Public Service Reform Operational Summit: Workshop Feedback 14 October 2025

Workshop 8: Single Scottish Estate

Summary of workshop:

The SSE Programme has been in place since autumn 2023. It enables a financially and environmentally sustainable public estate through asset strategy and increased co-location. This workshop will openly discuss both the challenges and opportunities of the SSE Programme.

Discussion 1: Attendees were asked to consider the challenges of the SSE Programme and how they would mitigate these.

The top three challenges identified were: Timing, Money/Capacity, Staff and Culture.

Timing:

• A shared understanding of the timing issues is required and to create a long-term strategy. This needs leadership and commitment. The strategy could be local and/or regional.
• The SSE Programme should also have a rural focus, recognising the case studies are all in cities. Rural is important. It has its own particular challenges but also presents many opportunities. There is a large amount of money spent on rural properties.
• We need political alignment and a long-term vision.
• Reliable, comprehensive property data is critical. Some organisations do not have a property team due to their size so they will be heavily reliant on data provided by the SSE Programme.
• The SSE needs to engage senior leaders who must avoid “sector myopia” and think about the wider public estate outside their silos.

Money and Capacity:

• Any money saved by an organisation through co-location should be redirected to other priorities to ensure optimum use.
• We need to deal with backlog maintenance and some properties should be released. This money could be much better used elsewhere.
• The impact of co-location on business must be risk assessed. The SSE Programme should not be just about saving money.
• A national forum would be the best way to generate collaboration, share and build expertise and pool resources effectively.
• The SSE needs a strong mandate – more stick, less carrot. Action would happen quickly with less resistance and with more benefits.

Staff and Culture:

• Hybrid working must be better understood, aligned, and embedded in the SSE Programme.
• To enable greater flexibility/use of the SG estate there should be a review of access policies.
• A clear communication of all benefits is needed to deal with any negative impact or concern. Losing parking spaces is a common concern.
• Comms and Engagement should begin well before the event.
• Consulting staff through an ideas log for a new building is a great way of getting buy-in. Co-design creates buy-in.

Discussion 2: Attendees were asked to consider the opportunities of the SSE Programme and what actions were needed to make them happen.

The top three opportunities identified were: Shared Services, Cost Reduction, Strategic Alignment.

Shared Services:

• There are many services that could be shared – reception, maintenance, cleaning, but also security, finance and HR. There are also a number of physical services that could be shared – car park, Boardroom, prayer and ablution rooms, gym. These all need to be systematically identified, discussed and agreed at an early stage in the process.
• Shared data is critical. Organisations need to have access to high level property data (including building/energy costs) of nearby organisations.
• It is essential to have a strategic plan to realise all the benefits and savings.
• An SSE toolkit would be an enabler and has the potential to scale benefits.

Cost Reduction:

• We should recognise that reducing the public estate and then paying rent to private owners takes money out of the public purse. We are an attractive client, we maintain buildings well and we add to the value of property, but private landlords can still be capricious.
• Net Zero is expensive, new buildings will achieve it, retro-fitting old buildings is expensive. More comms are needed to appreciate its benefits.
• We should encourage more flexibility in lease terms.

Strategic Alignment:

• More opportunities for collaboration need to be identified and promoted.
• A single public portal would encourage collaboration and alignment.
• Consider creating community level public service hubs.
• Co-location offers the chance to build/use/share modern, specialist facilities.

Actions:

• The SSE Programme team has noted all these comments and many more and will be fully considering for incorporating in its work where appropriate.
• The longer list of comments will be shared with attendees.
• The longer list of comments will be shared with the next SSE Property Forum for discussion and action.