Oxford City Council – Occupancy Cost Modelling Services

Project

Oxford City Council have a portfolio of over 55 ‘core’ buildings with a combined area exceeding 25,000m2, being of various types ranging from libraries, commercial units to social premises
Faithful+Gould were commissioned to undertake a review of the repair and maintenance provision, on the ‘Core Properties’ in the Northern Area – primarily to ratify the sufficiency of the current repair & maintenance budgets to assist the council in prioritising future capital investment
The outcomes would be used as part of developing a Strategic Asset Management Plan to underpin policy decisions as to which buildings the Council would ‘hold and maintain’ , ‘refurbish and invest’, or ‘dispose, reorganise and replace’ for the Northern Area

Faithful+Gould created a strategic occupancy cost model which analysed back log maintenance from condition surveys and then projected expected maintenance levels on the various building types
Lifecycle profiles were developed by building type based on the building age and condition, using historical Faithful+Gould data, producing a 50 year forward investment profile
Buildings were further benchmarked against national comparables and the Faithful+Gould database

To provide the Council with an innovative and robust tool that would inform the decision making process with respect to Strategic Property Investment and that would enable and pump-prime radical changes in the working patterns and processes of their staff

Faithful+Gould provided the basis for assessing which buildings should be retained, refurbished or replaced, providing the financial basis for introducing new working practices
Faithful+Gould made a number of recommendations on improving the maintenance programme which would minimises disruption by a robust asset renewal programme and
Achieving savings through ‘packaging’ and ‘prioritising’ works to obtain more competitive costing, achieving savings in the order of 10%