industry standard ‘best practice’ guide, respectable commercial landlords will take steps to ensure compliance. As one of the most important steps is to sell the concept across the property sector, local authorities should consider and seek appropriate advice on how the Code will impact on them.

The Code reflects the industry’s most desirable structure for service charges and aims to make the management of service charges transparent. For local authorities it is vitally important that properties are managed effectively and that the costs incurred are charged on a break-even basis. The Code advises that service charges should be cash neutral in the landlord’s income stream but landlords certainly want to avoid any shortfall particularly when it is likely that costs have already been incurred. A cash ‘negative’ situation could have serious economic implications.

The emphasis within the Code is to ensure that services are relevant, appropriate and cost-effective. This does not mean that the lowest tender for works has to be accepted so long as the choice is value for money and an effective option. If the property is in need of repair the landlord is within his rights to repair and update. Although the tenant is paying for the works, they remain the landlord’s works and he has, within reason, freedom to choose between alternative methods.

When signing up to a lease a tenant (unless taking a lease of the whole building) entrusts overheads to a third party. Service charges need to be budgeted as part of the tenant’s overheads and to facilitate budgeting tenants should have a good idea of what their service charge bill will be each year. The code recommends that budgets should be issued to tenants in advance as well as accounts with explanations. Tenants also should be given a timetable with an estimate of likely service charges delivered a month before the beginning of the service charge year. The Code sets out that service charges should be managed professionally and openly so that tenants can see how their contributions are being used. There should be no hidden mark-ups or charges on charges.

Consistent communication and consultation in explaining how services are provided and managed and how the costs of these services are recovered is important. When there are significant variances in the charges or where substantial works are planned the Code requires that tenants be promptly informed and kept up to date of developments.

The Code states that whatever apportionment method is used that it needs to be fair and reasonable. There should be a schedule available to tenants showing the breakdown of apportionments. If premises are unlet the

tenant should not be required to contribute towards the costs and if the landlord uses an area (e.g. as a regional office) he should be responsible for an appropriate proportion of the charges.

Service charges are often an area of disputes between landlords and tenants and can result in expensive legal proceedings. One of the objectives of the Code is to remove angst from disputes and make landlord/tenant relations more effective. When dealing with service charge clauses the Courts’ view construes clauses against landlords whether or not the clause or the lease is his document. In order for a landlord to recover a particular head of expenditure, he must satisfy the Court that it sits within one of the heads recoverable under the service charge clause, clearly referred to in the lease. To avoid costly legal proceedings via the courts the Code aims to establish an effective dispute resolution procedure where conflict can be resolved. This should be for the long term benefit of relations between the parties.

The Code also suggests that any money that accumulates in a sinking fund, replacement fund or reserve fund is to be held in trust for the occupiers, separate from the landlord’s own funds. This suggests that, at the end of the term, any money not used is to be repaid to whoever are then the tenants, or retained for the benefit of any new trust. That element of the Code goes against common law case judgments and we will have to wait and see whether or not it is followed through in practice.

We never complicate anything. You pay for our expertise, not our location,whatever the size of your business. For more information please contactRobert Langley on 0191 244 4300 or e-mail [email protected]

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1 St. James’ Gate, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1YQ. 0191 244 44441 City Square, Leeds LS1 2ES. 0113 235 5455

Floor 29, 30 St Mary Axe, London EC3A 8BF. 0207 337 8300 • www.watsonburton.com


Even though there may be practical difficulties with the implementation of the Code, especially for existing leases when they are being renewed (when a dual service charge regimes may have to operate) implementation of the Code is being encouraged. As local authorities play an important role in the property sector the Code should be appropriately considered and its impact assessed particularly in relation to the administration of the delivery of services. Hopefully as the Code is implemented as a best practice guide landlord and tenant relationships will work to the benefit of all and there will be a cultural change in how the industry views service charges; with clear communication and transparency.

This article is designed to alert professionals. It cannot nor is it designed to replace the need for advice on specific issues or circumstances.

Disclaimer This article is not intended to be a definitive analysis of legal changes and professional advice should be taken before any course of action is pursued. If you have any queries or comments please contact [email protected] 0191 244 4254

louise kelly watson burton

ground rents

graham Johnston Colliers Cre

Graham Johnston is Associate Director - Auctions with Colliers CRE. In regular auctions over the last thirty years Colliers CRE’s auction department has acted for over 175 local authorities and public bodies. Since 2001 they have acted on more £350 million worth of disposals for this sector.

CommerCiAl ground rents - AnnuAl inCome v CAPitAl reCeiPtsAt Colliers CRE we are well aware of the pressures that public bodies, and especially their estates departments, are under to cut costs and at the same time raise capital receipts.


As with any investment there is a balancing act of whether to hold onto an income stream or look to capitalise on the inherent value of the investment. Considering this principle and the recent falling yields it has become increasingly popular to dispose of ground rents when a high capital receipt is at the cost of only a minimal loss of income. With more and more of this asset class being offered through auctions, we have continued to analyse the results of ground rent sales through our auctions with over 900 sold since the start of 2003.

I have set out below some examples including an individual lot sale and the analysis of two local authority portfolios, disposed of over a number of years. These show the array of results we have been able to achieve and in turn highlight some amazing results that can be achieved in the competitive bidding situation of the auction room. In preparing our pre-auction guide prices we cannot support these levels and therefore often quote what turn out to be embarrassingly conservative levels when compared to the results achieved.

From our extensive experience of disposing of public sector property we are well aware of the pressures incurred by the expectations of section 123 of the Local Government Act. To avoid the provisions of the Data Protection Act we do not include the purchaser’s details of each lot in our schedule but our experience shows that it is a rarity for the long leaseholder to buy in the freehold. This is particularly evident by the make-up of people coming to the auction room as there are a number of recognisable repeat ground-rent investors.

Looking back to before the start of our analysis and prior to growth in this sector, yields achieved on some of our ground rent sales were more akin to straightforward secure investments. An example of the growth in the market can be shown by the disposal of the Treaty Centre ground rent, Hounslow. This ground rent was for a term of 99 years from 1985, offering an income of £350,000 and sold in a post auction deal, July 1996, for £6 million, a gross initial yield of 5.83%.

By contrast in the period from May 2006 to May 2007 we offered for sale 193 ground rents and 189 of those were sold successfully. The analysis of these results shows a combined rental income stream of slightly below £500,000 and a combined receipts of in excess of £20 million showing an average gross initial yield of 2.39%. For similar time periods, across the schedule, there are small fluctuations from this level but the averages usually fall between 2.2% and 2.5%.

The main driver for these levels of average yield is the lower income producing ground rents, anything from a peppercorn to £500. These are extremely well sought after and in some instances are producing capital receipts which are hard to reason. Examples of this include the car park to the Safeway superstore in Lincoln. The property was let on 125 year term from 1993, producing a peppercorn and sold for £72,000 in our October 2003 sale. On 22nd May 2007 we successfully sold on behalf of St Helens Council a ground rent producing £130 per annum which sold for £107,000, which equates to a gross initial yield of 0.12%!

Ground rents offering income of £10,000 and above are featuring more frequently through our auctions but as a consequence of their reduced affordability these regularly sell for prices reflecting yields of between 2.75% and 4.10%.

Residential ground rents are also being offered but due to the legal complexities associated with them these do not command the same pricing as previously mentioned.

Swindon - 3.32%

Lot 25 - 16th October 2006

Vendor - Swindon Borough Council

Lease - 99 years from 05.11.1984

Rent - £52,125 per annum

Sold under hammer for £1,600,000

St Helens - 0.12%

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Graham Johnston

International Management &Construction Consultants

www.gleeds.com

People

Places

Spaces

‘If you want the best results,choose the best team’

Sir Steve Redgrave, CBE

� Business Cases and Plans

� Estate Strategies

� Asset Management Plans

� Accommodation Reviews and Plans

Contact:Neil Webster020 7631 [email protected]

THE TERRIER - Summer 2007 ��

Lot 28 - 22nd May 2007

Vendor - St Helens Council


Rent - £130 per annum

Sold under hammer for £107,000

Sheffield - 0.20%

Lot 65 - 23rd May 2007

Vendor - Sheffield City Council




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Sheffield - 0.02%

Lot 66 - 23rd May 2007 (S006)

Vendor - Sheffield City Council




overview of tacticsI now would like to give a quick overview of two of our regular vendors to outline the different tactics associated with ground rent disposal targets. The varying tactics offered by these two local authorities are as much to do with the availability of lots to them.

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Swindon Borough Council since the start of 2003 has offered 22 lots. These lots feature combined incomes of £682,728 (ranging from £3,150 to £90,600) and sold for a combined price of £16.832 million (average £765,113). These figures equate to gross initial yields ranging from 2.89% to 4.98%.

Sheffield City Council on the other hand is our most frequent vendor of ground rents. They have offered 438 lots featuring a combined income of £208,073 (average £475) and receiving combined receipts of £19.298 million (average lot size £44,059). These figures equate to 1.07%.

In his 2007 budget, Gordon Brown announced expectations of asset disposals amounting to £36 billion from the public sector over the next four years. Ground rents will not fulfil this but with disposals through Colliers’ auction room totalling about £80 million since 2003 they are sure to continue to assist in meeting revenue targets.

graham Johnston Colliers Cre

ComPulsory PurChAse

Philip gay valuation office Agency

Philip Gay is the Business Development Coordinator for District Valuer Services.

ComPulsory PurChAse exPertiseDistrict Valuer Services is seeing an increase in demand for compulsory purchase expertise particularly in the delivery of transport & infrastructure improvements. The more grey-haired and follicly challenged members will remember the heady days of comprehensive development areas, housing action areas and the major road building programmes of the 1960s and 70s all of which proceeded with military precision under compulsory powers. The 1980s and 90s saw these schemes largely evaporate and

with them a large body of professional expertise was lost or was put on the back burner.

It is interesting to note that compulsory purchase is now making a comeback. There seems to be increased acceptance amongst promoters of large public schemes that normal market forces are unable to deliver the necessary land take on the scale and pace required. Compulsory powers are therefore being implemented to complement and reinforce acquisitions by agreement.

DVS is involved in a large number of these schemes as a result of ongoing work with the Highways Agency, Transport Scotland and the Welsh Assembly Government. In many of these cases the delivery of the scheme has been a combination of public and private sector co-operation. This article highlights some of the specific schemes which DVS are aware of, and the skills needed to support them.

Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (tie), a wholly owned company of the City of Edinburgh Council - a scheme for the development of tram lines running from central Edinburgh to Edinburgh Airport and serving north Edinburgh, Leith and the city centre.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport scheme for the new Glasgow Airport Rail Link between Glasgow Central station and Glasgow International Airport. DVS is working alongside GVA Grimley in a 3 year contract.

BAA - voluntary blight schemes at Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted as a result of planned runway and terminal improvements.

Highways Agency (HA) and the private sector operator Midlands Express Ltd - working in partnership to provide the M6 Toll Road, a new 27 mile route at one of Europe’s most congested motorways.

Central to all of these schemes is the need to provide a wide range of comprehensive professional advice including:

Parliamentary Committees and Public Enquiries- the District Valuer appeared as expert witness before Parliamentary Committee hearings during the private bill process. This allowed Committee Members and objectors to put numerous questions to the DV on the principles of compensation.

Land estimates- this is a vital stage of the process where our Valuers assess the projected costs of acquiring all of the land interests required for a scheme. These estimates are challenging because of the lack of detailed information available at such an early stage of the process but DVS is able to draw on the experience of comparable schemes and excellent up-to-date data from our property database. The risk of cost over-runs is therefore reduced and the client is able to consider alternative options with greater certainty.

Planning Gain issues- as part of the viability assessment we looked at the community benefits including increase in values of properties as a consequence of the scheme, new

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development opportunities and potential public sector infrastructure contributions.

Advisory Papers on Compulsory Purchase- covering such matters as compensation for land taken; severance and injurious affection; disturbance; total extinguishment; material detriment; blight and equivalent reinstatement.

Part 1 claims where no land is taken- many thousands of homes have been or will be affected by these schemes and dealing with the claims for Part 1 compensation requires a full understanding of the associated case law along with detailed knowledge of the residential market.

Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 200�– assistance in the application of the new Basic and Occupiers Loss Payments.

Negotiations in advance of and following the implementation of a Compulsory Purchase Order-Negotiations in advance may be required to proceed on the most favourable terms available but once compulsory powers are in place a statutory approach must be followed.

Management of properties that are acquired in advance of a scheme-and undertaking Condition Surveys to ensure an accurate record of condition is available.

Independent valuation of blighted dwellings

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- where the difference in value put forward by the acquiring authority and the homeowner was more than 10%, DVS determined independent valuations between the parties. We are told DVS involvement helped to diffuse difficult and sensitive property purchases, and has greatly helped in public relations.

Because of the shortage of publicly funded schemes in recent years, there has been a general decline in Compulsory Purchase expertise amongst Chartered Surveyors. Getting it right means a smoother ride for all stakeholders, getting it wrong inevitably results in delays and potential audit queries. DVS is happy to assist members in this expanding area of work.

Philip gay valuation office Agency

[email protected] 0131 465 0731

An APC Assessor’s view

simon eades waveney district Council

Last summer I took up a new appointment at Waveney and I found myself attending my first ACES Eastern Branch meeting as an observer. I was invited by Betty Albon, then ACES President, to contribute to a discussion that discussed several aspects of the Assessment of Professional Competence. Betty was already aware of my involvement with the APC, firstly as an assessor and more recently, as a panel chairman. Shortly afterwards I joined ACES and was asked to present a paper on the APC at the Spring meeting of the Eastern Branch. I decided to outline the steps I took as I prepared to assess candidates as they presented themselves for assessment.

Philip Gay

Tram


This paper is a revised and extended version of the talk I gave to the Eastern Branch in March 2007. In expanding the text I have included the points raised in the questions and subsequent discussions and some additional matters. In my presentation I outlined the steps that a panel member took in preparing for the assessment and identified points of assistance that I feel would be of help to supervisors, counsellors and candidates. The views I expressed at the talk and in this article are personal and do not represent official RICS policy but arise following several years of assessments. The text of this article does make significant reference to the information on the APC that is freely available to candidates and their employers on the RICS website.

the riCs Assessment of ProfessionAl ComPetenCe

The View from the PanelI qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in the corporate sector, passing the old TPC in 1980. I moved to private practice in 1983 and following a period of redundancy joined local government in 1996. My first assessment took place at Heathrow in March 1998.

I spoke and write from the perspective of the panel member seeing the candidate at assessment and not from the position of the supervisor or counsellor. The purpose of the assessment is to come to a decision using both the submitted written paperwork and the hour-long assessment/interview on whether the candidate meets the criteria to practice as a Chartered Surveyor.

My overriding view is that there is no easy way to pass the APC. A candidate will be successful with hard work and thorough preparation but must not enter or be entered prematurely. I believe there are simple steps a candidate, supervisor and counsellor can take to ensure success at the first opportunity.

There is a wealth of comprehensive information on the RICS website and the staff in RICS Membership Operations, who operate the APC, are there to assist the candidate, supervisor and counsellor.

The Assessment of Professional Competence is a period of practical training and experience which, when combined with academic qualifications, leads to RICS membership. It is important that anyone starting the APC now refers to the July 2006 route.

The first priority is that any prospective candidate must ensure that the correct route is selected. There are three routes which are fully described on the RICS website but for the purpose of my talk I confined my discussion to the Graduate Route and concentrated on Graduate Route 1. However, for this article I will describe the differences between the two other graduate routes, routes 2 and 3, and will briefly acknowledge the other two routes.

Graduate route ( subdivided into Routes 1,2 & 3)

Senior professional route

Academic route

Graduate routeThe graduate route is the recognised traditional route for those who join the Institution immediately after completing a first degree at a recognised university and who are seeking a professional qualification to complement their academic achievement. The graduate route acknowledges that some graduates will already have considerable work experience and this is reflected in the APC requirements. The period of structured training for those with more than five years’ experience is reduced as shown below.

Graduate route 1 is for those candidates with limited or no prior experience and has a minimum of 24 months structured training to meet the competency requirements and complete a minimum of 96 hours professional development over the two years.

Graduate route 2 is for those candidates with at least five years’ relevant experience and has a minimum of 12 months’ structured training to meet the competency requirements and complete a minimum of 48 hours’ professional development over the year of training.

Graduate route 3 does not have a period of structured training but the candidate has to complete a minimum of 48 hours of professional development over the last 12 months.

Senior professional routeA candidate completing the senior professional route must be nominated by the national association or faculty and have a surveying degree and 10 years’ surveying experience since graduation and occupy a senior industry position. The candidate is expected to demonstrate attainment in additional mandatory competencies.

Academic routeThe academic route is primarily for those involved in academe. This route is currently under review.

the obJeCtives of the APCThe object of the Assessment of Professional Competence is to ensure that the candidate is competent to practise as a Chartered Surveyor. It normally consists of a period of structured training followed by a final assessment interview.

The period of structured training is a minimum of 24 months during which the candidate completes a minimum of 400 days’ relevant practical experience. As I commented earlier, the period of structured learning can be reduced if candidates have some experience but this is a decision for RICS. The APC is a partnership between the candidate and the employer and this partnership is embodied in the Structured Training Agreement

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The Structured Training Agreement (STA) is drawn up by the employer and approved by the RICS Regional Training Advisor. The employer is responsible for drawing up training plans to demonstrate that the candidate will receive all the required experience and follow the APC training correctly and professionally in accordance with the APC guides and the RICS Rules of Conduct.

The STA will confirm the relevant pathway and identify the most appropriate competencies and the breadth and depth of relevant experience needed to fulfil the APC competencies and outline a plan to achieve this.

The competencies have three levels of attainment that are progressive in terms of skill and abilities. The candidate with the support of the employer will gain the experience to the relevant level over the period of structured training and these will be tested at the interview:

Level 1 - Knowledge and Understanding

Level 2 - Application of knowledge and understanding

Level 3 - Reasoned advice and depth of technical knowledge

Throughout the period of training there will be regular reviews of the candidate’s progress and the candidate will be required to maintain records some of which are provided to the assessment panel in the documentation supplied when the candidate and employer believe that the candidate is ready to enter the assessment.

A candidate should not apply for the final assessment until the supervisor and counsellor certify, in their opinion, that the candidate has reached the appropriate standard to fulfil the requirements.

The supervisor and counsellor should not just sign off all the paperwork on one date just before the candidate submits his papers to Coventry. It is a partnership between the candidate and employer and one partner cannot succeed without the positive support of the other.

My perspective in preparing the initial talk and article was that of an assessor at the end of the period of structured training. My comments as an assessor reflect my experience since I became an assessor in 1998. I became a chairman in 2002 and three years ago was invited to become an auditor. The role of the auditor is to assist in the best practice and the continued development of the APC assessment procedure and ensure that there is a common approach in assessment interviews across the RICS and uniformity across panels.

I believe that since I started in 1998 the RICS have made great strides in improving the assessment centres. My early assessments took place in empty hotel bedrooms. Today the assessments take place in formal syndicate rooms, primarily in hotels, in various locations throughout the United Kingdom and in other overseas locations. The aim is to create the proper environment for what is a very important event in the professional development of a potential Chartered Surveyor.

There are two assessment sessions each year and I normally assess for four days each year. I act as chairman

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for the pathways in which I practice and audit once or twice a session on other pathways. The experience of auditing panels helps to improve the system and to ensure consistency in questioning and procedure across pathways and different venues.

There is a myth that the panels have to pass or refer a specific number of candidates to maintain the quota. My personal philosophy is that if a candidate demonstrates the appropriate level of competency then that candidate will succeed. If the panel are not satisfied then the candidate will be referred and the chairman has to prepare an objective referral report outlining where the candidate has succeeded and where the competency levels have not been achieved.

There are approximately 1,500 assessors registered with the RICS of which 360 are eligible to assess in commercial practice.

The panels are comprised of three practising Chartered Surveyors from all sectors of the profession and are assembled to ensure that all the relevant competencies fall within their combined experience. I have assessed with over 80 assessors since 1997 from private practice, local authorities, central government, the Valuation Office, national retailers, institutions and other corporate operations. In the ten years I think I have only assessed with a handful of assessors more than once.

Sometimes the panel only comprises two assessors. This can cause some difficulties and where this does happen the two assessors have to agree between themselves how they handle the assessment. The content of the assessment will not change but the chairman has to adopt a slightly different role in the assessment. The candidate is not be prejudiced in any way.

I believe that all panels hope that their candidates are successful. There is always a great satisfaction at the end of the day when I have assessed candidates who have understood the rules and guides and have demonstrated the required levels of competencies.

I assess twice a year and confirm my availability four months or so in advance. The RICS staff at Coventry have the difficult task not only of ensuring that there are sufficient assessors for each centre but also of matching the number of panels to the number of candidates. It is not an easy task and I have been asked on more than one occasion if I can do an extra day or help out at another venue.

I receive confirmation of the date and venue about two months before the assessment date, shortly after the closing date for candidates. The panels are then set up and candidates are assigned to the panels. Four weeks or so later the papers are sent to the assessors and the three assessors start their preparation for the day of assessment.

It is important to ensure that there are no potential conflicts of interest. The RICS staff do their best in carrying out an initial filter but the panel have to be certain there is no professional conflict. Sometimes the conflict is clear - a former employee or a current professional involvement


with the candidate’s practice. It is essential that any uncertainty is clarified as soon as possible as panel rearrangements become more difficult the closer the assessment approaches.

A few years ago I received my papers for the assessment at Heathrow. All four candidates were employed in private practice in the West End. The candidate has to include a passport photograph and one face was familiar. His father practised as a Chartered Surveyor in the town where I worked and I had regular negotiations with him. My chairman supported me in my belief to assess this candidate would place me in a difficult position.

Once I receive the papers I make contact with my fellow assessors. I do this to establish their particular specialist areas to ensure that the appropriate assessor asks the questions. If there are gaps then we decide who will address those questions and, if need be, an assessor will undertake some additional research which will be allowable for lifelong learning.

I must stress that the members of the panel treat all the information contained in the report in the strictest confidence. The panel have no interest in the precise detail and the papers are returned to the RICS immediately after the assessment.

As chairman I review the papers to see that the candidate has submitted everything required in accordance with the instructions. There is a checklist on the RICS website and I urge every candidate to review this before

submitting the papers. No allowance in the future will be made for incomplete submissions or changing any of the documentation at a later date. If the submission is incomplete, it will be sent back and the interview will be deferred for the next round of assessments.

what papers does the candidate submit? The candidate submits four sets of submission documents.

It is important that the papers are sent to the RICS at the correct time and by post. It is now not possible to hand deliver the papers to Great George Street or Coventry on the final day. Three are for the panel members and the extra copy is for the use of the auditor. The RICS have introduced an audit procedure where a trained auditor sits in on the assessment but takes no part in the decision.

Professional educational and employment form;Declaration form;Log book;Record of professional development;Interim summary of progress;Interim forward planner;Final summary of progress;Critical analysis;Referral report (if appropriate).

First impressions count. I have little sympathy for the candidate who does not bind the documents together and allows papers to become detached. Remember the candidate is applying for corporate membership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and not an organisation with a similar name! These may be small points but do not endear the assessor facing the challenge of reading the equivalent of four inches of paper.

The assessor spends time before the assessment studying the various papers so that when the candidate enters the room the panel have assimilated a significant amount of information. However, it is only at the end of the assessment that the panel are in a full position to decide whether the candidate has fulfilled all the parts of the test and can be passed.

Professional Educational and Employment formThis sets out the candidate’s professional and educational history

Log book The log book gives an overview of the amount of time that the candidate has spent gaining training and experience in the various competencies. There is a minimum of 400 days over the two years and the log book records only core and optional competencies. It is an important document confirming the spread of experience over the training period.

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Record of professional DevelopmentThe candidate is required to provide 48 hours of professional development each year. This should ideally be split equally between personal skills development, technical skills development and professional practice skills development. This a requirement that can be easily checked and allows the assessor to glean the likely range of courses and the type of approach of the candidate has adopted over the period of training. It should complement and support the competencies.

