Solace blog

Dave Sheridan, Divisional CEO of ENGIE UK, explains why the public is at the heart of the OPE.

A home isn’t merely a roof over your head – it should sit within a place where people thrive, with access to education, career opportunities, health care, and other support services. At the heart of every community are local people, working hard together to get the best out of their local environment. Local people best understand local needs; underpinning the importance of local government.

The One Public Estate (OPE) agenda aims to bring central and local government together, with other public-sector partners, to transform local communities and public services. This is through the delivery of property-focused projects or delivery of homes and economic growth while saving taxpayers’ money.

Starting in 2013 with just 12 areas of the UK, the OPE now boasts a massive 250 partnerships with local councils which encourages public sector partners to share buildings, reduce running costs and release surplus and underused land for development.

This is an initiative ENGIE are passionate about and our business model fundamentally embodies this ethos. ENGIE has unparalleled expertise in energy and services, but the company saw a major gap in the market last year and subsequently acquired the Keepmoat Regeneration business, which specialised in widescale estate regeneration, refurbishment, new build homes and extra care facilities for older people.

The addition of Keepmoat Regeneration allowed our business to form a newly created ‘Places & Communities’ Division – the largest in ENGIE UK – which is dedicated to placemaking and supporting the creation of communities within which people can thrive. We have the full-service capabilities to support the OPE agenda, working in sectors that include housing, regeneration, urban energy, healthcare, and education.

We are committed to working with our partners in the public sector, local authorities, and most importantly the people that live in local communities, to form a collaborative approach to place-shaping that enables housing provision, economic growth and transforms services. We work as an enabler in this area, knowing all too well the connection between poor housing, fuel poverty and the strain on the health service for example.

We will continue to champion the OPE agenda and use our unique multi-disciplined platform as a means to support local authorities to create and deliver lasting positive change. From delivering much-needed new homes in areas that are in desperate need; enabling cross-sector conversations which will deliver more public services to the people that need them most; and bringing our experience and capabilities to support community activity – ENGIE will help to responsibly create more sustainable, efficient and vibrant communities through partnership and collaboration.

This week, we are delighted to be sponsors of the Government Properties and Estates Expo, which will explore the biggest challenges facing the public-sector estate and look at these issues in more detail.

Visit us on stand 15.

For further information on ENGIE, visit www.business.engie.co.uk/places