December 2004/45
Good practice
Annual report

This report is for information

Estate management statistics

Annual report 2004

This publication reports on the progress of estate management statistics (EMS) during 2004. EMS shares estates information among UK higher education institutions and empowers institutions to improve their management of the physical infrastructure. This report sets out some of the sector trends in the past 12 months and reflects on some longer time series data.

Table of contents and executive summary (read on-line)

Contents

Executive summary

Introduction

Measuring estates performance in 2002-03

Analysis: changes to UK estates

Reducing the annual costs of property

Justifying increased funding for estates

Improvements to management information in estates

Other important developments in the estates community

Independent evaluation of EMS

Annex A    Summary table of estates in UK higher education, 2002-03

Annex B    Relationship of stakeholders and EMS services

Annex C    HEIs visited on data reviews conducted in 2003

List of abbreviations

Executive summary

Purpose

1.   This publication reports on the progress and findings of the Estate Management Statistics service (EMS) during 2003-04. The report focuses on:

• the changing shape of the UK higher education estate
• the use of performance measures to track progress and changes
• cost control and justification for increased investment in estates
• development of key estates performance information
• institutional perceptions of EMS and its role in management.

Key points

2.   EMS is the established primary source for estates information in higher education. It has now produced five years of results for almost 200 performance ratios. EMS represents an outstanding collaborative achievement, and its increasing use by UK institutions is helping to identify and track possibilities for improving performance.

3.   The participation rate continues to be excellent: 97 per cent of 163 UK higher education institutions (HEIs) returned estates data to EMS for the 2002-03 academic year.

4.   During 2002-03 the UK higher education estate comprised 24.6 million m² of gross space, with associated total annual property revenue cost of £1,452 million. We estimate from EMS sources that the overall space managed has increased by 2.5 per cent since 2000-01. Despite an increase in space, the associated annual revenue property costs per square metre have remained consistent for UK institutions at around £75.

5.   There are clear indications that institutional space is being better used. The size of the UK full-time equivalent (FTE) student population has risen by 7.9 per cent since 2000, and around 108,000 additional FTE students have been accommodated during this period. Fifty per cent of UK estates are now able to operate with less than 8.4 m² of net space per student compared to 42 per cent of estates in 2000. In particular, the area of teaching space provided has stayed reasonably constant despite an 8.2 per cent increase in FTE taught (as opposed to research) students in three years. Nevertheless HEIs need to keep in mind certain key questions to ensure that progress is maintained towards a sustainable estate (see paragraph 16).

6.   Research space has increased by almost 9 per cent since 2000. Now, 2.6 million m² of net space is dedicated to research activity supporting a research income of £3,751 million. It will become increasingly important to understand the full associated estates costs of running research programmes to help ensure that future income allocated to estates is sufficient. The contributions of the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) work and its close link with EMS data sources will help substantiate more effective costing for estates.

7.   According to EMS data £1,692 million of capital was invested during 2002-03, reflecting the ongoing commitment of funds to the improvement and development of the UK estate. Nevertheless a large number of estates require increased investment to help ensure the future productivity of space. Individual institutions are required to assess needs and justify adequate resources for their estate and infrastructure.

8.   IPD Occupiers Property Databank operates services and parallel work (see Annex B) to help support and develop the information capabilities at individual institutions. We have seen some dramatic improvements in provision of data through EMS and its successful application at several institutions. Examples of developments and improvements are:

1. During 2003 the EMS service team visited 19 institutions. This group of institutions (see Annex C) could source an average of 70 per cent of EMS data requirements in 2001-02. The same group were able to provide an average of 86 per cent of the required dataset in 2002-03.

2. Regional workshop meetings continue as part of the core service. In addition, several institutions have requested bespoke training events to help develop internal knowledge and educate teams and individuals in how to extract better value from EMS.

9.   The changes introduced under TRAC require that estates costs be directly allocated to research projects from January 2005. EMS has been recommended by a group researching the application of TRAC as a central and consistent source for estates data across UK institutions. JM Consulting stated that the EMS database has provided consistent definitions and formats for the collection and comparison of this information, and that without it TRAC could only be an accountant's tool, and never properly owned or used by an institution.

10.   As EMS becomes embedded into management information systems, so more dependencies are being created within HEIs and other initiatives and projects that are supporting the performance improvement the sector is aiming for, such as TRAC and the Space Management Group.