Interim summary of Progress and Interim Forward PlannerThese two documents are prepared half way during the period of Structured Training and allow the candidate and supervisor to review the progress and to look forward to the final twelve months.

They chart the candidate’s attainment of the various competencies and should indicate when the candidate attained the relevant level in the nominated competencies. I do not expect to see all the competencies signed off on the same day but expect to see a graduated approach indicating a measured view to training.

This is a very useful document for the assessors. It ought to highlight what the candidate has achieved in the two years identifying the type of properties and locations; the more detail in the Summary of Experience the more information the assessors have to ensure that their questioning in the assessment is more focused.

Candidates, supervisors and counsellors are now required to send RICS a declaration that the interim assessment has been completed within one month-13 months. Failure to do so will jeopardise the candidate’s proposed final assessment date

Final summary of ProgressThese important documents provide a review of the second year and enable the assessors to review the second year of the training period.

Critical AnalysisI believe that this part of the papers is perhaps the most important paper submitted. This gives the candidate the opportunity to choose a case where there is personal involvement during the training period. The candidate should choose one that allows the panel the opportunity to question the candidate thoroughly with a detailed breakdown and analysis of a project. Every candidate should give serious thought to the selection of the critical analysis. This does not necessarily mean a high value case will impress the panel. The subject matter should respect the criteria detailed in the Rules and Guide and select a case that fulfils the written criteria and also provides sufficient material for the ten minute presentation.

I believe the critical analysis is the opportunity for the candidate to shine in the assessment and convince the panel that this is a suitable case. The candidate should

practice the presentation of the case and come with a well-prepared presentation. This pays dividends.

The Critical Analysis allows the candidate to demonstrate:

problem-solving abilitieshigh standards of professional and technical knowledgecareful consideration of the experience gained.whether the candidate has demonstrated a high level of written communication skills in terms of spelling grammar and presentationwhether the candidate has identified the key issueswhether options been considered and good sound reasons given for those rejectedwhether the chosen solutions are supported by reasoned judgements and whether the candidate has demonstrated sound problem-solving skillswhether the conclusion contain a critical analysis and an understanding of the lessons learnt.

Referral ReportA referred candidate will also include a referral report prepared by the last panel identifying those areas where the candidate demonstrated ability and pointing out the areas where the panel believe that if a genuine attempt is made to remedy deficiencies the candidate should have every chance of future success.

ProfessionAl AssessmentThe panel are required to meet an hour before the first assessment to complete their discussions and often this is the first time the panel meets. The chairman has to outline how the day is to proceed and decide on any last minute changes. It is important that any problems are clarified before the candidate enters the room.

The collection of papers submitted allows the assessors to thoroughly prepare for the assessments in advance of the assessment day. The assessor should be well aware that the assessment does not finish until the candidate leaves the room at the end of the allotted time. The assessor must not draw any conclusions in advance of the interview

The assessment follows a pre-defined structure laid out in the Rules and Guides.

3-4 minutes introduction by chairman10 minutes candidate’s presentation10 minutes questions on the presentation12-13 minutes assessor 1 questions.12-13 minutes assessor 2 questions10 minutes chairman’s area of questioning to

include Rules of Conduct1-2 minutes chairman to close.

The timing in the interview is tight. The panel want the candidate to pass but there is a lot of ground to cover during the allotted time. Many areas have to be investigated and the panel are required to ensure that they take sufficient notes to ensure that there is an accurate record. Inevitably

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some candidates feel that some areas are overlooked or not covered thoroughly and some exercise their right to appeal. It is at this time that the extensive notes are used to justify or refute observations made by the candidate as to whether an appeal should be upheld.

The 10 minute presentation is the candidate’s opportunity to demonstrate intimate knowledge of the critical analysis and timing is critical. The timing is specific and the candidate must practise this to ensure that the allotted time is used effectively. The candidate must sound enthusiastic and approach the case with enthusiasm. Clear diction is essential: the assessment is analogous to a meeting with a client or senior officer or elected member.

My experience suggests that candidates who pay little regard to the timing immediately place themselves at a disadvantage. The ten minutes of questions that follow the presentation allow the panel to ask questions raised both from their earlier reading of the papers and ones that flow from the presentation.

The basis of the presentation should run along the following lines:

Outline. Exposition and Summary“Tell the panel what you are going to tell them”“Tell them”“Tell them what you told them”“What did I learn from this project?”

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The questioning on the Core and Optional Competencies follow the close study of the candidate’s papers. The assessors attempt to draw out the candidate’s experience using open questions based on the candidate’s experience outlined in detail in the summaries.

How did you go about…..? The process……?What processes/procedures did you adopt?What problems did you encounter?

There is no standard list of questions. The questions on the day flow from the reading and notes the assessors have made during the previous four weeks and are determined and develop as the assessment proceeds. Normally the chairman allocates the competencies in advance, normally on receipt of the papers.

The panel does not ask any trick questions. The questions are based on the candidate’s experience and if this is clearly defined and the candidate demonstrates to the panel that he has the ability then there ought to be no problem. After all, the panel has the responsibility of conferring professional status on candidates allowing them to be able to offer professional services to the public on their own account.

The final part of the assessment is equally important. The chairman has to cover any points that have not been covered, perhaps referring to a referral report, and invites the candidate to demonstrate knowledge of the RICS rules of conduct, Professional Indemnity cover and how they operate in practice. This may not be commonplace to

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a local authority surveyor but a local authority candidate has to understand these as there is nothing to prevent movement between the different employment areas.

This is an important section. The candidate will be referred if this section is not answered to the panel’s satisfaction. Ethical questions are not necessarily asked explicitly but many questions are underpinned with an ethical flavour. A candidate has to demonstrate a current appreciation of those matters affecting the profession at the date of the assessment.

The candidate is given the last word and invited to clarify answers or reply to unanswered questions.

PAnel deCisionThe panel spend a period of quiet reflection immediately the candidate has left the room reviewing their individual notes before the chairman opens up the discussion on the content of the last hour. As chairman I try to secure a decision by consensus but sometimes this is not possible. A period of further discussion may lead to a unanimous decision but if the two assessors can not agree then the probability is that the candidate will be referred and, as chairman, I will have to prepare a referral report.

The referral report is a detailed response to the candidate pointing out both the strengths and weaknesses to suggest how the candidate might improve on the performance. A good referral report has to be crafted carefully as it is an important document to the candidate as it forms part of the papers submitted at a future assessment and will give a new panels an indication where the candidate was not up to the required standard.

Three weeks after the interview the candidate will receive confirmation of the Panel decision. If it is a pass the candidate will be allowed to use the title of “Chartered Surveyor.”

ConClusionI ended my talk with the comment that there were some important procedural changes introduced in the 2006 rules. I had already mentioned the change in the submission of the interim assessment and also mentioned there were changes in the enrolment and future assessment dates.

I was questioned about my role as an Auditor. I audit the process and do so at centres where I do not assess and audit panels of routes other than the commercial route. I believe this is an important development as it allows continuous review and development of the procedure and identifies assessors who need to be retrained. Assessors and chairman are retrained every three years as a matter of course but an auditor can recommend intermediate retraining if there is some identified concern that is felt to need immediate attention. An assessor or chairman in this position will automatically be audited at the next assessment. New assessors and chairmen are audited at their first assessment.

Another question referred to a comment that local authority candidates are at a disadvantage because assessors are principally private practice Chartered Surveyors. The employment basis of individual assessors is, quite rightly, confidential and not in the public domain. No formal breakdown is available. I commented in my talk that I had sat with 80 different assessors since 1998. Of this figure 25 were employed in some part of the public sector when they assessed and, in addition, many more have had previous experience of public sector employment.

Many local authority Chartered Surveyors have been and are involved with the APC. I have sat on panels with Bernard White, formerly of Harrogate Borough Council. Richard Miller, formerly of Norfolk County Council (Yesterday’s Man indeed. Ed.), was involved with the APC playing a major part for many years in the Planning routes. I am sure there are others, including Roy Gregory from Dagenham and Redbridge. However, many assessors tend to assess only at one centre and do not meet assessors from other centres.

As I stressed in my talk the panel are three individual Chartered Surveyors involved in coming to a decision on the suitability of the candidate as a potential Chartered Surveyor. It is more important that the panel can address the candidate’s competencies. I believe that the move to competency-based questions has addressed the perception that local authority candidates are at a disadvantage. I have assessed some extremely competent public sector candidates who are successful at the first attempt. Equally I have seen private sector candidates that are clearly unprepared and are entered too early by their employers.

I suggested that anyone in the room had an equal opportunity to become an APC assessor. I have found the role of an assessor stimulating and fulfilling and helps me to keep up to date with current developments. The RICS offer full training to any potential assessor.

I finished by saying that there was a wealth of information on the RICS website and my single piece of advice to any candidate is to understand what is expected to be successful and to employers to support the candidate throughout the whole period of structured training. The panel of assessors want to pass the candidates but are under an obligation to ensure that the require standard is achieved. If it is not then the Panel have no alternative but to refer the candidate.

Since I delivered my talk the RICS has embarked on a recruitment drive for more assessors. Information and further details can be found on the RICS website and an information leaflet has been prepared. The leaflet includes a quote from Bernard White, formerly of Harrogate Borough Council and a current ACES member. I am happy to talk to anyone who might be interested in becoming an assessor.

simon eades waveney district Council


sAnd And grAvel

roy gregory london borough of redbridge

“The meek shall inherit the Earth – but not the mineral rights”. (Paul Getty) “There is gold in them there hills”, or say they used to say, apparently, during the Australian Gold Rush of the 1850s. For most of us, in the UK at least, that would be a tantalising but unlikely pronouncement. But some of us are fortunate enough to have, not gold but gravel, under the surface of large areas of council-owned land. In my own authority, thanks to the farsightedness of councillors over fifty years ago in purchasing the land, we have generated many millions of pounds through gravel extraction – and there is more to come. This paper summarises some of the lessons we have learned along the way.

so have you got any?

(Sand and gravel, that is)Start by investigating the history of mineral working in the region and by looking at maps of the drift geology available from the British Geological Survey (BGS). Other anecdotal evidence may come from local building control inspectors or from those involved in the construction or mineral history. It is also possible that local development plans or County structure plans may give some helpful pointers. We’ve recently used the services of the Mineral Valuer in undertaking a desktop exploratory survey based on BGS material.

If the results of such research look encouraging, you will want to go to the next stage – a site survey, involving drilling boreholes. This is likely to attract public attention and you will need to keep your elected members informed and obtain their support for such investigations. If the site concerned is shown in a development plan as a mineral reserve this will assist with the public relations dimension. The land may be tenanted. In the case of agricultural land, it is worth looking at the terms of the tenancy to see if this enables such work to be undertaken. However, subject to the boreholes being undertaken at the right time (to avoid damage to standing crops etc) boreholes can be sunk with nominal compensation to a tenant, or possibly none at all if the lease terms provide for it.

The borehole investigation will enable an analysis of the total spread and quantities of mineral across the site, the depth of such deposits and of overburden as well as quality/contamination issues.

Bear in mind that mineral operators will be unwilling to take the risk of committing themselves to a lease on a mineral opportunity, without such borehole investigations being undertaken.

Policy backgroundEnsuring the availability of minerals is a key concern for Government and this is reflected in National and Regional Guidelines for Aggregate Provision In England 2001/2016 and monitoring reports from the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. These guidelines set out, by English Region, including London, guidelines on the quantities of land-won sand and gravel in million tonnes per region. The guidelines were based on estimates of demand for all aggregates, based on forecasts of construction activity and data on aggregates consumption. The Government will continue to monitor the guidelines and keep them under review.

English regional aggregates working parties are technical groups drawn from officers of the mineral planning authorities, the minerals industry and various Government representatives, as well as other interested parties.

In the case of the London Aggregates Working Party, there are representatives from recycling, agricultural and railway interests, as well as the Mayor for London. The Working Party monitors the supply and demand for aggregate, including the potential for supply of secondary

PROPERTY ADVISORS TO THEPUBLIC SECTOR

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and recycled materials and advises the Mayor on policies in the London Plan.

