Mayfield campus still possible, but not for six years

THE quango holding the land on which the Mayfield civil service campus was set to be built has said that it could still be developed but is unlikely to happen until at least 2018.

A spokesman for British Rail Board (Residuary) Ltd said that a Government Property Unit review of civil service estate needs in Manchester, has focussed on “how to make better use of existing civil service buildings to help deliver efficiency savings in the short term” rather than any major relocation needs.

A spokesman for BRBR, which is responsible for managing former British Rail assets, said: “Decisions with regard to how best to meet civil service demand for space in the longer term (post-2018) are still awaited, but we understand could identify a need to acquire new space.

“Mayfield may be an option for meeting these longer term requirements, and we continue to maintain a dialogue with GPU to understand how their estate strategy plans evolve.”

The idea to create a major 550,00 sq ft civil service campus at Mayfield containing up to 5,000 civil servants, described as a “Whitehall of the North”,  was initially floated by the previous Labour Government as a method for cutting property and labour costs.

A city centre regeneration plan presented to Manchester City Council’s Economy, Employment and Skills Overview & Scrutiny committee last week highlighted the fact that a change of government and policy meant that “civil service involvement cannot be assumed as a key driver” for the redevelopment of Mayfield any longer.

The council is understood to still harbour a desire to create a civil service campus site in the longer term, but in the interim a new partnership is being formed involving BRBR, the City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester which will bring forward a new development strategy for the site during 2012.

Accountancy firm Deloitte has published a new report, Space-based Budgeting, which has called for reforms to improve estate management.

It points out that the Government owns £385bn worth of public sector property assets – 14% of which is in the North West.

Nationally, 552 properties containing more than 4.7m sq ft of public sector property space lies vacant, and a further 1m sq ft of space is expected to fall vacant soon.

Deloitte partner Simon Bedford (right) said: “Some departments have occupancy rates as low as 40 per cent and, based on current projections, there will soon be enough empty workspace in the public sector to fill London’s Shard building nearly five times over.

“The public sector needs a firmer grasp on what it owns and what it owes.”