Adapting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's global estate to the modern world

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office lacks a clear strategy and comprehensive data to manage its overseas estate effectively. It is taking positive steps to adapt its properties to new global challenges but has not achieved value for money in the management of its estate as a whole. Without a clear framework to assess the estate's performance, it is difficult to evaluate the Department's progress. The Department has recently appointed an estates specialist as Director of Estates and Security who is developing a new strategy which should help secure improved value for money in the future. There are several factors, such as changing political issues, security restrictions and exchange rate pressures, which add to the complexity of managing the global estate. But lack of adequate financial and management information about the estate hampers good decision making on efficient use of space and the identification of surplus assets for potential sale. The management of projects to improve the estate could be better: a third of the projects that the NAO analysed exceeded their initial approved budget by over 10 per cent and two-thirds were delivered late. The total cost overrun since 2002 is approximately £57 million, against a total spent on capital projects of £250 million. The FCO does not always use space in its posts efficiently. Over half of the posts that responded to the NAO's survey have unused office space or staff accommodation. The FCO could do more to promote the use of its overseas estate by other UK government organisations where feasible.