Planning backgroundIn England, national planning policy is set out in Minerals Planning Guidance Notes (MPGs) and their replacements, Mineral Policy Statements (MPSs) which indicate Government policy on mineral and their treatment within the planning system. MPS 1 (Planning and Minerals) sets out the principles the Government expects planning authorities to apply in developing policies and considering planning applications.

If your authority owns land with minerals it is important to monitor closely relevant local planning policies and emerging development plans. These documents have an important role in safeguarding deposits of minerals which have economic importance from unnecessary sterilisation by surface development. Such plans therefore identify mineral safeguarding areas with accompanying safeguarding policies. You should review existing relevant structure or development plans and, in particular, emerging new Local Development Documents (LDDs), including the Minerals and Waste Development Framework (MWDF). It is important that new policies correctly identify local authority owned mineral reserves to be safeguarded, and that local planning policies are sufficiently flexible to enable such reserves to be properly exploited. In that context, local planning policies which seek to impose prescriptive exclusion zones between potential mineral working and adjacent residential properties should be avoided and opposed. It is therefore helpful to ensure that any mineral reserves which may be on council-owned land and which are to be developed are identified in the development plan process so that they can be subject to early consultation and have some degree of sanction from the mineral planning authority. In the case of London, local authorities need to monitor the emerging London Plan, which is expected to be completed in Spring 2008 and the Local Development Documents (LDDs).

value of the gravel reserveIf borehole site investigations are undertaken, fairly accurate estimates can be derived of quantities of workable reserves. Whilst mediocre agricultural land in the green belt and on the urban fringe may have a rental value of £75 to £100 per acre, the royalty from gravel extraction accruing to the landowner could be some £30,000 per acre over 4 or 5 years, assuming reserves of 10,000 tonnes per acre.

However, the likely revenue to be achieved from a gravel site will depend on several factors which need to be covered in the lease. There are likely to be some common components reflecting:-

The value of the minerals to be excavated (mainly dependent on their quantity, quality and ease of extraction).

If the excavations are to be filled (for example with inert building rubble) and the land restored to its previous

a)

b)

levels, then there will be value in granting these tipping rights as part of the lease.

There may be an onsite processing plant for washing, sorting and storage of the excavated gravel – possibly in conjunction with an onsite concrete batching plant where sand and gravel is being dug. The lease can limit the use of this processing plant exclusively for gravel dug on site or if importation of mineral from other sites is permitted, then this also needs to be reflected in the value for the processing plant.

Increasingly, mineral operators are including within their sites crushing machines in order to recycle building demolition material (such as concrete or bricks) either for reuse or for sale as “secondary aggregates”. Again, the presence of such a recycling facility would enhance the revenue value to be achieved from such a lease opportunity.

c)

d)

Sand and gravel processing plant

Sorting of sand at processing plant

Preparation for soil stripping


It is possible that several of the factors mentioned above (such as the right to extract mineral and the tipping rights), would be reflected in a single royalty rate, normally expressed in terms of a payment per tonne of gravel sold from the site.

Planning application processWhere the planning authority considers a proposed minerals development is likely to have significant environmental effects, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) will be required. Detailed requirements are set out in the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999, as amended, with further guidance in DETR Circular 02/99. It is therefore likely that most mineral applications of any scale will require an EIA. Where there is any doubt, a developer can apply to the planning authority for a “screening opinion” to confirm whether or not an EIA is necessary.

Bear in mind that planning applications which are accompanied by EIAs are then subject to a planning process which is slightly different from other planning applications. For example, EIA applications enable the local planning authority to have a longer consultation process on the application than would normally be the case.

There is now emerging case law which underlines the importance of developers ensuring that the need for EIAs is properly recognised and relevant EIA procedures are complied with.

Preparation of an EIA is likely to involve a range of specialisms, needing the services of several consultants, preferably led by a lead consultant to manage the EIA project. In essence, the EIA process is intended to identify systematically all the potential impacts of a development proposal and to address the issue of how these impacts can be mitigated in order to lessen the environmental impact. A typical assessment will therefore look at impacts such as landscape/visual, nature, archaeology, noise, dust, highways, hydrology and contamination.

Preparation of the EIA may therefore take several months – not least because some issues, such as the natural environment, may need survey work over particular seasons of the year to assess the impact on specific wild life such as migratory birds. The preparation of the EIA may also require access for various consultants to the site concerned as well as public consultation.

Given the amount of work involved, an EIA can easily cost £50,000 and it is most logical for the EIA and planning application to be prepared either by the proposed mineral operators or in close conjunction with them. The local authority landowner may wish to consider sharing of costs associated both with the EIA and the planning application fee with the mineral operator. Whilst there are advantages in the mineral operator being the sole applicant, there may also be scope for the local authority landowner to be joint applicant, in order to exercise greater control over the nature and content of the planning application.

The importance of a well-considered approach to preparation and submission of the planning application cannot be overestimated. The lodging of an application may well provoke local objection and some degree of controversy. It is therefore important that the application and the corresponding EIA clearly address potential local concerns, as well as issues relevant to other consultees such as the Environment Agency (on water and contamination issues) and English Heritage (on archaeological issues). The EIA process provides an opportunity to pre-empt any such concerns and to address them properly, with appropriate consultation and dialogue.

Once the application is submitted, it will be necessary for the applicant and land owners to keep careful track of progress and to ensure that the concerns of the local planning authority or consultees are properly addressed, if necessary with additional information or clarification being provided. In some cases, where certain concerns are insurmountable, there may be a need to undertake some amendments to the application during the course of its consideration by the planning authority.

Hopefully, with careful consideration of the planning and EIA process, the ultimate goal will be the obtaining of a planning consent and the unlocking of the mineral value in the site.

obtaining possession of the landThe question of possession depends on the circumstances of each particular case. In some instances council land may be used for recreation purposes and there may be a need for temporary re-provision whilst mineral workings proceed, before the mineral site is restored to recreation use. The land could be subject to agricultural tenancies. In the case of 1986 Agricultural Holdings Act Tenancies, the landowner may wish to pursue a Case B notice for possession, which requires that planning consent for the intended mineral use has been obtained. Tenants may well strongly object to the mineral planning application and there may therefore be a need for negotiation with the tenant to see whether a voluntary surrender can be agreed, normally with a compensation package for the tenant, possibly including, say, the sale of farm or cottage buildings on favourable terms.

For more recent Farm Business Tenancies, possession is rather more straightforward – although for tactical reasons, the tenant may still strongly oppose the planning application.

In short, the issue of regaining possession needs to be carefully considered as part of the overall strategy for realising the potential for land with mineral value.

marketing a mineral opportunity?New mineral opportunities can be marketed in a similar way to other property interests. To help with this process, the landowner needs to be clear about any specific requirements or outcomes and to set these down at an early stage. In particular, if the landowner requires the ultimate lessee to be responsible for pursuing planning approval including the environmental impact assessment


and all associated costs, then this needs to be established. Similarly, issues of the timescale of a draft lease, the approach to restoration of the land after extraction and the afteruse of the land may all be parameters to be set out either in marketing or at an early stage in negotiations.

In some instances, a new site may be close to an existing mineral operation and the landowner will want to consider whether open marketing is more appropriate than a private treaty negotiation. The requirements of Section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 will be important here. There may be circumstances where private treaty negotiations will be appropriate – for example where an operator already has a mineral processing plant in the area and an established market for his product. A new sand and gravel processing plant may involve investment of the order of £1million and if an operator already has a local plant which can be used for the proposed new area of mineral working, then this may give him a distinctive advantage over other mineral operators.

Obviously, whether there is a marketing process or reliance on private treaty negotiations, the royalty rate to be achieved will be a significant determinant in selecting the mineral operator. Given the specialist nature of the mineral industry, it may be helpful to seek specialist advice, possibly the Mineral Valuer of the Valuation Office Agency. The Mineral Valuer can provide a useful means of double-checking that a mineral operator’s proposal (including royalty rate) represent good value for money and so assist with satisfying Section 123.

what sort of lease?Leases for sale and gravel extraction tend to differ from other commercial leases. As indicated above, the consideration is normally expressed as a royalty rate per tonne of mineral extracted (and possibly a rate per tonne of material to be tipped within the excavation). There can be provision for a certain minimum yearly rent to be paid whilst minerals are being excavated and this assumes a minimal level of mineral tonnage dug each year. The lease may then provide for payment of an additional sum, should that level of extraction be exceeded in any one year.

The term of a mineral lease will depend on individual circumstances. Typically, the term will reflect the time required for the operator to set up on site (to secure the site, erect plant, any highway measures and strip soil) followed then by a phased period of mineral extraction, followed by restoration of the land and eventual withdrawal by the

operator. In my experience, it’s usually about 12 years, which divides roughly 50/50 into extraction, followed by restoration/aftercare.

The issue of aftercare is an important one, particularly where the land is to be restored to agricultural use since the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will need to be closely involved in a five year aftercare programme to ensure that soils are properly replaced, drainage is introduced and the land is brought back into a state fit for cultivation. However, since mineral extraction is not always as predictable an activity as might be the case with other commercial uses, the lease may also provide for a “run-off” period. This may enable the basic lease term to be extended if particular problems or delays occur on site (which may often be because of bad weather, market conditions or the influence of the Environment Agency). Where there is such provision in the lease, then there could be a fairly punitive rental provision applicable to the area of land which has not been properly restored and returned to the landowner within the basic term of the lease. Such run-off provisions are intended to provide a degree of flexibility to the operator, but still give a financial incentive for the mineral working and restoration to be completed in a timely manner. Other features of a mineral lease are likely to include a performance bond to cover a situation where an operator begins extraction on site but there is a risk that restoration will not be properly completed.

Another key issue to be covered both in the lease and in the mineral planning approval is the after-use of the site, which will also determine the approach to be adopted to the land’s restoration. In the case of Green Belt or agricultural or open recreation land with minimal build development

value, filling of the land with inert material and restoration to agriculture/open recreation or nature conservation type uses (possibly involving retention of areas of open water from the gravel extraction) may be the most obvious approach. However, a long term view needs to be taken about the Council’s plans for the land, including a realistic view about the likely demand for agricultural land and possibly the potential for nature conservation benefits or active leisure use – particularly where the site is close to areas of significant population.

A current concern in the mineral industry is the tendency of the Environment Agency to require an extremely high standard of land restoration (including the “tanking” of extraction sites with clay seals) for restoration of land to agricultural use. These requirements can prove expensive and involve the mineral operator in long-term

Processing plant - stockpiling of grades of sand

Land restored to agricultural use after gravel extraction, filling and restoration


commitment which many operators are extremely unhappy about. Therefore, a nature conservation or leisure after use may, in certain situations, be advantageous.

A key concern for the local authority landowner will be to understand the long-term financial commitment in managing land after mineral extraction – particularly if there are contamination risks. If the land has been restored to agricultural use, then return to an agricultural tenancy could provide the necessary caretaking and nature conservation trusts (or the mineral operator) could play a role in taking on the long term management and maintenance of land restored for nature conservation use.

ongoing monitoring?Mineral extraction can involve very substantial civil engineering works which may be dependent on weather and other factors and it is essential to have good monitoring arrangements during the course of the lease. In addition, if a mineral proposal creates considerable local interest or objection, it may be very helpful to ensure that local elected members and the local community can have any ongoing concerns dealt with.

Since some gravel sites are extremely well screened from the public highway through use of screening mounds, the general public will have little appreciation of what actually goes on within an extraction site. The mineral operator may therefore find it helpful to have the occasional open

A copy of this letter to David Miliband came to the ACES editorial office in one of those jokey chain emails that we all receive nowadays so I thought it was all just a bit of light-hearted make-believe. But then two minutes’ research on the Internet showed that Nigel Johnson-Hill from Liphook in Surrey is very real and certainly no make-believe character. Nigel Johnson-Hill tells me that so far he has had no reply to his letter either from David Miliband or from his successor, Hilary Benn.

Hon David Miliband MP, Secretary of State Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

16 May 2007

Dear Secretary of State.

My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for £3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs. I would now like to join the “not rearing pigs” business.

In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy.

