Thank you to the senior leaders from local authorities and industry who joined our roundtable yesterday to discuss Unlocking the Public Estate -Local Realities, National Choices.
The discussion reinforced our core findings:
• Councils are under intense financial and operational pressure
• Yet there is clear opportunity to unlock value from the estate
• Delivering the national policy agenda relies on stable funding, better data, stronger capacity and joined-up governance
• And councils can still move forward by challenging space needs, rebalancing portfolios, and making stronger cases to politicians on land release, maintenance and workplace change
We also surfaced practical new ideas that we’ll take forward at our next session on 15 January 2026.
The report sets out five themes shaping the sector today – from national policy misalignment and locked-up housing potential, to stalled collaboration, rising maintenance pressure and hybrid-working challenges – plus the two enablers that underpin all progress: staff capacity and credible data.
Read the report and register for updates here.
