Report 01/72

Estates management statistics project

Annual report 2001

To:	Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions Heads of SHEFC-funded higher education institutions Heads of ELWa-funded higher education institutions Heads of universities in Northern Ireland
Of interest to those responsible for:	Strategic planning, Finance, Estates
Reference:	01/72
Publication date:	December 2001
Enquiries to:	Adrian Officer, tel 0117 931 7322, e-mail a.officer@hefce.ac.uk Catherine Killin at SHEFC, tel 0131 313 6607, e-mail ckillin@sfc.ac.uk David Green-Morgan at ELWa, tel 029 2068 2266, e-mail green-morgand@elwa.org.uk

Contents and executive summary (read on-line)

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Introduction

Summary results

Estates in higher education

Key ratios and measures

Overview of results

Condition, maintenance and functional suitability

Total property costs

Space provision

Residential estate

Methodology

The 2001 institution report

Data availability and quality

Definitions

Review of definitions in 2000

Future issues

Other developments during 2001

Training

Analysis by building

Survey of space in medical schools

Institutional feedback

Executive summary

Purpose

1. This publication reports on the progress of the estates management statistics (EMS) project during 2001.

Key points

2. This report was produced by IPD Occupiers Property Databank in association with GVA Grimley, and was endorsed by the project steering group.

3. EMS is now established as the primary source for central estates information. The initiative has produced two years of results for almost 200 performance ratios.

4. Progress in 2001 has been excellent - with higher participation rates, improvements in data quality and enthusiastic support from higher education institutions (HEIs) - enabling the project team to bring forward the main report by four months.

5. Each of the 155 contributing HEIs has received an interactive report on CD, which allows them to analyse their own results and compare them with those of similar institutions.

6. Institutions agree that EMS is an important and useful resource: around 60 per cent of HEIs consider that the value of the information has improved over the last year from what was already a high base. Most institutions find the ability to compare results against their own selected peer groups the most valuable benefit of EMS.

7. Total (revenue) property costs across the UK HE sector were around £1,250 million in 1999-2000. Therefore, an annual saving of 1 per cent in costs is worth around £13 million.

8. Individual HEIs show some significant changes in the costs, structure and utilisation of estates since 2000. At a sector level, the main results for 2001 are:

a. 36 per cent of all space still requires major repair expenditure. Maintenance expenditure has increased by around £4 per m² but there is still concern at the scale of the repair backlog.

b. Space provision remains very variable, indicating scope for major rationalisation. In particular, support space and academic office space may be areas for examination by individual HEIs.

c. Total property costs have risen slightly to around £81 per m², and now typically vary between £66 and £96 per m².

d. The median cost of property relative to HEI income is 9.7 per cent, although the upper quartile figure is 2.1 percentage points higher than this. HEIs will need to consider what ratio is appropriate to them, given their estate and organisational needs.

9. The accuracy of comparisons within EMS would be considerably improved if financial statements were more consistent, especially in relation to the distinction between capital and revenue expenditure.

10. The project team continues to work with the higher education sector and steering group to develop and increase the value of EMS in meeting institutional needs.

Further information

11. HEFCE 99/18 details much of the development work on the project, and HEFCE 01/10 forms the annual report for 2000. There is a dedicated web-site for this project which contains, among other things, the definitions used. The site is at www.opdems.ac.uk.