I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will just as gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are there too many people already not rearing these?

As I see it, the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven’t

reared. Are there any government or local authority courses on this?

My friend is very satisfied with the business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so and the best he ever made on them was £1,422 in 1968. That is - until this year, when he received a cheque for not rearing any.

If I get £3,000 for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get £6,000 for not rearing 100?

I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 pigs not raised, which will mean about £240,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs, I plan to be more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared in my second year, for which I should expect about £2.4 million from your department. Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gases?

Another point: These pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs I don’t rear?

I am also considering the “not milking cows” business, so please send any information you have on that too. Please could you also include the current DEFRA advice on set-aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I seem to have several thousand hectares)?

In view of the above you will realise that I will be totally unemployed, and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefits.

I shall of course be voting for your party at the next general election.

Yours faithfully,

nigel Johnson-hill

not reAring Pigs


day so that the local community can be made aware of progress on site. Similarly, it may be useful for the land owning local authority to have a member monitoring working party so that elected representatives can be involved in the progress of a site. This has been found to be extremely beneficial in helping elected members understand the vagaries and difficulties faced in mineral operations and in highlighting potential problems at an early stage, as well as raising issues of general interest (such as ongoing archaeological finds on site).

A finAl wordHopefully, this paper has shown the potential for a landowner in exploiting mineral reserves, as well as the highly technical and specialist nature of this work. Clearly, research and the use of specialist advisers are likely to be needed to exploit mineral assets. However, it can be an extremely fulfilling area of work, generating substantial revenue sums for a local authority and possibly creating opportunities for employment and for new land uses on sites after their restoration. These factors will be of continuing interest in the context of the efficiency agenda and the need for councils to pursue proactive asset management planning and to exploit property assets. For those who are fortunate enough to have mineral deposits, the challenges are as great as are the rewards. There is clearly scope for ACES members to share their experience and expertise in this area since the estate management of minerals opportunities is a fairly specialist area requiring the general practitioner to develop fresh skills and new approaches. Use the website!

Happy prospecting!

roy gregory London Borough of Redbridge

the dilemmAs

of ownershiP

James delmar Knight Frank

Knight Frank LLP specialise in portfolio consultancy and management and are involved in providing consultancy services to a range of public clients.

An enormous number of public bodies own significant rural property portfolios (whether in value or area, or both) outside their operational requirements. The ownership of the portfolio is rarely a part of the core business, but it does provide, sometimes considerably, financial resource, either in income or capital terms and frequently both.

For such organisations the portfolio is often managed by an in-house team, sometimes with support from an external adviser. Very often the strategy that exists has evolved over a period of years and has not been comprehensively reviewed for some time. There can be advantages in standing back and reconsidering the overarching policy and objectives so as to produce a revised strategy that is current, topical and focused on producing the requisite results.

It is worth considering the objectives of ownership and asking some difficult but fundamental questions:

Do you view your tenants as a benefit or a hindrance?

Do they manage your property for you, maintain the environment, provide an attractive landscape and deserve to be thanked for undertaking all these roles while paying you a rent; or, if you

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take a brutal and commercial approach…

Should you endeavour to secure vacant possession thereby increasing the asset value and enabling you to sell for a very significant gain?

In breaching planning legislation are tenants behaving in the way that so many rural tenants do and through the lack of local and significant numerous local objection, is that development/change of use a problem that should be squashed or is it an example of the entrepreneurialism that has grown in rural England that would seem to be essential to keep British agriculture afloat? Should it be stamped on and prevented or, by a change in policy, should it be actively encouraged and should landlord and tenant make joint applications for planning consent to provide more employment in the countryside, greater income streams and therefore asset value and greater likelihood of survival for small family farms?

Should farm tenants be seen as a source of rent or as the public face and management arm of the owner?

Do local residents have any rights over the use of the land, their views and, where relevant, the greenbelt other than those expressly included within local planning law? Do individuals enjoy another’s land by virtue of the owner’s generosity or as of right?

Are individuals that deviate from public footpaths taking advantage of generous landowners and farmers, or trespassing and causing damage, increasing public liability insurance premium levels, taking liberties and contributing little in return?

Does the owner have a duty (moral, social and economic) as to the future of the estate as a whole, the rural part that remains and the people within it? If so, what is that duty and should it seek to enhance the environment, maximise capital reserves, drive income streams, improve the quality of life or benefit the public? And if the latter, should it be the majority, the minority (because

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they are otherwise disadvantaged), those that make the best representations (arguably the privileged) or those that demonstrate the greatest need?

99% of the time the answers to questions such as these are neither black nor white but a blend; organisations justifiably feel that they understand this blend and that it is a very difficult prescription to detail or delegate to others. To do so is time-consuming, often expensive and may, at first glance, appear to cause delays in delivering on current objectives. To drill down and focus on the investment portfolio very often requires staff to be distracted from the core operational duties.

A fresh approach provides a fascinating insight for everybody and a complete re-appraisal of the purpose of the portfolio. In two instances where Knight Frank have become involved recently it has generated opportunities for a different style of management, a different approach to PR and a more proactive role. It also seems likely that it will deliver considerably greater financial return despite also attracting increased costs. The overall net outturn will be additional revenue, additional capital and the ability to deploy otherwise engaged staff on operational property and its requirements and core activities.

For these two portfolios the move was brave but it has been fascinating to witness the change from “snowed under” chief executives and finance directors to (those same people) now able to focus on strategic thinking and their core operational requirement.

A strategic review of the asset is invariably the first step, although not necessarily. Many portfolio managers already have a very good feel for the value of the asset and what they are trying to achieve with it. The difficulty is in “letting go” but very often heavily overworked and under-resourced staff have been willing to devolve themselves in certain areas of their responsibilities to allow them to focus better on areas more deserving for the operational property and recognising the benefits of delegating to those that have experience across a range of portfolios (and are able therefore to compare, benchmark and advise based on first hand experience) and are dedicated in their specialism in that field.

In its simplest form it is outsourcing or sub-contracting and it can also be considered as challenging the status quo, adding value, re-focusing on the core business and taking advantage of another’s specialist skills. So far it has been hugely enjoyable and rewarding for everybody involved.

James delmar knight frank

Clg And ACes

betty Albon ACes immediate Past-President

ComPrehensive sPending review 2007 And Asset mAnAgement

Notes of a meeting at Communities & Local Government on 15th June 2007ACES has been invited by Keith Beaumont at the Local Government Association to advise on property matters, on behalf of the LGA. Jim Ross is leading this – and congratulations all round to the presidency in securing another important link. However, I deputised for him and attended “Local Government Efficiency in CSR07 Asset Management Workshop” on 15th June, organised by Communities and Local Government.

Joanne Cavey, a member of the Local Government Efficiency Team at CLG gave a few statistics about the target set in the Lyons Review a couple of years ago (the famous £30 billion asset sales in the public sector by 2010, or thereabouts). Apparently local government is on track,

James Delmar


predominantly through the transfer of housing stocks, which had accounted for around 70% of the sales.

The CSR07 target (ie 2008-09 to 2010-11) for local authorities is now to be set as non-housing disposals of £1.6 bn a year for each of three years, giving a total non-housing asset sale of £4.8 bn during the CSR07 period. These capital receipts, invested @ 5% will give a Gershon efficiency gain of £0.24 bn. which, if they’re feeling generous, may be calculated @ 5.5%, making an efficiency gain of £0.26 bn.

So communally, there’s our target! Interestingly, Joanne’s talk was titled “Asset management – scope for gains and ways to achieve them”. Excuse me, but just outlining our target of interest on capital receipts didn’t give me an awful lot of ideas - although there was a quick reference to asset management guidelines. And later, CLG did ask the delegates if there were any other incentives that could be used to encourage local authorities, but as you will see below, there were no real ‘thumbs up’ to our ideas.

David Bentley of IPF, whom many of you will know, was asked to give a presentation on ‘What’s possible and how can it be done?’ Some of the areas and case studies covered by David where efficiencies can be achieved, included disposals through office rationalisation, but not just applying a standard employee per space convention – more by focussing on work practices and joint use; disposals through home working/hot desking by taking a focussed approach involving HR, etc.; efficiencies through good practice – whole life costing, procurement, energy and environmental improvements.

However, David gave a warning: there is a danger that the sale of assets is done as a knee jerk reaction to deliver the government’s short term targets, without fully evaluating the longer term impact on service delivery. He also made an observation that many of the above changes would bring about intangible savings which cannot be distilled into cashable savings, such as happiness of the workforce (Huh? Which workforce is that, then?) and that CLG should be more flexible in their approach (definitely fell on deaf ears!).

Some interesting questions were asked and statements made by the 20 delegates attending, including the following themes (no prizes for guessing which my questions were):

It is alright if the capital receipts are ‘banked’. However, in many cash-strapped councils, the disposals have to be reinvested in service delivery, so efficiency gains cannot be claimed. CLG noted this, but offered no answer.

How do we deal with the conflicting requirements of achieving maximum value through asset disposals and the potential sales at less than best price under Quirk’s recommendations of community ownership and management? Although, rather encouragingly, CLG emphasised that community transfers need not necessarily be at below market value – and definitely did not have to be sales at £1 – they will not accept that we can somehow create a cashable value to such outcomes as social cohesion.

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David Bentley said CLG should be agreeable to giving us credits for interest on the capital foregone by selling at less than market value – but no luck there either!

Office rationalisations can be very capital intensive. Although some of that capital can be recouped by the sale of operational assets becoming surplus and by more efficient running costs, a much longer time horizon was needed than the 3 year CSR07 and there should not be such a fixation on rigid targets. CLG noted this, but offered no answer.

Spreading CSR07 targets over the country is inequitable – disposals in high value areas will achieve more efficiencies than selling similar assets in low value areas. CLG noted this, but offered no answer.

Could CLG please clarify if non-operational assets are regarded by CLG as ‘surplus’? CLG confirmed that they are not, and said that there is no point selling them if it will not result in improvements in service delivery (well that’s good to know!).

Can negotiating good settlements from the private sector, through s106 agreements, be used as Gershon efficiencies? No! Equally, if Planning Gain Supplement is introduced, the tax distributed is not efficiency savings (they’re no fun at CLG, are they?).

Does CLG operate under a misconception that all local authorities are sitting on vast portfolios of surplus and underused assets? Certainly this is not the case amongst ACES membership. CLG noted this, but offered no answer.

It was concluded that the profile of asset management needs to be enhanced through more promotion of good practice, including training for elected members and service managers. Equally, property and asset managers have to be more pro-active in their councils. The proposed changes to CPA Use of Resources in 2008 may help to raise the profile of asset management.

I’m sorry to say that I left with the impression that the workshop, whose aim was to give those attending an opportunity to “refine proposals on asset management in the CSR07 Efficiency Delivery Plan”, was little more for CLG than a ‘tick box – we’ve done the consultation’ (perhaps akin to some of our own consultation exercises?). But, let’s wait and see, I may be proved wrong I think I’m getting as cynical as some of my ACES colleagues! However, I was thanked by Keith Beaumont from the LGA, who emphasised that he would like to call on ACES for property advice, which I was only too happy to agree to.

betty Albon st edmundsbury borough Council

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PubliC seCtor CAll Centres

Chris southern Business Development & Change Manager

Chief Executive’s Directorate Salford City Council

Another AwArd for sAlford Innovative work being carried out in partnership with housing services in Salford has led to yet another award.

The prestigious Contact Centre Innovation of the Year Award 2007 was presented to Salford City Council for a ‘Think Customer’ approach that delivers better services to the public. It builds on a completely new concept of developing what the customer needs, at first point of contact, on behalf of a wide range of local public service providers such as housing, as well as fire, health and police authorities.

“Many in the call centre industry consider that local government is still new to contact centres, but this award, which was a unanimous decision of the judging panel, shows that in some areas the public sector is now leading the way”, comments Paul Smedley, Executive Director of the Professional Planning Forum, the Award’s organisers.

“Making life easier for customers, who currently need to make repeated or unnecessary calls, is the key challenge which call centres need to start addressing over the coming year”.

