Carillion:CBRE to manage Stockport assets
STOCKPORT Council has selected a joint venture between construction group Carillion and property agent CBRE as the preferred bidder to manage its £695m property portfolio.
The council plans to form a partnership, called the Stockport Strategic Property Partnership (SSPP), with the joint venture and hopes it can shave 30% of the cost of managing its estate by 2015-16.
Carillion said the deal could be worth more than £100m to the joint venture over 10 years, and it will be able to offer its services to other authorities in Greater Manchester.
The new arrangement replaces a service being delivered by Norfolk Property Services.
The council said Carillion:CBRE will carry out assessments of the authority’s land and property assets and “will access private sector expertise, funds and innovative models for service delivery”.
It added: “Carillion:CBRE have designed a self-financing and self-sustaining SSPP model, that avoids placing additional pressure on the council’s revenue budget by its creation.”
Deputy council leader, Cllr Mark Weldon, said: “To achieve greater efficiencies and collaboration between public sector agencies to deliver local community services, we are transforming the council’s estate and property portfolios. I am confident that the new operating model will deliver an effective and efficient strategic property service to meet the Council’s future priorities.”
Carillion chief executive, Richard Howson, said: “We are delighted to have been selected for this strategic partnership with Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. I believe this further success in the local authority outsourcing market once again reflects our ability to provide integrated service solutions that enable Local Authorities to reduce costs without sacrificing service quality.”
Staff will be transferred from the current provider, NPS, to the new provider. Full consultation continues to take place with employees and trade unions. The SSSP should be up and running by September.
