1.8 The Home Office identified a business requirement to deliver an up-to-date, flexible workplace providing an efficient and effective IT platform, and the range and quality of facilities expected of an employer of high calibre staff in Central London. The Home Office expected the new accommodation to help achieve these business requirements through:
■ Modernisation through a flexible solution of three blocks integrated into a single well-designed Home Office building offering open and accessible offices with discrete and up-to-date security;
■ Enabling greater business effectiveness and efficiency: consolidation of the Department from six buildings to no more than two closely associated headquarters buildings in 2 Marsham St and nearby;
■ Accommodation designed to enable modern methods of working particularly team working, extensive exploitation of IT and high levels of business change and reorganisation;
■ Contributing to sustainable development objectives by enabling the development of an innovative mixed use city centre site and by providing a building highly rated under BREEAM2;
■ Providing a better service to visitors and public by provision of fit for purpose fully serviced central conference and press facilities situated close to main entrance to enable good security with ease of access; and
■ Assisting staff retention and morale by providing attractively designed but not extravagant staff facilities including new restaurant, workplace nursery, multi-purpose sports hall and recreational facilities.
3 |
| Comparison between the cost of running the existing estate as at March 2002 and expected running costs under the PFI deal | |||||||
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Costs of running the existing estate1 (£m) | |||||||||
| Rent | Capital Charge | Rates | Running costs | Capital costs | Other costs | Total | ||
| 13.3 | 4.4 | 5.2 | 6.6 | 0.4 | 3.1 | 33 | ||
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Cost of running the estate under the PFI deal2 (£m) | |||||||||
| Unitary Payment | Rates | Mail and Messenger services3 | Total | |||||
| 30.3 | 8.0 | 0.9 | 39.2 | |||||
NOTES 1. These were the annual running costs as at financial close (March 2002). 2. This does not include costs of accommodating the excess staff. 3. Mail and Messenger services are not included within the PFI deal. | |||||||||
| Source: National Audit Office analysis | ||||||||
1.9 The Home Office did not quantify the business benefits in terms of improved productivity or better quality outputs having concluded that accommodation change is linked to other cultural and business process change and separating any one of these changes from the other to measure their individual effects has no robust methodology. However, the Home Office will need to take steps to secure business benefits and identify ways to demonstrate that they have been achieved. This action is currently being planned and has backing from Home Office senior management. The experiences of other organisations suggest that considerable time and resources will be required to ensure that the Home Office is ready for the move. So far, the Home Office has taken the opportunity to learn from other Government departments such as the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence who are also undertaking headquarters accommodation projects and has sought to evaluate the benefits of open plan accommodation by running pilot projects.
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2 Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method.