The award was presented at Call Centre Planning 2007, the Professional Planning Forum’s sixth annual conference in Dublin on 25 April. Over 250 industry specialists gathered for the two-day conference at which all the award winners presented their achievements and the latest benchmark survey results were presented.

Work began on Salford’s project some four years ago when, in order to provide the best possible service to the residents of the city, a survey was carried out which revealed that the method of contact with the council that most people preferred was the telephone.

An in-depth look at how callers were dealt with at that time revealed that Salford offered a basic service in which a switchboard operator answered the calls but did not actually deal with the customer query. The operator put callers directly through to a directorate where:

Calls were dealt with by whoever answered the phone at the time – and often in the midst of doing other tasks;

Calls were often unanswered because of officers’ workload;

Those who answered the calls were not professionally trained to do so;

There were no ‘specialists’ to handle specific issues;

There was no way of tracking what happened to calls and their outcomes;

Dependent on the operator’s understanding of the query, the caller was often put through to the wrong department within the directorate, leading to delay, confusion and frustration;

If a caller had more than one query, confusion reigned!

There was no ‘joined up’ thinking between directorates.

The result was poor customer service. This fact, and a process of organisational change, led to the development of something that had not existed before - a call centre with professionally trained staff.

Salford’s new services are built on a completely new concept of delivering what the customer wants and needs at the first point of contact.

Salford’s council housing is managed and maintained by New Prospect Housing Limited who have worked directly with the contact centre from the start of the project to improve services. Housing customers, for example are able to report problems directly to a professionally trained call centre operator, who will despatch the right contractor to carry out the work. As a result jobs are completed quicker and complaints from tenants have significantly decreased.

Anti-social behaviour can be a problem in any town or city, and in Salford the contact centre has a dedicated phone line so that tenants can report incidents that affect the quality of life in their area.

Salford aims to encourage both individuals and businesses to live/work in our city, and to assist citizens, whether they are newcomers to the city or moving to a new area, to have access to all services and settle in quickly and happily for the benefit of all.

Salford spans an area of approximately 40 square miles, and has properties bordering Manchester city centre or close to Bolton or Warrington. So there is a demand for properties in the area - and the contact centre aims to help people to make the move as easily as possible, whether they are renting or buying.

When customers who are moving into Salford or to another home in Salford, a phone call about council tax or other council service will trigger the sending out of a Welcome Pack containing information on everything they need to know about the council and its service, and those of its partners.

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Currently any person or business who wants information about services and/or entitlement has to make contact with SCC and partner/service providers on more than one occasion, for example to register for council tax, with a local GP and to find a local school. This project aims to replace this model with one of single point of contact to facilitate better informed choices, understanding of services and entitlement through effective joined-up service delivery

The ‘Think Customer’ approach, together with an in-house built CRM system and rapid growth in staffing numbers to 100+, required a rapid maturing of the centre. Many new services were taken on and initiatives launched, which included flexible working, Telly Talk video links and a Training Academy to develop out-of work citizens for potential employment.

The new Customer Call Centre was established in Orbit House, Eccles in November 2005. The accommodation was centrally located in the city, close to public transport links in a modern, leased office building. The accommodation benefited from a flexible open plan layout providing accommodation for initially up to 120 staff with the further potential to accommodate growth in staff numbers. The centre also benefits from extensive car parking locally; separate training rooms and modern staff welfare area

One new service has had a direct impact in preventing fire deaths, with 40 fewer fires and injuries down 30%. Another service prevented the need for 8,000 unnecessary calls by

bereaved citizens. A small specialist service provided by the call centre has now led to 15 people completing drug or alcohol treatment.

“The contact centre is the central hub to enable people to come together and understand all the services”, explains John Tanner, Head of Customer Services. “Our partner agencies are willing to talk to each other, break down barriers and do something different”.

Salford now shares information both across the council and with our partners. There has been:

A significant reduction in the number of contacts required by customers on certain issues and

An increase in different services because they are new and/or improved.

If you would like to know more about any of the items mentioned above, please contact me on 0161 793 2718 / 07766 550273.

Chris southern salford City Council

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The author relaxes

Salford in the 21st Century


Commissioner or Provider

neil webster gvA grimley

the ChAnging nAture of the heAlth And loCAl government Asset bAseLocal authorities have been partnering with health agencies (Primary Care Trusts and the like) at a service level for some years now. The recent “Developing the local government services market”1 report suggests that about a third of all agencies are involved in joint health and social care procurement. If those “actively considering” are included this takes the participants to about 50%. However, it is only recently that joint projects have been coming to fruition of a property rather than just service nature. Some examples of these are represented pictorially through this paper. This paper explores some of the current issues facing property practitioners.

The recent Future Services Network report “From rhetoric to reality”2 illustrates the dynamic nature of public service delivery. The strategic move for many public bodies from provider to commissioner changes the whole landscape of service provision. This means that the users of buildings where front line services are provided will not, in many instances be public bodies. They may be private, voluntary or other charitable bodies. This therefore raises the question as who will own or lease the asset: – the provider, the commissioner or even a third party?

On top of this is the rapid change in the geographical coverage of PCTs. In some areas three PCTs, have amalgamated to two, and soon after into one. The upside is that in many places the area covered by the local authority and PCT are now the same. On the downside officers are only just catching on to step one before the next change occurs. However, there is the benefit of both bodies being able to focus on the same population base.

So some questions we are probably asking:

Is the asset best held by the commissioner because the provider’s contract term is too short to justify a lease let alone a freehold?

1 Developing the local government services market: Working paper on local authority shared services. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; May 2007 for Department of Communities & Local Government: London

2 From Rhetoric to Reality: engaging users in public services Future Services Network (National Consumer Council, CBI, Acevo)

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Does the commissioner want to divest of the asset because it is not currently fit for purpose and the opportunity cost could be used elsewhere?Does the service provider want to source property of a completely different nature because of the way in which they deliver services?Will there be a portfolio of properties which neither the commissioner nor provider want the responsibility for but will be required to house staff and clients to fulfil the service obligations?

It is pretty tricky as it is for property professionals in local government trying to second guess service demand but it just got worse or, depending on your outlook, better?

Many local authorities are constantly going through the asset challenge question of “why do we own/lease this building?”. The current climate only serves to reinforce the importance of constantly asking the question. In the same way that public services are being re-modelled around the customer, property professionals should respond to their new diverse customer base. Using the “glass ceiling” analogy, the ceiling has been raised or even removed, but has anyone noticed?

So what does this mean in terms of the skill base required of us? We have moved on from the era of a service head stating a need for X,000 sq m, the property team sourcing the property and then supplying FM services. We need to work much more closely with the senior managers to understand the change to their roles as commissioners and what this means in the way that property is procured, used and managed. Not just services but local authorities as a whole are moving more to a role perhaps best described as an enabler, facilitator or commissioner as opposed to the deliverer.

We have already seen through the LIFT3 and BSF 4programmes that there are different ways of procuring buildings for the users. However, these are very much perceived as health-only and education-only programmes. Some are bringing a mixed economy of services together under one roof or on one campus. However, those are the exception.

What does “We need to move away from building-focussed services to community-based services” mean? Probably some of the following:

more multi-user rather than single service buildingsa more peripatetic workforce and client basemulti-service and multi-agency asset management planninggreater integration of corporate services including property, HR, finance and ICT to support the “front-line” services

We are already seeing a number of bundled corporate services outsourcing contracts. Some include property services, some don’t. With the potential for more multi-user buildings on various occupational terms there may be a burgeoning market for private sector operators to step in as owners on a different basis than so far seen. This reflects some of the issues considered and conclusions 3 Local Improvement Finance Trust4 Building Schools for the Future

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reached in the June 2006 NAO report5. Whilst this was focussed on offices some of the principles entitled Hotel.Gov could well apply to local multi-agency buildings.

So how does the property professional need to respond? Skills that need to be to the fore include:

Process consulting;Facilitation;Strategic planning;Whole life financial appraisal;Stakeholder management.

Some of you will say you already do this. Fine, but for those who don’t this is the brave new world and you need to step up to the plate because it’s want today’s client needs.

neil webster gvA grimley

5 Getting the best from public sector office accommodation

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green wrythe lAne heAlth Centre

green wrythe lane health Centre in sutton was completed in the summer of 2006 and developed by south west london health Partnerships, the local liftco.

it brings together a large gP practice, children’s services, podiatry, a range of community services including health visitors and district nurses, ambulance and dentistry. it was designed to integrate a range of services for the area and encourage further services to be delivered in a community setting.

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bentilee hub

bentilee hub which was completed in early 2007, includes a large gP practice, a dentist, walk-in healthcare centre, a housing office, library, it suite, community centre and youth services, as well as a number of shops, including a pharmacy and café.

this project by John laing social infrastructure brings together the provision of local authority, primary care and community services with one central facility.

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Neil Webster


4Ps hAndbookdavid revell

4PS

4Ps, local government’s project delivery specialist, works exclusively to help local authorities deliver better public services via major infrastructure and service projects. 4Ps was established in 1996 by the English and Welsh local authority associations (predecessors to the LGA). 4Ps works in partnership with all local authorities to secure funding and accelerate the development, procurement and implementation of PFI schemes, public private partnerships, complex projects and programmes. 4ps’ multidisciplinary team provides hands-on projects support, gateway reviews, skills development and best-practice know-how. On 26th June 4Ps launched “The Estate We’re In”, a new corporate property handbook which has been produced after extensive consultation with fifteen local authorities in a variety of property related projects. The Corporate Property Handbook does not cover property assets that are subject to separate funding streams and specific, standardised contractual guidance, for example schools and housing.

reAlise the vAlue of over £50 billion worth of ProPerty Assets sAys 4Ps4ps, local government’s project delivery specialist, is urging local authority chief executives to consider whether they are getting the most out of their property assets. Across England an estimated £52 billion is tied up in offices and other accommodation for local authority staff. Just maintaining the stock costs some £4-5 billion a year.

Many local authorities are sitting on huge property assets which cost large sums to maintain. Ultimately this cost is paid for through council taxes. We would like local authorities to consider how best they can get the most value out of their property assets to release capital and reduce costs, thereby freeing up vital resources for frontline services. The handbook we are publishing provides examples of how some local authorities are taking an innovative approach in this area.

“The Estate We’re In” aims to help local authority chief executives and heads of property make the most out of their estates. Councils are working hard to deliver better

services, but a significant part of the inherited estate is expensive to run, increasingly not fit for purpose and does not represent best value. If local authorities can be more radical and innovative in exploiting their estates 4ps believes they can achieve savings of some 20% which can be reinvested to provide first class public service delivery.

Further benefits of successful property transformation programmes include:

Releasing capital

Discovering potential value within an estate

Boosting the contribution property makes to local service provision

The delivery of more efficient and higher quality services

Local authorities can use the handbook as a toolkit to find solutions that are tailored to their local circumstances. Suggested techniques to improve services include:

Reviewing estates and, in some cases, consolidating existing buildings to one main hub

Adopting new, more collaborative and flexible ways of working

Accepting internal cultural changes

Using building facilities and technology to deliver the most effective ways of working with partners and the public

The handbook sets out an eight week model to analyse councils’ current position. 4Ps worked with Deloitte to compile the handbook and is very grateful to the local authorities that supported the development of this guide.

For a free copy of “The Estate We’re In”, please go to: www.4ps.gov.uk

david revell 4Ps

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the estate we’re in

driving better value from property

local government’s project delivery specialist

in collaboration with


vAluAtion softwAre

olly friedman, kel Computing

Olly Friedman of KEL Computing has worked with Betty Albon of St Edmundsbury BC to produce this case study on the use of valuation software in a local authority.

vAluAtion softwAre in A distriCt CounCil

St Edmundsbury Borough CouncilSt Edmundsbury Borough Council’s estate is a fairly typical district local authority mixture of operational and investment properties. It includes commercial properties, industrial units, housing estate shops and ground leases as well as houses let to housing associations and recreational properties, such as community centres and sports grounds.

manual valuationsThe last full revaluation of the portfolio took place in the mid 1990s following the introduction of the CIPFA capital accounting best practice. Subsequent valuations were undertaken as significant changes arose and on a sample basis.

