Government departments have hinted at how property will contribute to £11bn of efficiency savings announced in yesterday’s Budget.

Property-related plans released by departments following Chancellor Alistair Darling’s speech yesterday include:

• the Ministry of Justice saving £41m a year by 2015 through reducing the number of court buildings in London from 18 to four;
• the Ministry of Defence improving its estates management and its procurement practices to help save £120m;
• the Department for Communities and Local Government sharing services to find £130m of savings including better management of estates;
• the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs plans to save £9m a year through better facilities management.

However, the Conservatives said today that government departments’ pledges were “vague” and that departments had doubled up on the efficiencies identified.

A spokesperson said the promises would only result in one third of the efficiencies that Darling spelled out in his Budget.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and CLG have both claimed that co-locating the HCA, RDAs and government offices in regional areas would contribute to their own efficiency savings.

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