LGA Chair David Sparks – One Public Estate launch speech


Speaking alongside Rt Hon Francis Maude MP at the launch of the next stage of the One Public Estate programme, Cllr David Sparks congratulated the original 12 councils on their achievements so far and welcomed 20 new councils to the programme.

Selected quotations from the full speech by David Sparks can be found below:

"The Treasury predicts that more than 13 billion pounds of local authority capital receipts will be raised from 2015-18. The work of councils and our central government partners on the One Public Estate programme will greatly contribute to this."

"With councils facing a 5.8 billion pound shortfall by 2016, we can't afford not to try new things to protect people's services.[…] All across the country, councils are cutting running costs by sharing their assets and making sure workspaces are modern and fit for business."

"For me, the most important word in the title One Public Estate is the first word – One. Above all, the programme is about learning to work as one – as partners - across the public sector."

Download the full speech