All the valuations were carried out by the council’s Corporate Property Officer, Betty Albon, “using Parry’s tables, a pencil and a calculator”. This was a laborious process since consideration of different scenarios required re-working of the calculations, increasing the risk of error and multiplying the valuer’s workload, as well as making it necessary to hold copious repetitive paper records. While Betty was always proud of her ability to cope with the workload of these big revaluations, there was always the nagging question, “Is there not a better way to do all this?”.

introduction of valuation softwareIn 2005, after meeting Paul Halford of KEL Computing at an ACES conference, Betty decided to embrace modern technology, albeit cautiously and with some of her normal scepticism. She put down the calculator, invested in some valuation software and used KEL Sigma to undertake a full revaluation. Once she was familiar with the program, inputting the data and creating the valuations for all 114 properties took about 7 hours or under 4 minutes a property.

The next revaluation took even less time because the core data had all been entered and it was simply a matter of creating an entirely new data set at the review date, and entering specific changes where necessary.

Betty’s view now is that,

“ Using KEL is better than the manual option because you have that instant action. Pressing the report button lets you see exactly what is happening in the valuation because the program acts like a valuer. Moving from the paper-based system wasn’t hard because for years the council has had a computerised estates management system, which contained all the required details.

I was concerned that, if I took the KEL package, it would be easy to forget the basics and that it wouldn’t be possible to understand what was coming out of the program. That hasn’t been the case. What I like about KEL is that you can use the scenario manager to evaluate various options and when you are doing the valuation you can input the figures and see the effects immediately.

As part of our on-going asset valuation process I have recently re-valued the whole portfolio. Using the ‘New Valuation Dates’ feature in SigmaPlus I was able to create a new valuation record for each property in one go. This feature was easy to use and saved me a lot of time. Having ‘refreshed’ all the valuations to reflect the new date, I was then able to record specific changes to those properties that have had recent lease renewals, rent reviews or other events that would affect capital value. When all the new valuations were complete I then exported data to Excel for import into our asset management system.

I am told that the next version of SigmaPlus will include an import feature from Excel which I am sure will enhance the system greatly.”

With an eye to local authority asset planning, and comprehensive performance assessment, the revalued properties have been grouped in the KEL Sigma database, allowing the council to see the values of properties on a sector-by-sector basis and to compare properties within the same sector. This will facilitate the ongoing review of non-operational property holdings and allow members to assess whether the properties represent financial or service return and value for money in terms of their corporate plan objectives. “A critical part of CPA assessment is the use of resources - and access to data held on KEL certainly helps towards achieving a good rating,” said Betty Albon.

Although the requirement to provide property performance indicators for the non-operational portfolio has been dropped by the government (IRR), as ACES members will know, work is under way to establish alternative performance indicators to support all the reasons for councils to retain investment properties. KEL’s software will continue to be invaluable by using the DCF capability of SigmaPlus to provide IRRs, together with other tools in the software which show property values and performance. The DCF uses the key tenancy information already entered for the capitalisation valuation and allows the user to add


their assumptions of rental growth, holding period and exit basis. As with the capitalisation, the effects of changing assumptions can be seen on screen as the changes are made.

olly friedman kel Computing

yesterdAy’s mAn

the mAn with the silver tongue Welling is a suburb in South East London. Apart from being the one-time headquarters of the BNP (a claim to fame that one wouldn’t shout from the rooftops) it has no distinguishing features and is just like thirty or forty other areas swallowed by the capital. I know it well and in the seventies when I went to see a man about a disused chapel I was sure what to expect - Arthur Daley in a one-horse town.

The chapel was at the heart of a nice little redevelopment that we had been gradually bringing forward for years. But we dithered too long and the property went up for sale by auction. No one had heard of the buyer but the word on the street was that a lot of loud car noise seemed to come from the place.

At that time it was more or less impossible for a local authority to buy at auction. For a start the Borough Treasurer had the vapours at the thought that his man would be wandering about with what amounted to an open cheque in order to pay the deposit. Secondly, we were required to consult the District Valuer on every property purchase and he had to “frank” that the purchase did not

exceed what would be paid if it were a CPO. I know this sounds unbelievable now but, with some powerful exceptions this applied throughout the whole country. You had two negotiations, one with the vendor and one with the DV. The Borner report recommended it be discontinued but we still had to have a random check by the DV to see we weren’t somehow cooking the books. This insulting, stupid, wasteful system kept going until one day the local authority valuers just refused to comply any more. You can see that this checking was impossible to carry out in the structure of an auction and we lost a number of opportunities for this reason.

However, we had a second chance with this one. Members said “Just send that silver tongued chappie, the Borough Valuer, along and he can buy it back”. Now I know this is incredibly conceited but I was pretty good then and had had one or two Lazarus moments so I was prepared to give it my best shot.

The directions said that this man’s office was over the carpet shop and when I found the bare concrete stairs my heart sank lower. Still, I thought, this poverty may make him need the money. I opened the door and entered a large reception area with the sort of opulent decor you think of with Gulf sheiks and was greeted by two of the most stunning looking women I have ever met.

Still in a state of shock I was shown into a huge black leather room. When I say black leather room I mean black leather room. Everything was black leather including the massive desk and the large television on the corner of it. Out from behind the desk came a very, very small, very, very well dressed man. I kept forgetting to close my mouth as it fell open and was already wondering when the women were going to come and minister to me again.

Betty Albon at work


After some initial social sparring we started on our talk proper. I was just starting to lay out my stall on the lines initially of how grateful the Council would be when he had a phone call on the intercom “Nelson on 2, sir. 4pm in Caracus”. He retreated to the desk and I could only catch a word or two.

I carried on and was explaining the things which the Council could do which would benefit his business.

Again we were interrupted “Emerson on 4, sir. Bad line from Adelaide, 9 am”. And so it went on all the long afternoon I would just get into my stride when a call from someone whose name sort of rang a bell would interrupt us.

Eventually I played my last and best card. For technical reasons I thought the Council could pay him more than he had spent and he could make a quick turn on it. He was clearly interested and we talked money. I put him under some time pressure. I knew I had him on the run but then one of his damned calls came in. It was apparently Jack in Paris. My man apologised and said this one would take some time. He would look at the situation and let me know.

Of course he eventually turned me down but few people could say they had played at the big table with Bernie Ecclestone and fewer still had him on the run – and the girls did make me another coffee on the way out.

P.S. To the ScribblerI herewith claim the bottle of champagne for Photo Quiz Question 4 in the last Terrier. The question was “How many past, present, or future Presidents of our association can you see”. The answer given was three but I know this is incorrect as number four is me!

yesterday’s man

Dreaming of………Partnering?Carter Jonas is one of the leading and most highly regarded firms

of commercial property consultants in Great Britain. By forming

strong partnerships with Local Authorities we can assist with

complex development issues, help in determining planning

applications for large developments and obtain the very best

value from existing property ownership.

When your projects call for the optimum

in partnership performance, contact

[email protected]

www.carterjonas.co.uk

Bernie Ecclestone


tribAl news

wolverhampton City CouncilWolverhampton City Council manages over 100 schools and has to submit property data to be successfully appraised by the DfES to receive their three year capital allocation. Therefore it was imperative that the council had a system to store relevant property data that could be easily retrieved and delivered in a format that was acceptable to the DfES. Wolverhampton chose Tribal’s Evolution Web and rolled this out across the authority’s children and young people’s service, the region’s schools and local diocesan.

Evolution Web is easy to use and has readily available reports to inform the local authority’s capital programme. It allows the council to store all relevant asset management planning data in one place and currently contains condition, suitability, access and asbestos surveys, together with architectural drawings, energy data and school net capacity calculations. Being web based it allows the council to save money on unnecessary licence fees and saves time as it provides schools with easy access to the information to update it quickly and easily.

AchievementsImproved communication between the region’s schools and the councilThe provision of real-time data, enabling accurate and reliable reportingStreamlined and more efficient updating of informationSchools have direct access to information, allowing them to be more self-sufficientCouncil administration staff spend less time dealing with requests from schools The council is now able to meet its statutory requirements in submitting data to theDfES within agreed timescalesIt is used to inform school development plansThe council is able to benchmark each school’s data to identify good practice and causes for concern, allowing targeted supportIt contributes to the e-agenda of reducing the flow of paper.

“Tribal’s software and their continued support have enabled us to respond to our customers by providing a range of asset management planning data which is easily stored and readily available for all our users. The information is a key management tool used to target the capital investment to support key priorities.” Stuart Rutter, Asset Data Management Officer

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knowsley metropolitan borough CouncilKnowsley LEA has been the recipient of several Government accolades for its exemplary progress, including its ‘wave one’ BSF proposals. Influential in this success has been Tribal’s Evolution asset management solution, which the education department uses to store the property data for their 172 schools and 6 non school buildings. With diverse building uses ranging from general education to sports, nursery care, adult education and general community use, Knowsley’s property portfolio is complex.

As well as a core property database Tribal also produced intelligent’ computer aided design (CAD) plans of all the school properties, with dynamic links to the textual database. The high quality of the plans led to praise from the VA office when submitted as part of the sufficiency assessment. Presently 98% of the department’s buildings are CAD enabled, and are used regularly by various surveyors, education finance to calculate payments and by contract services to calculate cleaning charges. Ian Hughes, Asset Management Plan Officer at Knowsley education department, believes that without the system the authority would not have met all the DfES deadlines, and goes on to state that the database has become an important fixture that is used throughout the authority - not just within the education department.

Looking into the future, Knowsley LEA has a number of plans to exploit the benefits of its property database.

to spatially enable textual and CAD data with links to a geographical information system (GIS)

utilise the handheld facility for condition surveys and to update architects plans.

individual schools to manage condition and suitability survey information, with data promoted and developed on Knowsley’s intranet

AchievementsThe software has enabled the LEA to meet deadlines set by the DfES

Supports capital investment decisions

CAD enabled database used regularly by various stakeholders

Comprehensive database of the LEA’s entire educational property portfolio

“The information stored within Evolution has had a massive impact on the way in which capital investment decisions are made within the council, with data and information readily available to back up discussions.” Ian Hughes, Asset Management Plan Officer, Knowsley education department

Continued overleaf ...

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Press releAse


more tribAl news...

london fire and emergency Planning Authority (lfePA)The largest fire service in the UK, London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) has signed a deal with Tribal to provide software to manage the maintenance of its land, buildings and equipment, including recording the condition of property, planning refurbishments and project management.

english heritageEnglish Heritage has chosen asset management and planning software from Tribal to reduce the costs of maintenance and conservation across its estate. The 400+ historic properties include roman remains, ruined abbeys and castles; many are scheduled ancient monuments, with some listed buildings or World Heritage Sites. The intelligent asset management and planning system also offers optimum spend scenarios to better judge ROI across 20 year plans.

liverpool City Council

Liverpool City Council, the fifth largest city in England, has chosen a fully integrated single solution from Tribal for the management of its £1bn land and property assets. Due to go live from autumn 2007, the Enterprise asset management software will replace the disparate manual and electronic systems currently used and will enable the council to better make the efficiency savings crucial to meet the requirements of the Audit Commission, Gershon Review and Lyons Report.

Asset management software and services specialist Tribal has contracted with Liverpool Direct Ltd (LDL), a company formed by Liverpool City Council and BT. LDL predicts substantial savings from better, more structured management and maintenance of property. All land and property data will be consolidated into a single corporate system, resulting in more efficient data provision, better data quality, improved operational delivery and streamlined processes. The council will also use Enterprise for planned maintenance and capital works, allowing more preventative maintenance to be scheduled rather than more expensive emergency remedial work.

The council undertook a thorough formal procurement process which involved a detailed specification of requirements subject to market testing, questionnaires,

presentations and site visits. Tribal was assessed and found to be the company and product most able to meet the council’s requirements for asset management. Brian Power, project manager for implementing the new system explains, “We were particularly impressed with the functionality of Enterprise, its intuitive feel, the tasks and reminders functions, the capacity to be web-enabled and its integrated modular structure.” Employees from all relevant departments will in the future be able to enter and access data and reports via Enterprise on their web browser.

