Focusing on the public estate in six market towns West Suffolk is transforming how their public services are being delivered to meet the needs of their communities and create revenue savings.
Region: East, South East
Theme: Integrated Public Services, Locality Reviews
The challenge
The One Public Estate (OPE) Property Board for West Suffolk covers six market towns and a large rural area. The Board has developed a place-based approach to examine opportunities to use the whole public estate. This work aimed to deliver the effective service delivery of partners, with a particular focus on creating additional community hubs.
The story
OPE has awarded over £660,000 to West Suffolk’s agenda for service colocation through the use of community hubs and place-based development. Continued revenue investment by OPE has already helped West Suffolk to carry out public asset studies in five of its market towns to map opportunities to deliver the full range of OPE benefits. At present, there are new hub projects, tailored to local circumstances, in all six of its towns, each at various stages of development and ranging from large to very small. Building on a long-standing programme of colocation in Suffolk, the programme is central to delivering the regeneration of key sites and enabling collaboration between the full range of public, voluntary and community sector organisations to achieve economic growth, efficiency savings and more integrated services.
Mildenhall Hub
Officially opened in September 2021, the Mildenhall Hub is a ground-breaking initiative bringing education, health, employment, culture and leisure services together to work collaboratively under one roof, in the heart of this community.
One Public Estate supported the West Suffolk Property Partnership to bring together public partners and replace ageing and disparate sites spread across the town. In reconfiguring the public estate, communities have benefitted from an upgraded, accessible and integrated approach to their services.
This new offer is already paying dividends. Community health teams and leisure services are working together to offer a joined-up exercise referral scheme that supports patient rehabilitation; and a full-time family hub is jointly delivering children’s community and health services. In co-locating leisure services with the library, both have seen increased uptake of services, with participation in swimming lessons up 45 per cent on pre-covid statistics, and over 700 new library members. Meanwhile, more students are able to benefit from a brand new school, with greater capacity to serve the population.
At the same time, the project is enabling a more efficient public estate by releasing surplus land for housing and reducing partners’ running costs.
By bringing local and central government together, the Mildenhall Hub has shown how an efficient public estate can be the catalyst for better health, wellbeing and education.
Western Way, Bury St Edmunds
West Suffolk was awarded OPE Phase 7 funding for feasibility work to support its Western Way Development project in its largest town, Bury St Edmunds. Phase 1 will deliver a new leisure centre, over 4000m2 of clinical space for the NS, and over 4000m2 of public and private office space.
The project is part of a long-term vision for the area and would also attract investment and bring jobs, opening within the next five years. Procurement to find a main contractor began in January 2022
Alex Wilson, Director, West Suffolk Council
Further work is being carried out in Haverhill, Newmarket, Clare and Brandon to create a series of hubs in a variety of models, to meet the particular needs and circumstances of each place. These range from small community-run hubs to multi-agency schemes, with close integration of the local NHS Sustainable Transformation Plan (STP) estates programme and blue-light colocation opportunities.
The outcomes
The West Suffolk community hub and place based review programme is forecast to achieve the following benefits:
- £33m capital receipts
- £12m revenue savings
- land released for over 1,200 new homes
- creation of over 4,000 jobs.
Co-location of services will help ease the customer journey and form stronger collaboration between councils, NHS, police, central government, education and other agencies.
For further information please contact our Regional Programme Managers for the East and South East.