Strategic Property Review -
Thames Valley Police- Long Term Property Strategy

Thames Valley Police (TVP) Thames Valley Police is the largest non-metropolitan police force in the country. It Covers the 2,200 square miles of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire and serves a population of 2.1 million. Its property portfolio supports over 8,000 staff including 4,165 police officers, 250 Special Constables, 500 volunteers, 3,150 police staff, and over 500 Police Community Support Officers. Coretex was commissioned to work with the Strategic Manager (Estates) to develop its long term property strategy.

Project scope:

• To analyse a sample of buildings to understand how effectively and efficiently they were supporting TVP
• To develop financial models of the entire TVP portfolio and to evaluate strategic property different options

Coretex project process:

• Interviews with senior staff including the Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constables, Borough Commanders and the Director of Resources to understand how the portfolio could be changed to better support the operational requirements of TVP going forward.
• Using risk modelling techniques we to evaluate large numbers of variables and understand the likely cost of each option and inherent risk over a 20 year timescale

Project Outcome:

Long term property strategy were agreed and being implemented including:

• To focus on making better use of existing buildings rather than a presumptions of new buildings
• A significant investment in re-modelling of buildings to improve utilisation and to increase the fitness for purpose – this approach will mean that TVP will spend 9% (combined capital and revenue) less over the 20 year life cycle than their historical approach. The impact of the capital investment will be annual revenue savings of over 12%.
• To establish robust processes to identify operational need, current and emerging pressure points and surplus/underused accommodation. This included a need to have more centralised management of space use to ensure property intelligence is up to date, utilisation standards are being applied and targets pursued.