Insight 2 December 2024

Ten practical cost saving initiatives for local authorities

Local authorities across the UK are facing a complex and ever-growing list of challenges. Budgets are tightening. Infrastructures are aging. All while the calls for more sustainable practices and eventual decarbonisation grow louder every day.

When tackling these issues, there’s no one-size fits all solution. You need to work more efficiently, operate more sustainably, all while speeding up transformation and scaling down estates.

To help you, we’re sharing the ten things you can do – or work towards – in order to save costs while still accelerating sustainable progress. So, if that sounds like something you need, read on.

1. Create a forward maintenance plan

Managing your assets efficiently is all about preparation. Which is why it pays to form a maintenance plan that contains not only the short, but also the long term. You can start this by carrying out an asset capture and condition survey. This gives you the opportunity to rank assets based on their condition, identify lifecycle risks and costs, and prioritise which maintenance gaps need to be plugged. Using your survey, you can then form a five year plan that works with your particular needs and budgets.

Surveying and ranking assets can help local councils to prioritise maintenance gaps

2. Implement a Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) system

This is an ideal example of how investing in digitisation can save you money in the long run. A robust CAFM system will help you to plan, execute and monitor all reactive and planned preventative maintenance activities, so you can reduce costs and increase asset performance.

3. Optimise and rationalise your office spaces

Our ways of working have changed over recent years, and yet many local authorities haven’t changed their office spaces. This is a real cost-saving opportunity. Is your desk space being used efficiently? Are colleagues occupying the space in a productive way? You can find the answers to these questions by installing occupancy sensors to monitor how the space is being used and when. With this knowledge, you can not only create a collaborative workspace, but also sublease your space for new revenue streams.

4. Develop comprehensive energy management systems

Of all the sustainable issues facing local authorities at the moment, energy use ranks highly. And while it brings challenges, it also presents key cost-saving opportunities. Real-time data from predictive maintenance strategies and machine learning solutions can help you to control and optimise energy consumption. With this, you can forecast maintenance activity based on energy usage patterns or align activities with peak avoidance to reduce energy costs and curtail your carbon footprint.

5. Implement energy procurement strategies

Smart energy procurement strategies can help local authorities save money in a few ways. Competitive bidding, bulk buying and flexible contracts can help you lock in better rates and avoid price spikes. Monitoring energy usage across your estate can also help you identify inefficiencies and improve your energy consumption.

Monitoring energy usage can help local authorities to save money in several ways

6. Digitise physical records

In the long-term, the storage costs of keeping physical records can vastly outweigh the costs of digitising. This might involve implementing digital management systems, as well as scanning all existing records to be kept digitally. You can organise this in-house, or outsource mail and print services at relatively little cost, streamlining processes.

7. Establish robust reporting processes

Using advanced analytics can be an incredibly useful tool when looking to streamline and increase efficiency – both in terms of output and financial frugality. By providing extensive data on all of your asset management reporting, you can optimise processes, identifying any anomalies driving your costs up and the steps needed to take costs down.

8. Utilise grant schemes

There are many opportunities for local authorities to apply to the central government for grants which can help support initiatives and boost resources. For example, their ‘revenue support grant’ can be used to finance expenditure on any service, if an application is successful. There are also ‘ring-fenced’ grants that can be used to help fund specific council-run services.

9. Harnessing solar

Installing solar canopies in car parks and investing in EV charging stations are short-term expenses that can help you save money in the long run by reducing energy bills and opening up new revenue streams.

Mitie employee charging an EV company car
Installing EV charging stations is a short-term expense that can help local authorities save money in future

10. Improve maintenance function by optimising service lines

Over servicing with maintenance is a cost local authorities can’t afford, and installing the right technology can help minimise such costs. You can optimise service lines by adjusting cleaning frequencies, using robotic cleaning or remote sensors in areas like toilets to replace supplies only when needed.

What’s your next cost-saving step?

We’ve developed an asset management transformation model to help you identify the stage your local authority is currently at and the action you can take to strengthen your asset management approach and performance. Get your guide and your practical steps to progress.

Discover Mitie’s asset management transformation model

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