Today, the new government begins work cutting the country’s huge budget shortfall. Here, five public sector experts tell Nick Johnstone what they would do:

Look for a pools win

Alex Plant, chief executive,Cambridgeshire Horizons

In Cambridgeshire, we could do better with our public sector assets if we pool them all into a single, centrally managed vehicle.

By bringing assets together, you can find loads of benefits. At present, property management is costly, because there are lots of different estate managers working separately. You could have fewer staff managing more effectively if this was centralised.

You can also rationalise the size of the estate more easily. So you may have two half-used depots occupied by two agencies that can be combined into one.

Through pooling the investment estate, local authorities can also identify overlaps. By combining different agencies’ assets, you can raise more revenue than disposing of them separately.

For example, a primary care trust might be decommissioning an old hospital that may have access issues. But the issues may be eliminated if the local authority has the land and you use them together, which could add, say, 20% to their combined value.

If you pool your estate, it also becomes a lot easier to run shared services. City council and police matters could combine more easily, for example.

But the first step is to pool the assets across an area.

The idea is: “Let’s chuck our assets into a vehicle and run it for the common good.”

High time for high tech

Chris Gomersall, head of property, Leeds City Council
Quite simply, councils must get staff working in new ways with better technology in modern workplaces. That helps to provide better services, more efficiently.

In Leeds, we want to cut our city centre offices from 14 down to six, through flexible working and new mobile technology. We announced this in our Changing the Workplace plan in February, and we’re drafting a full business case for consideration this summer.

Across the public sector, these initiatives mean better productivity, less staff absence and lower overheads. These basic corporate ways of saving money are our big idea for helping to cut the deficit.

Cut to the quick

Peter Bennett, City surveyor, City of London
The public sector can contribute to cutting the deficit but it is likely to be patchy and marginal across the country. Ultimately, it boils down to good property asset management.

There are some quick wins, though. Councils need to review the assets they have got. If job cuts come through, there is going to be less need for property. A review would help you establish where savings can be made.

Next, reduce energy consumption. By turning off lights and air conditioning, we have saved 10% on our £13m energy bill.

Rewarding local authorities that save money and spreading the word on best practice are the most effective options.

Get yourselves together

Andrew Rowson, director, Local Partnerships — a joint venture between the Local Government Association and Partnerships UK
Public agencies need to collaborate more on property across large areas.

The West Midlands Property Alliance, for example, is promoting efficiency savings and improved use of the estate across the whole of the West Midlands through joined-up procurement, use of common tools, improved data and sharing functions and facilities.

The East of England Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership has adopted a similar approach.

Councils should also be reviewing their strategic asset management. Lewisham, Thurrock, and Liverpool have all adopted this process because they are ambitious local authorities that want to optimise their assets.

Property over people

Tony Dolphin, senior economist, Institute of Public Policy Research

Property will come near the top of any government’s savings agenda.

As an economist, I would expect it to focus on increasing productivity.

Unlike Trident, ID cards or new computer systems, you don’t affect your policy aims with cuts to property.

It gives the government a free lunch in a way, because it’s almost as pure an efficiency saving as you can get.

It might be as simple as saying, “We’ve got two quangos in Coventry and we can put them together in one building to save on property.”

It’s far better to vacate a building than to cut 10,000 jobs. Any government will leap at that.

• CBI pledges support for property cuts by coalition
• Election day: public property at the polls
• More pain to follow in deficit battle, warns IFS
• Q&A: How can I save using Total Place?
• Job cuts undermine council property