Foreign and Commonwealth Office - UK Estates Reform

Client: Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Location: Kings Street, London
Discipline(s): Building Design, Building Services Engineering

Capita were commissioned as part of the UK Estates Reform project to provide space planning for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office building.

As part of the UK Estates Reform project, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) wanted to maximise the efficiency of its London estate by consolidating its core London activities into the Grade I listed main building on King Charles Street (KCS) in Whitehall.

We increased the usable space of the FCO through intensified space utilisation of the main building on King Charles Street. Modernisation of the space included a physical office refurbishment where walls and partitions were removed. The project also focused on adapting the IT infrastructure system to create a modern place to work within a historic building.

This helped to support the wider Cabinet Office strategy of consolidating the HM Government (HMG) Estate in Central London by freeing up the Old Admiralty Building freehold for another government department use, generating significant savings for both the FCO on operating costs and for HMG on lease rentals.

We delivered a number of benefits and innovative responses to the challenges within the programme including:

• Frequent stakeholder engagement through the procurement and contract phases allowing the FCO to maintain flexibility going forward and to react positively to the inevitable changing requirements from a dynamic organisation
• BIM was used for risk management in a framework which was being managed proactively and in collaboration with the stakeholders to minimise cost and programme risk and particularly to identify any opportunities to add value,  this enabled the tight programme deadlines to be maintained
• We delivered employers requirements for a traditional procurement route and administered the NEC3 contract on behalf of the FCO
• Early client communications enabled the FCO to achieve internal approvals and corporate governance in a timely manner, without recourse to change and consequential redesign
• We supported the FCO through detailed input into the FCO Outline and final business cases approved by HM Treasury. This enabled a smooth and unchallenged submission and we is now formulating the same for the final Infrastructure & projects authority gateway.

Trevor Evert

Director - Engineering and Building Design

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