Transforming HMRC’s real estate to enable its staff to work smarter.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Locations Programme is one of the largest property transformation programmes in the UK. Commissioned to help HMRC become a tax authority that is customer focused and fit for the 21st century, it will bring around 60,000 employees together within 13 regional centres situated in every region and country of the UK.
Key information
- Location:
- UK
- Date started:
- 2016
- Completion date:
- Ongoing
- Client type:
- Real estate
- Main services:
- Programme management, project management, information management, cost management
Client’s requirements
Officially formed in 2005, HMRC is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government, responsible for the collection of taxes, payment of some forms of state support and the administration of other regulatory regimes. Currently HMRC has an ageing network of around 100 offices spread across the UK, many dating from the 1960s & 1970s.
The Locations Programme aims to bring its workforce together within 13 dedicated regional centres and deliver modern and collaborative future workspaces. At the same time, HMRC is also preparing to exit multiple PFI contracts which span their entire UK estate.
The Locations Programme aims to deliver HMRC’s ambition to become one of the most digitally-advanced tax authorities in the world while meeting its 2015 Spending Review targets to improve customer service and deliver an extra £1bn in revenue by 2019-20.
HMRC’s main physical requirements for this programme include:
- 13 regional centres
- 5 specialist sites
- 8 transitional sites
As of 2016, the planned transformation of HMRC’s estate remains the largest property transformation programme in the UK. Moving to regional centres will save taxpayers around £300m up to 2025 and the programme will deliver annual cash savings of £74m in 2025/26, rising to around £90m from 2028.
Our contribution
Appointed in 2016 as strategic delivery partner, we delivered services spanning management of multiple projects at workstream level, overseeing aspects such as risk, quality and change, optimising and controlling HMRC’s requirements and expectations, and information management. Our role also sees us responsible for ensuring the building programme is delivered on budget, taking into account annual fluctuations of government funding.
In 2018, we were re-appointed to support every aspect of the building programme and took on additional core services including technology and health and safety.
Making the difference
We organised, prioritised and scheduled the programme to maximise the efficiencies gained from vacating existing buildings and exiting private finance initiative contracts at an optimal level.
Aligning the design process across nine regional centres, we utilised an integrated and centralised design team using BIM (building information modelling) to complete RIBA stages 2 and 3, raising the quality and consistency of designs.
We developed a programme wide procurement strategy, which explored options for leveraging the size and scale of the programme and transferring risk and liability to the supply chain.
We also helped to lead the implementation of the first national fit out framework (Government Hubs Fit Out Framework) and established a coherent level of project governance within HMRC to provide clarity in decision making, clear accountability and controls to support programme delivery.