Our award-winning One Public Estate (OPE) programme, which we deliver in partnership with the Office of Government Property within the Cabinet Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, supports locally led partnerships of public sector bodies to kickstart regeneration and transform public service delivery.
Overview
Established in 2013, our One Public Estate (OPE) programme continues to support 69 cross-public sector OPE partnerships to develop and deliver collaborative property projects that improve the efficiency of the public estate and release land for housing and regeneration.
Highlights
During 2022/23, our OPE programme:
- enabled councils and central government to realise more than £700 million of financial benefits (a combination of capital receipts and revenue savings) and free up public land with capacity for more than 32,000 homes
- administered the first round of Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF) 2 – providing more than £35 million in capital grants to 44 councils to remediate 63 constrained brownfield sites and bring them forward for housing
- improved accessibility to the Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF), with 22 of the 44 councils receiving a BLRF grant for the first time.
Case studies
Staffordshire OPE steering group – Codsall Community Hub
Codsall Community Hub OPE helped partners in South Staffordshire with £125,000 for an outline business case, and support to develop an initial concept into detailed plans, and through to delivery. The Codsall Community Hub opened in July 2022, with the South Staffordshire District Council's 1960's municipal headquarters transformed into a vibrant building, hosting 25 organisations across the public, private, and community sectors and providing an integrated, modern, energy efficient working environment. Partners occupying the hub include the new library, GP surgery, a nursery, the South Staffordshire NHS Trust, a podiatrist, police, three tiers of local government, plus small businesses and voluntary organisations. New homes are being provided for Codsall through the sale of surplus council and police owned assets, which generated over £3.4 million in capital receipts for local reinvestment. In addition, partners are collectively saving over £500,000 in running costs over a ten-year period.
Supporting Essex councils to provide homes
A Brownfield Land Release Fund award of £125,000 supported Essex councils to provide homes for older people with care needs. Essex County Council and Rochford District Council worked together to re-purpose a former adult community college site in Rochford – set in a large plot of unused space, the college had been vacant for several years. The funding was used to demolish the old college, freeing up the site for the development of 74 new homes. Fourteen three-bed and four-bed family homes have been completed, and 60 homes will be purpose-built for older people to meet the growing demands of Essex’s ageing population. Regenerating the vacant college site is benefitting the entire community.
