Understanding and managing your land and buildings

Information you should have about your estate, how to use it effectively and when to update it.

Collecting information about your estate

What to record

You should hold certain core data to help you manage the estate. These include:

  • an asset register – a register of all land and buildings
  • tenure – what legal interests you hold and the basis of occupation
  • building area – gross internal area for each building
  • property condition – condition survey data
  • statutory compliance – compliance records including health and safety records
  • asbestos management plan and register
  • sufficiency – net capacity and number on roll records
  • running costs – revenue, utilities, facilities management, insurance costs and similar ongoing costs

Other data that would help you includes:

  • geographical location plans
  • site area
  • number of buildings on each site
  • plans – a scaled building layout plan
  • number of floors in each building
  • energy efficiency – CO2 emissions and energy cost data
  • suitability – suitability survey assessments
  • images

Find out more about the information you need to know (ODT, 871KB).

Collecting property data

Data needs to be collected from many sources. You may already hold data about the estate in different ways, including being:

  • known by individuals but not formally recorded
  • in a number of formats in your existing business planning system, for example spreadsheets or paper documents
  • in a co-ordinated specialist estate management system

It’s important that you designate responsibility for the collection and maintenance of property data. This minimises security, consistency and resilience risks associated with data management. Depending on the amount of data and how it’s held, responsibility could be given to a school business professional or to dedicated estates staff in larger MATs.

It’s the responsibility of the designated person or staff to ensure data requirements are understood, co-ordinated and sourced effectively.

If you’re being given data by technical advisers, you should make sure your contract specification sets out what format you want it in. It’s important to have a clear understanding of data requirements across your whole organisation.

Importance of data and information management

It’s important that you manage your data to make sure it’s accurate and can be accessed in a format that suits the needs of your users. Different people may need to use the data for different reasons.

Managing your data helps you to:

  • make informed decisions and forward plan
  • develop the estate strategy and asset management plan
  • undertake strategic property reviews
  • evaluate and appraise different investment options
  • measure the performance of the estate
  • satisfy statutory and other external reporting and compliance requirements
  • monitor and assess how well you are implementing the estate strategy and asset management plan
  • effectively manage projects
  • fulfil your financial reporting requirements
  • fulfil the requirements of the trustees of the school

Storing and managing data

Storing and managing data in one system may be easier, as it:

  • reduces the need to manage several systems
  • lowers the risk of data duplication and reporting errors

It’s not always necessary to buy or develop a complicated system for your data management. You may be able to store and manage data in a bespoke or locally developed system.

If you decide to buy a proprietary asset management system, you should consider whether it will meet your specific needs and provide value for money. It’s important to understand the needs of your organisation and the trustees of the school when making this decision.

Any data storage and management system you use should:

  • be able to manage all data types that you need for your organisation
  • provide data input control to ensure accuracy and consistency
  • be easy to use and provide support and training where required
  • allow many users to use it at the same time
  • be able to store and manage documents
  • be able to interface with other systems
  • allow data migration and data updating
  • provide reporting functions and be able to produce reports in different formats to suit your needs
  • provide a full audit process

Digital building information modelling

Building information modelling (BIM) is a digital 3D visual representation of a building or estate, containing a range of information such as:

  • equipment
  • warranties
  • maintenance history
  • health and safety compliance

It can be a useful option to support operational estate management. The UK BIM Framework provides guidance on information management standards and integrating BIM with your estate.

Performance management and benchmarking

Performance management of the estate is the measurement and monitoring of property-related performance. It helps you improve the efficiency of the estate.

Measuring the performance of the estate will help you understand:

  • how the property assets in the estate contribute to the overall performance of your organisation
  • how each individual asset in the estate is performing against technical criteria

Benchmarking is a way of using relative performance to improve by learning from others. This includes comparison with other organisations or industry standards, and comparison of individual property assets within the estate.

Importance of managing estate performance

Accountability for financial performance sits at board level. Understanding the performance of the estate and using it to challenge and demonstrate value for money is an important element of accountability.

Performance management of the estate provides:

  • monitoring and evaluation of how property assets are performing to meet the needs of your organisation
  • a reference point to support future strategies and value for money decisions
  • a mechanism for internal and for external benchmarking

Benchmarking is not a one-off exercise. It can help to enable a cycle of continuous improvement and develop a culture where it is easier to question existing practices and make changes.

