Policy paper

Department for Work and Pensions Strategic Asset Management Plan - Executive Summary

Published 30 October 2025

Our Estate

DWP is one of the biggest public service departments and currently occupies 20% of the Civil Service estate, spread geographically across the UK. 

The total Estate is 1.26M sqm across 789 live sites. The Estate is 100% leasehold spread relatively evenly across the main population centres of the UK. Most leases expire in 2028. 

The DWP Estate comprises of Jobcentres, Service Centres, Health Assessment Centres, and Hub Sites.  99% of our sites deliver frontline services to customers.

Key Statistics

Category	Present (last year-end)	Future (end SR plan period)
Total land area	Not applicable - 100% Leasehold estate	-
DEL Savings in relation to Workplace Transformation	The Workplace Transformation Programme has delivered net cash flow savings of £72.2 million in the last Spending Review period (2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive).	-
Capital Expenditure relating to Workplace Transformation	We have incurred £103.72m of capital expenditure in the period of FY 22/23 and FY 23/24 – with a further budget of £77.4m of capital expenditure in the FY 25/26.	-
Utilisation (Metrics for area in use / intensity of use)	9.2 sqm per FTE (Service Centres & Hubs)	9.2 sqm per FTE (Service Centres & Hubs)
Asset Condition Survey data less than 5 years old	100% of buildings have had an Asset Condition Survey in the last 5 years.	DWP are moving to Asset Condition Surveys for all its properties every 2 years.

Our Portfolio - A brief summary of the nature of the portfolio and how it has changed over time

The DWP Estate has changed significantly since exiting the PFI PRIME contract in 2018:

• 2018: DWP exited from a 20-year PFI PRIME contract and transferred to a majority leasehold portfolio.  Rationalised portfolio, reduced floorspace by 11% (178k m2) and introduced Network 2023 Design strategy and One Public Estate Programme links.
• 2018 - 2022: Post PRIME exit, the portfolio had consolidated from circa 1,000 sites to around 800 properties. In 2020, in response to COVID-19 demand the DWP Rapid Estates Expansion Programme (REEP) leased, fitted out and opened 194 additional Jobcentres to accommodate 13,500 extra work coaches to enable essential face-to-face contact. 
• 2022/23: Exit of Temporary Jobcentres (TJC) and shrinkage of non-customer facing Service and Support Centres (SSC). As part of the Workplace Transformation Programme (WTP) 48 property interests were exited, reducing floor space by a net 169k m2. Jobcentre of the Future programme commenced.
• 2023/24: TJC exit programme served notices on all exit phases, excluding business as usual swaps. WTP and some forced relocations resulted in 94 whole or partial site exits reducing space by a further net 133k m2.
• 2024/25: Commenced “lease regearing” strategies involving reduction strategies on priority sites, concluding TJC exits. Net reduction of 92 sites reducing space by 142k m2.
• 2025/26: Maintaining focus on lease re-gearing negotiations with landlords and informing a future Location Strategy that aligns with our SR 25 allocations.  Continued investment into our assets and rolling out Workplace Services Programme – an extensive re-procurement exercise replacing contracts for Facilities Management, security, fire, water and Asbestos Management services- to ensure operational continuity and maintain cost effective, suitable, safe working environments.

Strategic Asset Management Plan and Strategic Programmes - A summary of strategic plans and projects, including major programmes within the Spending Review period

One of Government’s priorities over the Spending Review (SR) period has been to reduce the core public estate footprint and create a smaller, better, and greener estate. Our spending review submission beyond 25/26 is on the basis of work with DWP colleagues in supporting the Department’s 2030 ambitions and operating model.

The DWP Estates Vision – Smaller, Better Greener – helping people work, grow and thrive, reflects our commitment not only to a more efficient and sustainable estate, but also to creating environments that empower our people and support their development.

The Estates vision supports DWP colleagues, external partners and, fundamentally, all DWP customers. The physical environment plays an important role in shaping customer experiences, interactions, and perceptions, which influence policy outcomes. It is also critical that the Department provides colleagues and partners with a safe and secure place to work.

The Workplace Transformation Programme is also critical to us achieving our strategic vision. The programme’s aim is to address surplus capacity, right-size and optimise the estate for customers and colleagues, delivering affordable, sustainable and inclusive premises, to support effective service delivery. 

DWP Estates is committed to playing its part within Government to achieving a greener United Kingdom, with Environmental Sustainability and Net Zero Carbon initiatives supported through our Departmental policies. We have made great progress towards this. By 24/25, we committed to 45% decrease in total carbon emissions (which we met) and a reduction in total water consumption by 8% on a 17/18 baseline (target already met). 

