My text for this blog is, unusually, rooted in an article I read recently in another publication.
This article suggested that a review being undertaken by Buying Solutions, of work being carried out by the eight firms on the Estates Framework Agreement, was with a view to establishing who would be given access to further public sector projects.
The source of the story was not disclosed, but I really do struggle to understand the suggestion being made.
It is true that Buying Solutions has written to each adviser but all that we have …

The Land Registry has put up for sale eight properties across the UK that total £60m, including its central London headquarters.
The buildings range from the grade II-listed 85,000 sq ft Lincoln’s Inn Fields head office to a £250,000 file store in Swansea. They are being sold as the registry rationalises its 17 offices under a 10-year cost-cutting initiative.
Lambert Smith Hampton has been instructed to sell three of the biggest properties: the £30m headquarters, a 56,000 sq ft office block in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and a 110,000 sq ft building in …

Liberal Democrat MPs will be crucial in the decision-making around cuts to public sector property, according to King Sturge’s head of public sector.
Richard Haynes told Public Property UK that the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the chief secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, would be the most important players in finding efficiency savings on public assets.
On Monday, Public Property UK will report extensively on the Treasury’s announcement about the coalition’s plan to cut £6bn from public spending this year. Property is expected to be high on its agenda.
To hear about …

Government efficiency initiatives have probably never been so important.
As politicians try desperately to avoid discussing tax increases, reducing government spending is a key issue in the run up to the general election on 6 May.
The Conservatives have been espousing the findings of the Gershon Efficiency Review which was commissioned by a Labour administration, and Labour themselves have published the findings of the Smith Review.
The Smith Review is, in truth, little more than an update of the Lyons Review which in itself follows in the footsteps of a series of reviews …

King Sturge has appointed Stuart Knight at head of local government in its consultancy team. Knight joins from Drivers Jonas where he had been a partner and head of local government in the strategic consulting team since 2006.
Knight said: “King Sturge has a great track record of delivering solutions to public sector bodies, and I will be combining this with my skills in the local government arena to provide cost saving and value generating solutions for councils.”
King Sturge has appointed Knight so it can get more work from local authorities, …

Blackpool Council has bought a former Harveys department store in the town centre for £1.4m.
The 28,500 sq ft four-storey building, which fronts onto Birley Street, Cheapside and Abingdon Street, was acquired from Irish company Friends First Assurance Company.
The council has begun a refurbishment to create a new mixed-use scheme with offices on the first and second floors with an end date of August 2010.
Negotiations are currently underway for Blackpool Coastal Housing to take 15,000 sq ft on the top two floors with their Home Stop Shop occupying part of the …

I am writing this piece with a certain sense of self-satisfaction!
Many will have read reports in the press of the decision following an appeal by Countryside Properties about their Southern Fringe site in Cambridge.  I appeared as an expert on viability in the case, appointed by the City Council.
To familiarise you with the details, the principal issue was how viability should be tested to determine the amount of affordable housing and community infrastructure that the development would support.
The developers wanted to use the price paid for the land as a …

I have been following the Olympic development with interest.
It seems that all is well in terms of the build programme and the readiness of the project for a spectacular Games in 2012. I am, however, puzzled by the wranglings over responsibility for the £800m debt accrued on the site and the holding costs of the development leading up to the opening of the Games.
Does it really matter whether these items appear on the books of the London Development Agency, the Olympic Delivery Authority, the Treasury, or the Department for Culture, …

Dwindling sales from the Ministry of Defence’s £20bn land portfolio have added to the ministry’s financial woes.
In the 2008/09 financial year the MoD brought in just £110m from property sales — two-thirds lower than the eight-year average. This is also 90% down on the £1.1bn made in 2007/08 — although the sale of Chelsea Barracks in west London for £960m in April 2007 accounted for most of this.
This resulted in the MoD falling well short of its £305m target income from the disposal of surplus property in 2008/09. Disposals are …

Alix Nicoll has joined the residential team at Drivers Jonas to specialise in the valuation of sites and development projects for registered social landlords and affordable housing providers.
Nicoll joins from King Sturge, where she worked with housebuilders such as Redrow, and has seven years’ experience in the sector.
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