FOI reference: FOI-2025-2676
You asked
Please can you provide a breakdown of the financial (and non-financial, if applicable) benefits ONS gains in giving office space back to the Government Property Agency? Can you also include the following information broken down per square meter and/or by another applicable metric:
- Financial benefit (net or otherwise) of giving space back to the GPA (per square meter, per annum if this benefit is provided every year, or as a one off cost if not)
- Office space in all sites* that is unoccupied that has NOT been handed back to the GPA (square meters)
- Office space in all sites* that is occupied by ONS staff and has NOT been handed back to GPA (square meters)
- Office space in all sites* that has been handed back to the GPA (square meters)
*or Newport and Titchfield only if time/cost requirement of this FOI is too high.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We have included in our response only the office sites where we have handed space back to Government Property Agency (GPA).
Non-financial benefits
The Evolving the Workplace programme and more recent work in support of increased office attendance enabled our Business Groups and their Directorates to occupy contiguous space, supporting improved collaboration with colleagues when they attend the office.
The financial savings have enabled us to invest in Smarter Working, creating a great place to work that is inclusive for all colleagues and supports hybrid working. This includes for example new furniture and improved meeting facilities.
From a Civil Service perspective, we have released high quality, good value accommodation space, making this available to other prospective public sector tenants.
Financial Benefits
We will benefit every year from operating an efficient and effective estate, that supports Smarter Working. Handing void space back to our landlord, GPA, will save us approximately £4.30M per year, through reduced rent, rates and workplace services. Each site is different, with the average saving equating to £241/m2. Of the £4.3m per year saving, £1.4m relates to the reduction in annual rent. Due to the application of the accounting standard for leased assets (IFRS 16), rental payments are categorised as depreciation, which is a ring-fenced resource budget that cannot be re-invested in goods/services within other budget categories.
All unoccupied space other than a small area retained for contingency purposes in Titchfield has been handed back to GPA.
We retain 11,151m2 in Newport, 9,581m2 in Titchfield and 4,893m2 in Christchurch.
We handed back 8,566m2 in Newport, 8,669m2 in Titchfield and 625m2 in Christchurch.