Liverpool has chosen the core Enterprise system together with a number of modules. Phil Sanders, Tribal’s sales director for local authority software, says: “As well as providing property report to support property performance indicator requirements, the system will be used as the operational tool to ensure the effective and efficient management of property assets. Key to delivering cost and efficiency savings is Enterprise’s projects module, which has extensive functionality for managing planned and reactive maintenance works as well as large capital and revenue programmes of work.”

The council has also chosen the ‘handheld’ module for PDAs, which is designed to help field workers address the legislative obligations in the health and safety arena, particularly for issues such as Legionella and fire risk assessment.

Enterprise will go live at Liverpool City Council from autumn 2007. The system is used by a raft of other local authorities including Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Westminster City Council and Sedgemoor District Council. Under constant development, new modules just announced include a reporting and analytical tool which will model spending scenarios across a 20 year period.

ContactFor more information on Tribal please contact:: Lesley Trench - 0114 281 6100 [email protected]


the suffolk sCribbler

viCtoriA Who said Victoria has no sense of humour? When, after a fashion shoot she was asked whether she might prefer Gordon or Dave as a future leader of the country, her agent flew into a rage. “Now that really is below the belt. Victoria, you don’t have to answer that!”

But she was undeterred. She asked, “Do you mean which one of them I would rather sleep with? But before clarification could be given she asked, “Is instant death an option?”

le tourI am a big fan of the Tour de France and have watched it on TV for about thirty years. This year “le grand depart” is from London but I’m not sure if I will spectate again.

The event has a 103-year history and many riders have been disqualified throughout that period initially for rule infringements but more recently for drug taking.

Even Maurice Garin, the winner of the inaugural race in 1903, was disqualified for the minor infringement of taking the train for some of the more difficult stages. Another contestant, disqualified in one of the earlier races, could be regarded as hard done by. On a long Alpine stage his forks broke and needed re-welding. He carried his bike to the summit and then down the next village. There he woke up the village smithy and persuaded him to open up his forge and relight the furnace. A cycling fan himself the smithy said he would be proud to weld the defective forks himself. Aware of the rules the rider refused third party help as it was against the rules. He did the job himself and rode down the mountain, in the dark, to the start of the next stage. When the Tour Officials learned of this epic adventure they were rightly proud of the contestant and the integrity of the event but the rider was ultimately disqualified when it was revealed he had allowed the smith’s lad to work the furnace bellows.

I have many vivid memories of the Tour. The victory of the soft spoken Irishman, Stephen Roche, in 1987 and the lightweight Marco Pantani dancing round the heavyweight Jan Ullrich who always returned from the close season a stone or two overweight. The Tashkent Terror, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, demonstrating his fearless approach to a head-down final stage sprint by tripping over a barrier support at 45 mph. Bjarne Riis, the 1996 winner breaking the opposition in the Alps by stretching his three key opponents in an uphill sprint breakaway and then sitting up and moving aside to let them through. They thought he was finished but he looked across at the third opponent as he pulled alongside, smiled broadly and began his

sprinting again. He gave each the same treatment before disappearing into the distance and eventually victory.

Pre-war. I think the stimulant of choice was cognac. After the war it was amphetamines but, as Fausto Coppi the 1952 victor said, “Only when it was necessary”. From the mid 1980s doping became far more prevalent by methods that seem more relevant to the laboratory of Frankenstein than to a supreme sporting occasion.

So I am no longer sure whether I am watching an excellent athletic performance or the relative successes of a bunch of industrial chemists. Hence I am not sure if I will watch or not.

To ensure a smooth start perhaps the Tour officials should keep a careful eye on the Eurostar for errant cyclists and ensure that all village smithies between London and Canterbury are firmly closed for the day.

the lions of lisbonOn May 25th 1967 Celtic won the European Cup by beating Inter Milan 2-1 in the final in Lisbon. The final pre-match words of manager, Jock Stein, to his team ought to be memorised and adapted by all with managerial responsibilities.

The Scribbler ForeSeeS!

Spooky, isn’t it, the way The Scribbler can foresee the future? Here’s an extract (With thanks again to Wikipedia!) from the latest reports as we go to press on the 2007 Tour de France.

“ The tour was dealt a major blow when first-place team Astana Team withdrew from the race on July 24, 2007, when team member and pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov from Kazakhstan tested positive for an illegal blood transfusion. Vinokourov’s teammates Andreas Klöden and Andrey Kashechkin were, respectively, in 5th and 7th place overall at the time.

At the start of the 16th stage on July 25, some teams made a protest against the laxness of the official attitude to doping in the race. After the stage was finished, race officials announced that Cofidis team member Cristian Moreni of Italy had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone, and the Cofidis team withdrew from the race.

On the same day overall leader Michael Rasmussen was fired by his team, Rabobank, for violating internal team rules by telling the team he was in Mexico in June while he was actually in Italy. He also missed pre-race drug tests which would make him ineligible for competition. He was the overall leader and winner of Stage 8 and Stage 16. The lead now transfers to Team Discovery’s Alberto Contador.”


“If you’re ever going to win the European Cup then this is the day and this is the place. But we don’t just want to win this cup: we want to do it playing good football – to make neutrals glad we’ve won it, glad to remember how we won it.”

Robert Philip of The Daily Telegraph records a more down-to-earth memory of the day. These are the recorded words of Jimmy Johnson, “Wee Jinky.”

“Big Jock always said we’d win but to be honest I thought we’d get a right gubbin’.

I can see them yet standing alongside us in the tunnel waiting to go out on the pitch; Faccheti, Domenghini, Mazzola, Cappellini, all six-footers wi’ Ambre Solaire suntans, Colgate smiles and slicked back hair. Each and every wan ae’ them looked like yon film star, Cesar Romero. They even smelt beautiful.”

“And there’s us midgets. Ah’ve got nae teeth, Bobby Lennox hesnae any either, and old Ronnie Simpson’s got the full monty, nae teeth top and bottom. The Italians are starin’ doon at us and we’re grinnin’ back up at ‘em wi’ our great gumsy grins. We must hae looked like something oot ae’ the circus.”

Must have been some match.

more frozen birdsRemember British Rails’ problems in using frozen chickens to test windscreens? Well, here we go again. Yellville, a town in Arkansas, celebrates its annual Turkey Trot Festival each October. The highlight occurs with the dropping of a live turkey from

the roof of the Marion County Courthouse and the challenge is to catch it. Apparently given optimum conditions wild turkeys can glide for considerable distances.

But the American psyche demands continuous improvement, the “Build a better mousetrap” philosophy and so the focus of the festival was changed from one bird from the courthouse to the dropping of a number of large birds from a plane flying low over the town.

It seemed impossible to improve this until one year animal activists decided that frozen birds would be a kinder option. You’re way ahead of me aren’t you?

Yes, no one had reckoned on the damage a frozen oven-ready turkey could do to the roof of a modern car, (they should have consulted ACES members) and so last year the Festival reverted to feathered friends.

boxingI just happened to tune into “Best Ever Fights Live” on ITV4 and saw Jim Rosenthal and Barry McGuigan run through some of the most memorable recent fights. It was most enjoyable. Tyson versus Spinks demonstrated Tyson’s power. Spinks, the technically superb and superior boxer was clearly terrified of his opponent’s reputation and lost heavily.

Jim mentioned that at about this time Jimmy Greaves and gone to the States to record a programme with, and to spar with, Iron Mike. At this point Barry rocked back on his heels with delight. It was an unusual idea, he conceded, but Tyson even then was becoming an unpredictable man even to spar with.

“They must have had a man stationed outside the ring with a kalashnikov during filming just in case he lost it,” he mused. I think he meant Tyson – not Jimmy.

briAn sewellI don’t often use other people’s quotes but for Mr Sewell I will make an exception. He is on TV from time to time and I remember him doing a programme on the Guildhall just before we were due to pay our annual visit there for the ACES AGM. He was explaining that respected artists were asked to record what might have been the City Corporation’s Annual Dinner. These paintings were, he explained, the equivalent of yearly news photographs. All were very big and solidly framed. He explained the artistic features of each and then asked if we could detect any similarities between them. Well,” he said, “they are all absolutely awful!” Ten out of ten for honesty anyway.

He also did a TV series about the Pilgrims, Route to Lourdes, a well-constructed, witty and interesting “road” series, until, that is, he reached Lourdes. Here he confessed he was losing his religious faith and felt unable to participate in the usual ceremonies. He was just finishing doing his piece to camera when he was buttonholed by a small group of elderly ladies from Merseyside. He explained what he was doing and finally one of the ladies asked if he was coming with them to say a prayer. He then repeated his concerns about his loss of faith. One of the ladies then reduced him to tears by putting her hand

Jimmy Johnson


the terrierThe Terrier is published quarterly by ACES. The inclusion of any individual article in the Terrier should not be taken as any indication that ACES approves of or agrees with the contents of the article.

ACES Editor - Colin Bradford FRICS ACES Secretary - Tim Foster MRICS Quarry Byre, Ellingham, CHATHILL 23 Athol Road, BRAMHALL Northumberland, NE67 5HF Cheshire, SK7 1BR 01 665 - 589 008 01 614 - 399 589 [email protected] [email protected]

on his arm and saying, “Well don’t worry, we’ll say one for you.”

His quote was about a “double act” from the northeast. The ones who, some raving publicist tried to convince us a few years ago, were “The new Morecambe and Wise.” Mr Sewell said quite a lot about then in an item in the Radio Times and concluded by saying, “X and Y are the most loathsome little twits ever to have made dim-witted provincial mediocrity the vehicle of millionaire success.”

He may say that - but I couldn’t possibly comment.

turbines ’n PAstiesAt ACES meetings valuers are still asking for comparative information on how to assess wind turbine licence fees and the like. Here in the east the Crown Commissioners have the offshore wind farms market sewn up except coastal authorities might get a look in when dealing with the electricity cables connecting the turbines to the Grid.

Nice try, ACES members, for doing your bit to keep the wind turbine myth intact but you do not fool me. I accept the new factor of global warming although when I was at school the geography and physics teachers spent a lot of time frightening us by drawing attention to the fact that the sun was inevitably cooling and “you’re all gonna freeze to death!” Nonetheless I accept too the need to develop “renewables,” sustainable forms of energy generation.

But as I say you are not fooling me. The turbines are just a sham to demonstrate something is being done. I know for a fact that the electricity cables connecting the turbines to the Grid are there to just drive the propellers around. Looks good doesn’t it!

And what is it about all these Cornish pasty shops that have sprung up in every English town and shopping mall. And all the motorways seem to be full of Cornish pasty lorries fanning out across England. Is something sinister afoot? Is a secret Cornish army being infiltrated into our midst? I think we should be told. These events began at about the same time Brian Reeve-Fowkes retired, and he has been very quiet since then (too busy perhaps?) but that may just be a coincidence.

the suffolk scribbler

the AnnuAl survey of CorPorAte reAl estAte PrACtiCe

The annual CRE survey undertaken by the University of Reading is unique in its scope and history and gives us 13 years of unbroken trends in the global development of CRE activity. This year we have not only produced a summary report but also two PowerPoint presentations (one with and one without notes) which highlight the key findings. This was in response to feedback from respondents who often use the data to benchmark their own practice.

We are working to extend the scope of the survey to include greater representation from the public sector. As a key manager of local government property we very much hope to have your support. If we get enough responses, it will be possible to undertake separate analysis and provide detail feedback on the state of local government property management alongside the global picture. We therefore need your support by completing the survey for 2006/7 either online or by hand. You can access the survey and the previous reports at: http:/ /www.rdg.ac.uk/cre-survey/

Completing the survey on line has the advantage that you will receive an electronic receipt and a copy of your completed questionnaire. However, if you would prefer you can download a PDF copy of the questionnaire form the site and fill it in my hand retuning either as a scanned document by email or by fax.

Please complete the survey on line or complete the attached questionnaire by hand and return before 15th August either by scanning and emailing to [email protected] or by faxing to Professor Ginny Gibson, The University of Reading Fax: +44 (0)118 3788172

Please assist us to help you understand the current state of CRE practices globally by completing the survey and develop this unique set of trends in your industry. Thank you for your support.

ginny gibson Professor of Corporate real estate

university of reading

CorPorAte reAl estAte

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