NHS Property Services Ltd Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Warner
Main Page: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Warner's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(10 years, 9 months ago)
Lords Chamber
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the performance of NHS Property Services Ltd in disposing of surplus properties and operating within their working capital.
My Lords, NHS Property Services is on target to dispose of 97 properties by 31 March 2014 and a further 100 properties by 31 March 2015. The department has provided the company with a £350 million flexible working capital loan facility, of which £271 million had been drawn down as at 27 January 2014. This working capital support is in line with the department’s expectations for a start-up company of this size and complexity.
I thank the Minister for his Answer, but what action has been taken to improve the performance of this company in controlling its costs? What action has been taken to reduce its running costs, given the large number of staff that it inherited, and what action has been taken to improve the professional competence of those staff and to collect bad debts, which have been a rising problem for this organisation?
My Lords, on administration costs, the company is already reviewing the way in which its strategic asset management and facilities management functions are structured. It is probably inevitable that the consolidation of 161 PCT and strategic health authority estates into one will throw up duplication, overlap and operational policies that conflict. These all need to be rationalised and a commercial ethos introduced. It is vital that the skills are imported into the organisation to match that challenge.