UNLOCKING THE PUBLIC ESTATE The practical next steps for councils in 2026 – and the role government and sector bodies can play

Guy Brett

Guy is Head of Watling Consulting and helped shape the original 1999/2000 Good Practice Asset Management Guidelines. He brings a multi-decade view of how councils’ estates and property functions have evolved. He worked in consulting and corporate finance at PwC and EY for 20 years. He later established and led the Strategic Advisory team at Avison Young. A publicsector property strategist and transformation specialist, he has 30 years’ experience across local and central government, higher education and the NHS, and is currently focused on helping councils and government deliver transformation, cost reduction and LGR programmes.

This follow-up article summarises the findings from “Unlocking the Public Estate: Local Realities, National Choices”, based on a national survey and interviews with senior local authority officers. It confirms that councils are prioritising savings and rationalisation under severe funding pressure, while still being expected to unlock housing, cut carbon and keep services accessible. The article sets out practical actions councils can take now and highlights the changes needed from central government and other agencies to support local delivery. 

From early signals to confirmed findings 

In the 2025 Autumn Terrier, I shared early signals from a short national pulse survey and interviews. We looked at how councils are using land and property to support wider goals: housing, growth, net zero, and public services. 

Since then, the final “Unlocking the Public Estate” report has been completed. It brings together survey responses from councils across England and interviews with senior officers. The picture is now clearer. It does not overturn what many already know. It does confirm the scale of the pressures and how they combine. It also sharpens what this means for delivery. 

This matters because the context has tightened further. Financial pressure remains intense. Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) is absorbing leadership time for many. At the same time, councils remain central to national priorities on housing, regeneration, decarbonisation, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and adult social care. 

This article highlights the confirmed findings, what they mean for councils trying to get things done, and how ACES can help turn shared learning into faster progress. 

What the final research confirms 

Statistics Graphic

Savings tops a crowded list of priorities 

Rationalisation and efficiency sit at the top of most councils’ priority lists. This is a practical response to funding scarcity. Alongside this, councils point to other urgent pressures: condition and compliance backlogs, housing and regeneration, and net zero and energy costs. 

The key point is the crowding. Many councils are trying to tackle several high stakes agendas at once, using the same land and property portfolios. That creates unavoidable choices. Some are made openly. Others are made by default, as time and money run out. 

Housing ambition remains high, but delivery is harder 

Around two thirds of councils report using their land and property to support housing delivery. However, around four fifths say the full potential of their portfolio to deliver housing and jobs has not yet been realised. 

Interviewees pointed to familiar blockers: market conditions, infrastructure funding gaps, planning complexity, and the internal capacity needed to take sites from idea to delivery. Releasing land is only one step in a longer chain to more housing, and that chain is fragile when resources are thin. 

Capacity and resourcing are now the binding constraints 

Across survey and interviews, the most consistent message is that capacity and resourcing are now the main constraints. The report uses two related measures: 

• Resourcing outlook - only around 3 in 10 councils expect the property function to be adequately resourced over the next 2 to 3 years 

• Delivery capacity - only 1 in 4 believe they have the capacity to deliver their current property strategy. 

The signal is the same. Many councils feel stretched. At the same time, the workload has grown. Addressing SEND, managing charity assets separately, aligning FM contracts, fixing data gaps, delivering savings, and dealing with LGR, add layers of work that sit alongside existing responsibilities. The risk is overload. 

This matters because delivering housing, reducing carbon, reshaping services, or modernising offices for hybrid working all require people, continuity, and active management. 

Data exists, but confidence does not 

 Strategic Priorities Bar Chart

Most councils have asset systems. What fewer than one third of respondents have is confidence that their data is decision grade: trusted, current, and usable for testing options and supporting business cases. 

If data is not trusted, decisions slow down, options narrow and risk appetite drops. Several interviewees noted that perfection is not the goal. What is missing is a set of core facts that people trust and can use quickly. 

Taken together, these findings do not point to a lack of professionalism or effort. They point to a system under strain. Expectations continue to rise faster than delivery capacity. Councils can still make progress. But central government and other partners also need to play their part. 

What the report’s five themes say, and what councils can do now 

Theme 1. National policies are out of step with local realities 

Councils support national ambitions. They face a widening gap between policy intent and local delivery reality. Short funding cycles, viability gaps, slow approvals, and limited capacity all contribute. 

What councils can do now: 

• Link land and property decisions to service change and finance plans, with visible senior ownership. Work with transformation and finance teams to challenge which services genuinely need dedicated buildings 

• Continue to focus services around fewer, better used buildings that people can access, including multi service hubs where the case stacks up 

• Embed property strategy within corporate change - secure chief executive and political sponsorship so that asset reviews are seen as enablers of transformation, not property-led cuts. 

What central government and others can do: 

• Consolidate fragmented capital programmes into flexible local delivery funds that empower not prescribe. Provide stable multi-year funding and clearer capital rules so councils can plan and sequence investment 

• Align programmes and incentives so they reinforce each other. 