Who should be responsible

Responsibility for performance management of the estate should sit with an executive leader. They should also be responsible for reporting performance.

They should understand what the executive leadership team and the board want to know about the estate and identify performance measures accordingly. The actual collation and management of data used to deliver performance reports is likely to be the responsibility of operational staff.

You should use standardised reporting formats where possible to enable better understanding of data needs and performance over time.

The executive leadership team may help identify other benchmarking organisations which may be willing partners. For schools with a religious character, this should be done in collaboration with the trustees of the school and the diocese or other religious authority.

What to consider

Consider what you want to measure to help you manage the estate strategically and assess value for money.

You should:

  • identify appropriate performance criteria so that you can set targets
  • make sure your targets are clearly linked to your strategic goals and the requirements of the trustees of the school
  • choose measures which are useful to your school and organisation

You might want to limit this to 5 key measures. Having a small number of useful measures is preferable to having numerous measures that do not provide meaningful information. Do not make it too complicated. It’s more important to start the process rather than trying to make it too comprehensive from the start.

Finance

Consider:

  • running costs – calculation of all property occupancy costs as a total cost per square metre or as a proportion of total school expenditure
  • capital projects – capital cost per square meter or pupil place, proportion of projects delivered to time or cost targets

Condition and maintenance

Consider:

  • the condition of your estate – categorisation against industry standard condition (A to D) and prioritisation (1 to 4) categories by percentage of estate in each category
  • maintenance needs – assessment of maintenance need per square metre, average spend per square metre, by planned to reactive proportion

Find out more about condition surveys.

Space

Consider doing an assessment of the utilisation of space, referring to:

  • space (square metre) per pupil
  • frequency of use
  • how the space is used

Refer to guidelines for:

Environmental sustainability

Consider assessing energy consumption and environmental impact in reference to the area of the building.

Refer to the sustainability of your estate section for more information.

Risk

Consider your statutory duties in health, safety and compliance. Measure the proportion of the estate which is compliant or non-compliant.

Track your performance

Once you’ve decided what you’re going to measure, you need to identify:

  • what data you will need
  • how you can gather the data
  • how you will analyse the data

  1. Establish a baseline position. Without this, it is not possible to identify any changes in performance. Use how you perform against targets to define priorities for works and estates activities.

  2. Use how you perform against targets to define priorities for works and estates activities.

  3. Refine your performance measures over time as your approach to strategic estate management matures, and more data becomes available.

Collecting performance data

Collecting data can be time consuming and costly. The benefits of identified performance measures must justify the cost and effort of collating, analysing and reporting the information.

You should assess what data is already collected. You may be able to use this to start with and build on it over time. Identify performance measures that meet the needs of your organisation. Be realistic about what data can be collected and analysed, and whether this can be done in a timescale to take meaningful action.

Benchmarking

Understanding your performance internally is only part of the picture.

Benchmarking with other bodies or organisations can help you identify areas for improvement. Through external comparison you can determine how your organisation is performing in a wider context.

You may want to identify potential benchmarking groups or partner organisations. There may be existing localised, regional or national benchmarking groups you can approach to:

  • find out what performance criteria they’re measuring
  • possibly use some of their findings to set your own targets

You could also consider contacting peer organisations to potentially share information for mutual benefit. You may need the consent of trustees before sharing information.

There are tools are available to schools to:

For more information about performance measures schools can use to improve their financial management and efficiency, refer to:

Benchmarking is only a guide. There may be valid reasons why some schools are at the lower or upper extremes of the data range. You may not be in a position at the outset to benchmark externally. Begin once your estate performance management processes are embedded and more data is available.

Some MATs use business intelligence dashboards to support their work.

Example

EO Consulting has a standard template dashboard that presents all types of condition, compliance and energy usage data so it can be:

  • appropriately aggregated
  • used to optimise return on capital investment decisions within estates and organisations

 The Trust Network has more information about this. 

Find out more about how to begin estate performance management and benchmarking.

Assessing the condition of your estate

What a condition survey is

Condition relates to the physical condition of buildings in the estate. This is determined by undertaking condition surveys.

Condition surveys are normally:

  • non-intrusive surveys, carried out by suitably qualified professionals
  • cover 5-year planning periods for the purpose of strategic estate management

Why you need a condition survey

Condition surveys help you:

  • identify what work is needed to maintain the estate
  • consider how much works might cost
  • prioritise work within available funds
  • understand if the nature of the buildings change

This information will help you prepare a maintenance programme, which reflects potential future capital investment.

