Changes in the Asset and Estates Management Sector

Ahead of the Smart Asset & Estate Management Conference on 8th December, we are speaking with our expert speakers to find out their thoughts on the current issues that are affecting the sector.

In this blog, we asked our speakers "How do you think the asset and estate management landscape will change in the UK in the next 3-5 years?"

Tim Warneford, Director of Warneford Consulting 

"The need to provide a safe, warm and dry teaching and learning environment is now further challenged by the additional need to ensure we meet net zero targets and so future scope of work and specification tender considerations, will need to weigh issues of life cycle and sustainability to a higher than previously considered position. We need to procure in a far more sophisticated way."

Michael O’Doherty, Project Director at Local Partnerships

"Greater flexibility in terms of both physical working spaces, hot desking etc but also lease arrangements. Collaboration and sharing of space – co-location and more informal arrangements. Greater use of data and metrics to optimise building utilisation and efficiency" 

Kam Singh, Director of Carbon Solution at EMCOR UK

We are seeing much more erratic occupancy patterns in a post-pandemic world, and greater demand for more collaborative workplaces. This will result in a requirement for sophisticated control systems that can modulate building services based on demand. However, for this to be successful we will need to monitor many more data points than a typical control system does at the moment, leading to a truly demand driven building, with informed predictive maintenance regimes and ultimately a much better carbon performance"

Simon Pettett, Assistant Director of Programmes at Salix Finance

"With the UK targeting Net Zero by 2050, a key change needed in the next 3-5 years relates to the decarbonisation of the public sector estate, and in particular, heat. Removing fossil fuel based heating systems and replacing these with more environmentally friendly alternatives such as ground source heat pumps is one way the public sector can reduce its carbon footprint significantly."

Colin Cassé, Estates and Locations Director at HMRC

"I believe the challenge is going to be around finding a middle ground. The office is still a great place to be, but it is going to be more about making it a destination, not just a place to work. The pandemic has taught us how to work from home without the office trimmings (but with its own benefits) but also that there is a need for human interaction. The challenge from an estate management perspective will be about providing the right quantity and balance of different working environments and support facilities, whilst looking to do this efficiently from a services and utilities perspective.

For the new Government Hub buildings, HMRC are carrying out Post Occupancy Evaluations and Service Scans to establish what has landed well and what changes need to be made to increase efficiency due to the smarter ways of working that have been adopted. Hand in hand with this is the use of building controls to ensure efficient and effective operation of systems."

Join us for this year’s Smart Asset & Estate Management Conference on December 8th  2022 at the QEII Centre in London.  Smart 2022 is the ideal place for all public sector property professionals to get the latest policy updates and discover new initiatives around estate management, sustainable buildings, smarter working and the technology that enables them.