Lyndon Watkins, Head of Property and Asset Management for North Somerset Council, Alison White, Co-Founder, and Davida Hamilton, Co-Founder, PLACEmaking
Abstract
Economic constraint usually results in pressure on real estate costs, but this pressure can be exerted in different ways and lead to different outcomes. This article provides a detailed case study of North Somerset Council’s journey through three economically led stages of property management, emerging with a transformed portfolio. The first stage is that of complacent growth or business as usual: headcount and organisational initiatives proliferate and business leadership is focused on delivery, with property being a low priority. The second stage is that of challenge: increasing costs become a problem, therefore property becomes a target for savings and increased control, and a focus for asset management. The third stage is a transformed approach: property becomes a facilitator of business restructuring, closely integrated with local and business objectives and with the potential to generate income. This article analyses how North Somerset Council came to deliver radically improved asset performance. The process depends on organisational readiness and is very much a product of increasing economic and political pressure. When this pressure becomes intense, a radical change in the approach to asset management is possible if the groundwork is in place and if the property team is able to lead decisively.
Keywords
asset management, estate strategy, new ways of working, flexible working, business change, change management
Lyndon Watkins is Head of Property and Asset Management for North Somerset Council. He has held this position since 2004, having worked in both local and central government in South Wales since 1987. Following training sponsored by his then employer, the Valuation Office Agency, he qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1996 and received his master’s degree in business administration through the University in Wales College Newport in 2004.
Alison White is a co-founder of PLACEmaking. She has been at the centre of knowledge on the changing demands of the working environment for over 20 years and is co-author of ‘Working Beyond Walls’ (Office of Government Commerce, 2008). Alison has provided strategic business case development and programme implementation advice to North Somerset, enabling the council to match its business objectives with best practice workplace solutions.
Davida Hamilton is a co-founder of PLACEmaking and has been supporting clients through the process of creating new working environments since 1985. Her clients have included global corporates, central and local government, hospitals and universities. She puts a strong emphasis on user research and involvement. She is a trainer and tutor for the British Institute of Facilities Management and has a BA in architecture and a master’s degree in building science from Strathclyde University.
To read the full text of this article you will need to subscribe.