Academy trusts, dioceses or local authorities may carry out condition surveys on behalf of their schools and prepare a long-term maintenance programme. You should check if this has been done.

What’s included

The condition survey should identify specific building condition issues, deficiencies and maintenance requirements, including, but not limited to:

  • structural
  • roofs
  • building fabric
  • windows and doors
  • mechanical and electrical
  • asbestos
  • utilities
  • sewage and drainage
  • fire safety and security
  • site layout

It should also provide an estimated cost for repair or replacement.

Condition surveys should identify critical elements that might need further investigation. You should ensure that condition surveys include a suitably detailed assessment of your building’s structure, to identify possible structural problems and health and safety risks. This may include asbestos, RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) and other issues associated with older buildings.

Older buildings, such as those built post-war between 1945 and the 1970s, often need careful maintenance and monitoring. This includes regular condition surveys to assess the building’s structural safety – at least every 5 years, or more often for buildings that need closer monitoring. Guidance on managing older school buildings is available to help you identify these buildings and for further information about monitoring and maintaining them effectively.

If you encounter structural issues, or there are known issues or risks with a particular construction type in your building or structure, you should:

  • carry out further checks
  • carry out risk assessments
  • set up a monitoring regime
  • get further professional technical advice

Any condition and maintenance issues that are identified should be prioritised using condition grading and prioritisation ratings, as per industry standard.

Condition is generally categorised as:

  • A - good, performing as intended and operating efficiently
  • B - satisfactory, performing as intended but exhibiting minor deterioration
  • C - poor, exhibiting major defects and/or not operating as intended
  • D - bad, life expired and/or serious risk of failure

Priority is generally categorised as:

  • 1 - urgent, immediate or 1 year remedial action required - work that will prevent immediate closure of premises and/or address an immediate high risk to the health and safety of the occupants and/or remedy a serious breach of legislation
  • 2 - essential, 1 to 2 year remedial action required - work that will prevent serious deterioration of the building fabric or services and/or address a medium risk to the health and safety of the occupants and/or remedy a less serious breach of legislation
  • 3 - desirable, 3 to 5 year remedial action required - work that will prevent deterioration of the building fabric or services and/or address a low risk to the health and safety of the occupants and/or remedy a minor breach of legislation
  • 4 - long term, outside of a 5-year planning period - work that will prevent deterioration of the building fabric or services

When to survey

Consider how frequently buildings should be surveyed. This will depend on the condition, age and the type of buildings.

Identify critical elements that need to be inspected on a regular basis to minimise:

  • the impact on school accessibility
  • risk of closure of all or part of the estate

If you need to undertake any refurbishment work in a building that contains asbestos, you may need to commission a refurbishment and demolition survey. Read the asbestos management in schools guidance.

If you need to undertake any refurbishment work in a building that contains asbestos, you need to consult your asbestos management plan and may need to commission a refurbishment and demolition survey.

The asbestos management in schools guidance contains further information.

Condition Data Collection programme

The Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme collected data about the physical condition of school buildings and how they are managed. It took place from spring 2017 to summer 2019 and visited almost every government-funded school and further education college in England. The Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2) programme is currently running from 2021 to 2026, providing updated data about the condition of school and college buildings.

The CDC is a visual condition inspection programme and not a full or intrusive condition survey. You should use your CDC data in conjunction with other information, including a condition survey. This will help you accurately assess the condition of your estate.

On its own, CDC data will not give you enough information to support your asset management planning. This is because:

  • it is not invasive, only visible condition was inspected
  • it is not structural so critical structural repairs may not be identified
  • it does not report on hazardous materials such as asbestos
  • it does not address critical health and safety requirements such as fire and intruder alarm functionality, although surveyors observing major health and safety issues will report these directly
  • it does not take into account building use or capacity
  • it does not provide descriptions of defects and remedies or cost information for schools or responsible bodies

Schools, and their responsible bodies, were sent details on how to download and view their CDC reports. For help accessing reports, submit an enquiry, including the name and URN of your school.

