1.9 The Department expected that a large number of acquisitions and disposals would be necessary to meet the property management challenges it faced, requiring perhaps as many as 600 disposals and 400 acquisitions. In addition, 72 per cent of the estate was leasehold, with 550,000 square metres on leases with more than ten years to run. These leases needed to be assigned, sublet or surrendered, requiring considerable expertise to manage the substantial exit costs well.
1.10 The Department concluded that the work involved represented a scale of activity significantly greater than could be met by its internal capacity. Such work was also not a part of its core business and the Department therefore took the decision to seek a solution involving the private sector.