Theme 2. Housing and growth: potential is locked up 

Councils still hold land and property potential, but more of it is hard to solve: brownfield sites, low viability areas and politically sensitive assets. 

What councils can do now: 

• Reframe disposals as reinvestment - treat land release as a way to fund renewal, not a loss of community value. Link asset decisions to place outcomes 

• Build a pipeline of developable sites, with staged decisions and early engagement to reduce political risk. A ready pipeline positions councils to act quickly when opportunities arise 

• Treat “family silver” objections as a public conversation to manage. 

What central government and others can do: 

• Rebalance viability rules - increase support to site readiness and viability where long-term public value is clear 

• Maintain a national funded programme for site readiness and remediation - reduce stop-start bidding rounds that consume local capacity. 

Theme 3. Place based collaboration is improving, but still not at scale 

Co-location is more common and most respondents believe place working helps. But many are frustrated with the pace; delivery still depends too often on individual relationships and bespoke deals. 

What councils can do now: 

• Build on existing One Public Estate (OPE) Boards to lead integrated asset planning. Use existing place structures to agree shared pipelines, data sharing and early co-location options 

• Pilot a single place-based capital approval process, enabling councils, NHS organisations, education and blue-light partners to develop, assess and prioritise major schemes through one shared route 

• Use co-location as a lever for regeneration. Public-sector hubs can anchor town centre renewal, generate footfall and unlock housing potential. 

What central government and others can do: 

• Remove funding and technical barriers that penalise joint working e.g. fix the accounting disincentive i.e. the current IFRS 16/Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit treatment of leases which deters NHS participation in shared estate schemes (this refers to the treatment of leases which can make shared schemes financially unattractive) 

• Evolve OPE Partnership Boards into Place-Based Investment Boards with pooled, delegated funding. 

Multi-Service Community Hub

Theme 4. Maintenance is now a breaking point risk 

Maintenance is a risk to service reliability, safety, and public trust. Councils can act through clearer evidence and prioritisation, but sustained progress needs predictable support. 

What councils can do now: 

• Move from firefighting to forecasting – prioritise according to risk and service criticality (as part of rolling asset challenge programme) 

• Integrate maintenance and decarbonisation planning – sequence lifecycle works and energy-efficiency upgrades where possible, to reduce disruption, save cost and strengthen business cases 

• Link maintenance cases to service and policy outcomes and risk 

What central government and others can do: 

• Recognise maintenance as infrastructure investment – provide predictable, multi-year funding for lifecycle renewal, not solely new-build capital 

• Strengthen audit and performance frameworks – integrate estate condition and safety indicators into a new national performance measurement. 

Theme 5. Rationalisation and hybrid working: opportunity is real, but politics and basics matter 

Underused offices drain budgets. Decisions are often delayed because the politics are hard and the basics of hybrid delivery are not always in place. 

What councils can do now: 

• Frame rationalisation and modernisation as efficiency, not reward. Address the “ivory towers” perception directly. Publish before-and-after facts on cost, carbon and space per employee. Reinforce that better workspace improves service delivery outcomes - not perks for officials 

• Adopt a rolling asset challenge cycle - test each building for purpose, performance and opportunity every year; simple occupancy and attendance monitoring, particularly for office. Focus on high-cost, low-use properties first 

• Fix the basics of hybrid working in the locations you are moving into: reliable meeting rooms, audio visual, and simple room booking rules. 

What central government and others can do: 

• Provide light touch enabling capital where it unlocks measurable savings and service improvements, and avoid rules that penalise rationalisation or co- location. 

The two enablers and the specific role ACES with professional and sector bodies can play 

Enabler 1. Staff capacity and capability 

The report highlights the lack of a visible recruitment pathway for local government property roles, compared to planning or social work. It also points to the value of a ‘head of profession’ style mandate to coordinate scarce skills and improve consistency.

How professional and sector bodies can help: 

• Support clearer career pathways through placements, mentoring, and regional talent pools 

• Back the head of property as a head of profession approach, with stronger professional standards and a clearer corporate mandate 

• Share practical tools that help small teams deliver: simple pipeline tracking, option templates, and business case evidence packs. 

Enabler 2. Data and digital foundations 

The need is not “more data”. It is trusted core data under council ownership, and procurement expectations that avoid lock in. 

How professional and sector bodies can help: 

• Co-create a light touch public estate data maturity model with partners, for peer benchmarking without a hard mandate 

• Promote procurement expectations for interoperability and data access, so councils keep control of core evidence. 

Conclusions and call to action 

Land and property is one of the few levers still within local control. It can feel like a cost burden. It can also be a route to service reform, savings, and national policy delivery, if treated as a corporate programme with clear choices. 

This is not a criticism of councils. The research shows a sector working under intense pressure. There are practical steps councils can take, even in hard times. There are also changes that central government and other partners must make if national ambitions are to be delivered at scale. 

Report Cover Art

Download the full report: Unlocking the Public Estate - Findings - Watling Real Estate.