About One Public Estate
One Public Estate (OPE) is an established national programme delivered in partnership by the Office of Government Property (OGP) within the Cabinet Office and the Local Government Association (LGA). OPE provides practical and technical support and funding to councils to lead delivery of ambitious property-focused programmes in collaboration with central government and other public sector partners.
By supporting cross-public sector working on a locality basis the programme aims to enable local economic growth, integrate public services, and drive efficiency savings.
At its heart, OPE is about local and central government working together with other public bodies to deliver a better service to the customer, better value for money for the taxpayer, and to release surplus public land for alternative uses.
Since 2013 we’ve expanded to cover over 95% of all English councils and most government departments, and support 78 OPE partnerships. We’ve provided early stage funding, including the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government [MHCLG] Land Release Fund which provides capital grants to unlock unviable local authority sites for housing.
We are keen on seeing results. To date we’ve enabled release of public sector land that has generated over £300m in capital receipts and almost £60m in running cost savings, with capacity for more than 6,000 homes. Supporting these partnerships to deliver their projects will be paramount for the programme going forward, as will supporting emerging new opportunities such as the sustainability agenda, and innovative approaches to public property assets and housing delivery. You can find out more about the programme: https://local.gov.uk/topics/housing-planning-and-homelessness/one-public-estate.
About the role
An exciting opportunity now exists for two Advisers to join the OPE team and the posts will work across the LGA and the Cabinet Office. You will report to the LGA’s OPE Programme Manager and support Regional Programme Managers (RPM) covering the London and South West regions; your team colleagues; and the functions of our Programme Management Office. The role will require you to regularly attend Local Authorities and Partnership meetings across the regions.
About you
You will need to be a team player and a strong communicator, with experience of relationship and partnership building and an ability to influence others. Experience of land, property, housing and/or regeneration would be advantageous.
You’ll be coming into an established Programme and Partnership as we work closely with our Cabinet Office colleagues. Although this post reports to the LGA, our strategy is jointly agreed; our Regional Managers work together in pairs; and our team structures are intertwined. You’ll find an LGA and Cabinet Office team who are open minded about change; flexible in the way we operate our rules; and relentlessly focussed on delivering better services, and better outcomes for people locally.
Closing date: 5pm, Monday 10 February 2020
Interview date: Tuesday 25 February 2020
As a Disability Confident Leader the LGA values diversity and encourages applications from all sections of the community