 Through 25/26 our work continues on the sustainability agenda including:  

• Our SR bid to implement sustainability and carbon reducing projects, whilst also being mindful to look to the future and the next Government Greening commitments and targets
• The development and delivery of a Net Zero roadmap, articulating DWP’s journey to meet the targets​
• Continuing to work with Strategy and Portfolio Planning, including actively seeking to divest poor quality building stock and acquire new, fit-for-purpose stock​, reducing carbon footprint
• Carrying out Low or Zero Carbon energy studies for new build and major refurbishment projects​
• Significant input into the Workplace Transformation Programme, ensuring benefits around carbon and water reduction are measured and understood
• Continuing to work with Sustainability Champions and colleagues across DWP to foster staff behavioural change​ by understanding and embracing the targets
• Exploration of ISO 50001 to develop an energy management process allowing for more efficient use of energy on our estate
• Investigation into connections to further District Heat Networks, following successes in Leeds and Lerwick
• Delivery of a range of carbon reduction and water efficiency projects​

There are several estates and wider DWP programmes that have estates implications including:

• Our ongoing programme of Lifecycle Works (LCW) continues to deliver against our Asset Management plans to improve the department’s ability to identify future demand priorities. Collaboration with other inhouse functions ensure that strategic decisions around maintenance, replacement and investment are empirically based. 
• Critical Security Infrastructure (CSI) – replacing our obsolete security infrastructure with modern, automated facilities to make buildings safe and secure. 
• Workplace Services Programme (WPS) – DWP relies on business-critical contracted security and facilities management services, without which our offices cannot open. Total facilities management, guarding services and specialist (“carve out”) contracts for asbestos, fire and water have been successfully re-procured and the Workplace Services Programme is currently working to safely mobilise the contracts for a 1 October 2025 go-live.
• Health Transformation Programme (HTP) – transforming the experience of our customers who receive health or disability related services impacts the estate including increased footfall of those customers with health conditions and mobility issues. We are working to improve accessibility and using inclusive design guidelines for a better customer experience.
• Universal Credit (UC) – a single, modernised, adaptable service for job seekers and relevant working age people. Move to UC volumes increase potentially requiring more Work Coach and/or operational demand. Our estates strategies and practices need to support customer facing services in both our jobcentres and service and support centres. 

DWP Estates have links with the One Public Estate programme through quarterly local forums which focus on identifying and discussing local opportunities across Government Property.

Our People

DWP Estates are fully committed to building our functional capability and capacity, with a refreshed People Strategy that continues to support the Estates Business Strategy 2030 Vision as we introduce organisational changes associated with our new Estates Operating Model:

• DWP Estates remains committed to a strategic Ambition to ‘Continue to develop a working culture for DWP Estates that is best in class across government’ and have identified a People Strategy and plans to support this ambition. Results from this year’s people engagement survey indicate DWP Estates Employee Engagement score is 74% (up from 69% in 2022 and 73% in 2023) with 94% of the team agreeing that they have a clear understanding of the organisations objectives and understand how their work contributes to the DWP objectives. In contrast, the average Civil Service Employee Engagement score is 64%.​ 
• DWP Estates is proudly maintaining our accreditation rates despite our increase in size. Government Property Profession’s target of 75% of G7’s and above holding professional accreditation by 2025 has already been exceeded by Estates with a rate of 78%. The 2030 target of 90% is on target to be met by the end of 2026.​​ 
• Recruitment has taken place over the last year, growing Estates to 375 FTE increasing to 410 by December 2025 in order to meet additional demands. To continue the delivery already planned for Estates we will need to utilise significant externally contracted resource for the mobilisation and de-mobilisation of the Workplace Services Programme, as well as several difficult to recruit roles. With the focus now on affordability, there will be a transition from Contingent Labour to permanent in-house resource. 

We continue with our drive towards inclusivity and development through the continued use of:​ 

• Individual, specific career conversations and Learning and Development interventions to identify opportunities for development.
• The procurement of two Estates focused apprenticeships: L6 Chartered Surveyor and L3 Surveying (technical). Launch sessions have taken place and our first colleagues should commence their apprenticeship in late summer 2025. ​ 
• Four colleagues have been accepted for accreditation to Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), one to FCIOB (Fellow) plus four to Certified Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) (experiential assessment). 
• Update Sessions from Professional Bodies, including IWFM and RICS, help our colleagues understand the support available to them and the opportunities on offer, including further qualifications and training.​ 
• A dedicated cohort to obtain IWFM accreditation is currently in progress with 15 colleagues being assessed. 

Additionally, we continue to have strong Government Property links:​ 

• Continued strong interest in the Government Property Leadership Programme at Henley Business School with three DWP colleagues on this years’ cohort.​ 
• Three colleagues were successful with their application for the Government Property Shadow Board. ​ 
• One of our Deputy Directors is champion for the Government School of Property.​ 
• Nine colleagues were accepted onto the Government Property Profession (GPP) funded accreditation scheme in Feb 2025. Further cohorts with CIOB and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) are planned during 2025-26 to meet accreditation targets. 
• Estates is an active member of the GPP Cross Government Capability forum, the GPP Resourcing Forum and extensively supports the Property Profession Fast Stream (Nine colleagues are currently on the scheme in Estates, and a further two joined in September 2025).