Now that the severity of the cuts to departmental budgets are beginning to hit home, public bodies have to seriously consider the options available to them for reducing the overall size (and cost) of the civil estate.

A number of measures are currently being mooted that could potentially allow it to halve the space it occupies.

These include reducing the amount of space per head from the current 10 sq m target, outsourcing certain services to providers based at alternative locations, the seemingly inevitable headcount reduction, and implementing flexible working programmes.

However, public bodies need to understand the nature of the work that is being undertaken in their offices, and avoid implementing cost-cutting measures in a crude, broad-brush fashion, which would be counterproductive.

It will be essential to segment the workforce in terms of modes of activity; to distinguish, for example, between those people whose role entails working at a desk all day and those whose work regularly takes them away from the office.

It is also important to consider the differing physical requirements of various public sector roles. While some staff need only a computer screen and telephone, a procurement officer, for example, will receive large proposal documents every day and consequently have a greater requirement for space.

This in turn has implications for the type of space needed, and a subtle approach is required to apply the right floor space efficiency ratios for the type of work being carried out.

Flexible working may seem a simple and obvious method of reducing public office space requirements. However, not all processes lend themselves to being done remotely, and the effective introduction of flexible working requires a number of other factors to be considered.

For example, flexible working requires improvements to technology infrastructure, which may or may not have been planned. In many cases, it also demands a new approach to people management that focuses more on outcomes and less on inputs. Management will also have to ensure that the home workplace is safe and suitable, and that confidential documentation will be kept safe. Additionally, a strategy will need to be in place to make sure that people who spend a great deal of time out of the office remain sufficiently attached to the organisation.

While flexible working will help the public estate become more efficient, business cases must consider the costs of providing the required infrastructure. Equally, it is important not to hinder a potentially viable accommodation rationalisation proposal by burdening it with costs that are not uniquely associated with it, such as wider technology upgrades.

However public bodies look to cut the cost of their property, they will first need to understand the nature of the different activities being carried out in order to identify where space efficiencies can be delivered without preventing staff from doing their jobs.

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James Grierson is head of public sector at DTZ

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