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). It provides practical and technical support and funding to councils to deliver ambitious property-focused programmes in collaboration with central government and other public sector partners. These include councils, government departments, and other public organisations such as blue light services (police, fire and ambulance).

In Herefordshire our partnerships with health and social care services are further aligned with the Integrated Care System (ICS) which covers the local area of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

By working in partnership we can look at how we can use our land and buildings collaboratively to:

• Create economic growth
• Release land for the development of new homes and to create jobs
• Deliver improved public services by making them more integrated and customer-focused
• Generate capital receipts and reduce running costs
• Facilitate creative thinking and future-proof the delivery of public services

Find further information on the national programme.

How we work together

We are working in partnership to support the efficient use of public estates and infrastructure in the delivery of public services.

We deliver the One Herefordshire approach to administration through a strategic partnership board, our Estates and Infrastructure Group together with task and finish groups. The Estates and Infrastructure group is co-chaired by Wye Valley Trust (WVT) and Herefordshire Council.

• One Herefordshire Partnership - Drives the strategic direction of the partnership.
• One Herefordshire Estates and Infrastructure Group - through Herefordshire Council as the lead body:
  • Oversees the administration of the programme
  • Monitors progress on projects
  • Supports the bidding process for projects
  • Reports tri-annually to cabinet office

To pick up the priorities for 2022-23, we currently have task and finish groups covering:

• One Town Reviews in Market Towns
• Primary Care Networks
• Housing and accommodation
• Sustainability
• New Ways of Working
• Communication

We will develop other task and finish groups as we need them.

Funding received, capital receipts and benefits

Since 2016, One Herefordshire has secured a total of £2,825,000 from OPE, Land Release Funding and Brownfield Land Release funding.

Our capital receipts are £5,343,524. We have reduced running costs by £56,253 and have released 3.2ha of public land and developed 330 housing units (including student accommodation).

Benefits of our involvement with OPE:

• Partnership working
• £18m private investment for student accommodation
• Jobs created - construction work and others for the Health hub and other projects
• Support for the master planning of the city and place shaping

You can read more about this in the case study on the LGA website: Development | Using public land to support housing delivery across Hereford.