Press release

Four key contracts awarded for UK Government Estate

The Government Property Agency (GPA) has appointed a quartet of new professional contracts to support delivery of its Workplace Services Projects.

The Government Property Agency (GPA) has appointed a quartet of new professional contracts to support delivery of its Workplace Services Projects.

This follows a robust and comprehensive procurement process via the Crown Commercial Services framework (RM 6165), with three-year contracts being awarded to suppliers.

Global design and consultancy organisation Arcadis, consulting and engineering services firm Tetra Tech, fully-integrated professional services and project management company AtkinsRéalis, and interdisciplinary property and construction consultancy McBains have been appointed to provide project management, cost management, design and health and safety advice to the GPA.

Workplace Services Projects delivers a major programme of activity including: 

  • Life cycle replacement - investing in our estate to improve its condition and our customers’ experience
  • Net zero - retrofitting low carbon interventions in the estate to contribute to government targets in reduction of carbon emissions
  • Client requested works - ranging from building refurbishment to delivering sites suitable for specialised events such as public inquiries

To deliver these works, the agency relies on the support of a carefully selected multi-disciplinary professional services supply chain to support an often challenging and changing portfolio of works. 

Each of the four new multi-disciplinary project delivery partners has a wide national remit, which has been designed to encourage and reward high performance, innovation, and allows flexibility for suppliers to build up and utilise a breadth of knowledge and experience.

Project management, cost consultancy and design were the key drivers within tender documents.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office, Alex Burghart MP, said: 

Maintaining the government’s position at the forefront of industry innovation is critical in helping us to meet our commitment to create a more modern, effective and cost-efficient public estate.

This move towards greater collaboration and shared learning with key industry leaders puts us in a strong position to enhance our capability and capacity to deliver this transformation.

Dominic Brankin, GPA’s Workplace Services Director, said:

These latest contract awards are significant steps in our desire to combine public sector know-how and private sector expertise with commercial acumen.

The GPA is tasked with providing a service to central government departments through the management of an integrated and shared estate.

Sustainability, net zero targets and economic regeneration are essential elements of our mandate to improve the Government estate and provide a smaller, more efficient and greener estate for civil servants across the United Kingdom.

Utilising the services and expertise of world leading companies in partnership with others, enables us to further build on our successes to date.

Amir Baharlou, Central Government Sector Leader for Arcadis, said:

The Government Property Agency’s mission to provide great places to work is one which resonates strongly with us here at Arcadis and we are delighted that through this new framework we are able to continue to support them in delivering this outcome.

Arcadis is committed to improving quality of life and delivering a planet positive future, and our focus on this project will continue to be on GPA’s customers and clients, driving a highly collaborative and customer centric service.

Craig Hatch, EUD Division president at Tetra Tech, said:

We look forward to supporting the GPA to improve sustainability and performance across its portfolio and to achieve its net zero targets by bringing our ‘Leading with ScienceⓇ’ approach to these programmes of work.

Rand Watkins, GPA Client Director at AtkinsRéalis, said:

This new contract builds on our deep and strategic partnership with the GPA, having worked on the decarbonisation of the government office portfolio since 2021, and contributing to the agency’s ambition for a smaller, greener, better government estate. We are delighted to have this opportunity to develop the partnership further.

The Workplace Services Programme will see the full multidisciplinary capability of the AtkinsRealis business come together to harness our expertise in the creation of modern, inclusive and sustainable workplaces for a modern Civil Service.

Anthony Coumidis, Director at McBains, said:

We’re thrilled that our expertise and experience have been recognised and merit a position on the new GPA framework.

We’re looking forward to supporting the GPA’s workplace project delivery teams with their portfolio of works. Our teams will bring an innovative and collaborative approach to the delivery of efficient and sustainable workplaces across the government estate.

Media enquiries: contact the Communications Team at the GPA on comms@gpa.gov.uk

Published 10 April 2024