With details of how the government will cut spending emerging almost daily, it’s hard to determine which announcements will be most significant.
However, a recent measure designed to slash property costs is certainly up there.
On 24 May, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) extended its controls on new property leases and lease extensions to cover the entire UK public estate.
It means no government department or agency can renew a lease or choose not to exercise a break clause without Treasury approval.
This seems like a sensible step, as it gives civil servants …

Sir Peter Gershon, Dr Martin Read and Tesco executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe are to advise government on how to make property savings.
The Cabinet Office has today announced the appointments of the three as key advisers to its new Efficiency and Reform Group. It also announced that it was to merge the property functions of the Office of Government Commerce and the Shareholder Executive.
Gershon (pictured) is chairman of Tate & Lyle and advised the Conservative Party on property policy in the run-up to the general election; Dr Martin Read is a …

Chancellor George Osborne has today called on government departments to examine their assets, including property, and consider contracting them out or privatising them.
In a speech to the House of Commons this afternoon, Osborne announced details of how the forthcoming Spending Review will be carried out, which will set spending limits for every government department for 2011 – 2015 after its conclusion this autumn.
Osborne said: “For capital spending, we will undertake a fundamental review of spending plans to identify the areas of …

Central government should consider relocating civil servants to outer London boroughs as part of its cost cutting drive.
The government is looking to relocate 15,000 civil servants following a report by former Reed Elsevier chief executive Ian Smith earlier this year. However, the BCO conference heard that, rather than sending the jobs to the UK regions, London’s outer boroughs could host the relocated public sector staff.
This could include moves to developments in Stratford and around the Olympics site in east London after 2012.
Sir Simon Milton, deputy mayor responsible for policy and …

Government cost-cutting plans were yesterday hampered by a High Court victory for the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) over civil service redundancy pay.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Sales ruled that a two-day  judicial review held in the High Court last month had found the previous government’s new civil service redundancy measures, designed to save £500m over three years, to be unlawful.
The largest civil service union argued that changes to the civil service compensation scheme, which governs payments in the event of redundancy and early retirement, would have made it easier and …

Ashley Moore, managing director of West Bay Capital, developer of 30 Pall Mall in Liverpool, explains why Liverpool should benefit from civil service relocations ahead of other cities:
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The publication of former Reed Elsevier chief executive Ian Smith’s paper, Relocation — Transforming Where and How Government Works, last month has given fresh momentum to Sir Michael Lyons’ relocation agenda and sets an ambitious target to decant 15,000 civil service jobs from the capital over the next five years.
In the north-west, Smith’s report has been seen as a Green light for Manchester’s …

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg last night accused Labour and the Conservatives of attempting to save on “paperclips and potplants in Whitehall” with their plans to cut the public deficit.
Speaking on ITV1 in the UK’s first ever leaders’ debate ahead of the General Election on 6 May, Clegg said his party’s £15bn a year plan to cut the £167bn deficit was the only viable savings pledge in any of the parties’ manifestos.
He said the £6bn cuts proposed by the Conservatives, which could include vacating 10% of central government office space …

Civil servants should be moved out of London but not the wider southeast as the government looks to relocate 15,000 civil servants, a government adviser said today.
Five central London postcodes should be singled out for the next wave of civil service relocations, former Reed Elsevier chief executive Ian Smith has said.
Civil servants in the southeast outside London will not to be targeted for the recommended 15,000 civil service moves over the next five years.
Smith published a review of civil service relocation alongside Budget 2010.
In a fundamental shift in relocation thinking, …

The government must put more pressure on its suppliers to cut their carbon emissions, the government’s green agency said today.
This morning, the Office of Government Commerce has revealed that the government cut its carbon emissions 10% in the 2008/9 financial year. It said this put Whitehall departments in a strong position to cut carbon emissions 12.5% by the end of March 2011 compared to the 1999/2000 baseline.
However, the Sustainable Development Commission – the government watchdog on sustainable development – said it still needed to do more to encourage its suppliers …

Drivers Jonas and architects Bennetts Associates have revealed their vision for a campus for 5,000 civil servants dubbed the ‘Whitehall of the North’.
Next month, public consultation will begin on the plan to redevelop land next to Piccadilly Station in Manchester for a new civil service campus. The plan for a new campus on the site – owned by British Rail Board (Residuary) Limited – was announced in May.
BRB (Residuary) Limited is a company owned by the Department for Transport to dispose of former British Rail land. The masterplan was prepared …