NHS real estate opportunities

EC Harris, the built asset consultancy, has identified an opportunity for the National Health Service (NHS) to secure revenue savings of more than £1bn a year and a further £1bn in capital from selling off assets.

It says in its second annual NHS service and estate efficiency report, Seizing the Opportunity, that the NHS is using its estate more efficiently than in the previous year, with the amount of underused or empty space down nearly a third in 2009/10. However, EC Harris says this unused space is still too high, representing 7.4 percent of the total NHS estate and is the same size as the entire footprint of both Sainsbury’s and Waitrose stores combined.

Conor Ellis, partner and lead author of the report said it was a testing time for the NHS. “There may be many months spent fine tuning the current Health Bill, not least due to the intensifying opposition, but this should not stop legitimate and necessary changes being made to reduce expenditure on the NHS estate and to improve service delivery.”