Suitability, sufficiency and capacity of your estate

You should assess all of your land and buildings to understand how the estate is used and whether it is being used effectively. This should include assessing:

  • suitability – whether your estate and its facilities are fit for purpose
  • sufficiency – whether your estate has the right amount of space for the number of school places

Suitability

A suitability assessment will help you understand if:

  • the estate is fit for purpose
  • you need to plan improvements

There is no prescribed format for a suitability assessment, but it should look at teaching and non-teaching areas.

The scope and complexity of the assessment can vary depending on your needs. It should consider:

  • the size, shape and location of spaces
  • how the spaces will be used
  • environmental conditions
  • fittings and fixed furniture
  • ICT infrastructure
  • security issues

You’ll need to consider stakeholder views in a suitability assessment. For example, some factors will be more important than others to different users. Include input from:

  • building managers
  • staff
  • pupils
  • visitors to the building

You should analyse the suitability assessments. For example, you could use a simple scoring system to categorise each building, such as 1 to 5, or a more sophisticated system to include weighting for some more important issues.

Sufficiency

Understanding sufficiency is important for your estate strategy.

A sufficiency assessment helps you understand the net capacity of the school. It will show you if you have:

  • enough capacity to provide school places
  • potential surplus places

Capacity

You’ll need to understand the number of pupil places available (the capacity) compared to the current and forecast number of pupils.

You’ll also need to find out the overall areas of school buildings to make sure you have the right number and types of classrooms and support space.

The net capacity assessment tool can be used to record the size and use of classrooms and other spaces in your school. It can calculate the overall net pupil capacity, along with figures for minimum and maximum pupil places for the school.

The net capacity assessment programme is visiting all secondary and special schools between 2023 and 2025 to carry out assessments and issue reports.

It is important that you work with relevant bodies such as local authorities, other academy trusts and dioceses on school place planning. Holding surplus spaces can potentially have a negative effect on the educational offer or financial viability of schools. 

If you have too much capacity, you could consider:

  • reutilising space, for example for childcare, SEND provision or community facilities
  • rationalising or consolidating buildings across the estate
  • leasing space to third parties

For ideas on how to use surplus space for sustainability, refer to the sustainability section.

Local authorities are legally responsible for ensuring there are enough school places available in the local area. You should discuss plans to repurpose surplus space on your estate with the local authority, as their forecasts of demand for school places may show a need for the space in the future.

You should also check if there are any restrictions on reutilising surplus space. You may need to ensure that you have the authority of the relevant landowner, particularly for schools with religious character.

You can find guidance on space standards in:

Legal interests and land ownership

You need to understand what legal interests there are in the estate’s land and buildings such as:

  • the nature of legal ownership, whether freehold or leasehold
  • other controlling interests such as charitable restrictions, particularly if you’re a school with a religious character

The legal interests can affect how you can use the land and buildings.

Example

If you occupy freehold land, the title may include restrictive covenants that limit what you can do.

If you have a leasehold interest, the terms of the lease may limit what you can do or require you to do certain things.

If the land is owned by a charitable trust, the charity’s governing document may limit what you can do or require you to fulfil specific charitable objects. In addition, if you’re a school with a religious character, you will need the consent of the trustees of the school for all dealings that involve the land and buildings.

If you’ve granted leases or other usage agreements to third parties, such as utility companies or local sports teams, these may also limit what you can do.

Find out more about maintenance of shared sites, leaseholds and schools with a religious character.

Land and property law can be very complicated. Always seek appropriate professional advice. If you’re a school with a religious character, you should always contact the trustees of the school and the diocese, or other religious authority, when considering any transactions involving the land and buildings.

Know the terms under which you occupy the land and buildings, and the powers and responsibilities granted to you by those terms. Different types of organisations will have different levels of control over the use of the land and buildings occupied.

Depending on your type of school and what you want to do, you may need to speak to your:

  • local authority
  • charity trustees
  • trustees of the school
  • board
  • diocesan bishop
  • diocese, diocesan board or other faith body
  • third party owner of land

Consider how the legal interests affect:

  • developing strategic policies
  • carrying out works
  • letting third parties use the estate
  • changing how you use any of the estate
  • disposing of, or making material changes to, any of the estate

This will help you avoid costly mistakes such as:

  • financial penalties
  • abortive costs including reinstatement
  • project delays
  • legal actions

You could also unintentionally create a legal interest, for example by allowing a third party to use the land.

