Guest blog by Mark Chivers, Government Chief Property Officer at the Office of Government Property. 

Every year, around this time, we host ‘Government Property Month’. It’s a four-week programme of events, seminars, and learning opportunities to help the 7,000 strong workforce of Government property professionals build their skills and their connections.

This year, we will be launching the month almost exactly a year to the day since we published our Government Property Strategy. It’s been a big year, with a huge amount achieved.

Our strategy focusses our attention on three core missions: transforming places and services; creating a smaller, better, and greener public estate; and improving professional excellence and insight. That means our work is about using property to improve places and support local economic growth; it’s about making our estate smaller, better and greener; and it’s about improving our skills and understanding of data.

Making sure we deliver is no small task. Our job is to make sure citizens across the UK, regardless of where they live, have access to brilliant services and brilliant property for those services to take place in

This year, the month is bigger and better than ever:

• The Government Property 2023 Conference, which will explore the progress, successes, and challenges since the Government Property Strategy was published one year ago.
• The Government Property Month fringe event programme, which brings together a whole series of mini-sessions, all held virtually, exploring a range of topics which are helpful, informative, and relevant to Government Property Professionals.
• The Government Property Awards 2023, which returns on 26 September for its fourth year. This event will celebrate the very best of our profession, with a programme of awards designed to recognise success from teams, people, and partnerships.

I also want to thank our colleagues at Energy Systems Catapult, who many of our community will be aware delivered the Modern Energy Partners (MEP) programme: a ground-breaking initiative with government, the NHS and industry, exploring how to decarbonise the public sector estate (and winners at last year’s Government Property Awards). They have kindly agreed to share their expertise with our team, through some really interesting and insightful seminars. You can register for these sessions directly, below.

This is truly a fascinating and helpful set of events and experiences. If you are interested in the future of public sector property – whether that be sustainability, transformation, modern ways of working – then you will be sure to find something to interest and inspire you.

Flick through our collection on Eventbrite and feel free to join us or, if you’re a member of the Government Property Profession, access your account on the Government Property Community.