Benchmarking news - Housing and property services

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Housing and property services use benchmarking to find out how some of their services perform when compared to those of other councils:

Asset Management takes part in benchmarking club

The service continues to be an active member of benchmarking clubs including IPF Scottish Benchmarking Club and the benchmarking club set up by the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors in Scotland (ACES). The majority of Scottish Councils are represented in the former, which acts as an advisory group and aims to support improvement and value for money in the Public Sector as part of the National Best Value Benchmarking Scheme. The ACES group comprises Renfrewshire Council, the three Ayrshire councils, Stirling and Scottish Borders councils. The group meets on a regular basis every 3 or 4 months to share experiences and approaches in the management of non council housing property assets. The aim is to identify and share areas of best practice among group members and to compare performance in areas of service delivery.

Asset management planning is a major issue for all estates services in Scotland, and the group has been looking at the practices and approaches used by each council. Following the issue of guidance by Audit Scotland, the group met and agreed a series of local performance indicators to add to the statutory performance indicators monitored by Audit Scotland. The group shares information on the different approaches taken by each council. This shows the options available to Scottish councils in choosing how to manage their assets and resources effectively.

The outcome for Renfrewshire council has been an agreed framework for the service to support their newly created Corporate Asset Management Group in its asset management role.

The group has shared experiences and ideas on valuing property, particularly for rating and asset register purposes. This has helped the service to prioritise and effectively manage the mass appeal of the rating assessments for all Renfrewshire property assets. The main aim here is to make sure that council services don't pay more property rates than they need to. Other benefits have come from group members jointly participating in land and property asset valuations for the council's end of year financial statements.

It is expected that the group will continue its close examination of asset management planning, property valuation and the management of non operational assets leased out or sold by the council. The group compares performance in the recovery of rent from commercial tenants and the level of voids. It is also proposed that the group will review procedures and practices for the sale of surplus property with a view to identifying and adopting leading industry practices.

Estates Section - Charges for services

As part of our ongoing commitment to keep users informed on our services, we have posted details of charges for a range of services provided to external and internal users.

We hope that this is of interest to you and we welcome any feedback or comments you may have on those charges.