Strategic estate management

Understanding land ownership, rights and obligations will make sure you:

  • obtain appropriate consents before considering undertaking any works
  • have well informed strategic management
  • take account of any legal requirements that have to be met at a specific time
  • make fully informed decisions
  • consider legal process and requirements when appraising options and assessing risks
  • avoid costly mistakes and legal challenges
  • have a formal consistent approach to third parties using the premises where everyone understands their rights and responsibilities

You should consider land ownership, rights and obligations when you develop your estate strategy and asset management plan.

As part of the process, you should:

  • be aware of the legal ownership of all land and buildings
  • enter into discussions with those whose approval you need at the earliest opportunity
  • know what you can and cannot do and what you need approval for
  • define how you can make decisions and get approvals
  • plan for any requirements that have to be met at a specific time

Land acquisitions and disposals

Through strategic estate management, you may identify opportunities to:

  • acquire new premises and sites
  • dispose of surplus space – both land and buildings
  • grant a third party use of the land and buildings, including for the purposes of generating income

Acquisitions and disposals may be of freehold, leasehold or other interests. The term ‘disposal’ includes the transfer or creation of any legal interest in land.

LocatED is a government-owned property company, responsible for buying, managing and developing sites in England. It work on behalf of the department to ensure its education and capital objectives are delivered. If you require property advice, or have land to dispose of, you could consider contacting them.

Statutory restrictions on changes to school land

As well as restrictions on the individual titles of land and requirements imposed by land registration, there are also statutory restrictions imposed on disposing of, or making material changes to, school land.

You may need to seek government approvals for certain land and property transactions and any borrowing, whether or not secured on land, for the purposes of acquiring or developing land.

You should be aware of any protections and the statutory restrictions on the disposal or acquisition of land or buildings. Different types of organisation have to handle disposals differently.

Get advice on school buildings and land transactions.

Publicly funded land

This includes any school land acquired from a local authority or the Secretary of State for Education by a board or trustees of the school. Disposal of any publicly funded land may require either:

  • the consent of the Secretary of State
  • prior notification to the Secretary of State who may issue a direction regarding the land

Seeking approvals

The approval route will depend on the:

  • type of organisation
  • land ownership
  • particular circumstances of the disposal

The exact definition in law is complicated, so you should get independent professional advice. You may have restrictions imposed by any funding agreements you have, as well as by the land title itself.

Check you do not do anything to conflict with the terms of your funding agreement. You should also check the Academy Trust Handbook.

Voluntary schools

Voluntary-aided and voluntary-controlled schools, and academies that were voluntary schools often have their main school buildings on land which is held by trustees of the school on the basis of a trust deed restricting the use of that land. This includes Church of England or Catholic Church schools. For other schools with a religious character, a religious body or trust may own the land and buildings.

The land may be publicly funded or be charitable land depending on the school’s origins and history.

Control of the land and buildings rests with the trustees of the school. Some trust documents allow communities to use the land and buildings if it brings income to the school.

Other trust arrangements are more restrictive. Some do not allow third party use of land and buildings, while others may restrict uses to those that support the wider charitable purpose of the trust.

Where the land is publicly-funded land, any disposal of an interest will require notification to the Secretary of State and local authority.

Playing field land will usually be land held by the local authority. Schools need to consider the terms of any lease or usage agreement before allowing third parties to use it. Disposal or change of use will require the consent of the Secretary of State.

Foundation schools

Governing bodies or trustees (if the school has a charitable foundation) of most foundation schools hold the freehold of publicly-funded land acquired from the local authority. Any disposal of an interest in the land will require the notification to the Secretary of State and local authority. Disposal of playing field land requires Secretary of State consent.

Some older foundation schools may also have land held by trustees of the school which isn’t publicly-funded land, but rather has charitable origin. This land may have restrictions similar to voluntary schools.

Academies

If the academy is on land that is held by way of a lease, for example from the local authority, any use of the land will need to comply with the terms of the lease. This generally requires the freeholder’s formal permission for any use of the land by third parties. The freeholder may need the Secretary of State’s consent.

If the academy trust owns either a leasehold or the freehold interest, it may still need to seek the Secretary of State’s consent to dispose of any interest in publicly-funded land.

If an academy occupies land held by trustees of the school, it is restricted in its use of the land in the same way as voluntary schools are.

Community schools

Community schools are usually based on land owned by the local authority. They need to follow the local authority’s policy for using the land. As the freeholder, the local authority may need to apply for consent from the Secretary of State to make any disposal of the land.