Municipalities’ facility data collected in one information system for the first time – Senate Properties’ Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit has more than 200 contracting municipalities
The municipalities use almost eight times more facilities of various kinds than central government does, around 47 gross square metres. The municipalities’ annual facilities costs are an estimated €4 billion. According to an estimate by the Ministry of Finance, around 10-15% could be saved in municipal facilities costs, which would translate into annual savings of €400-€600 million. Clarifying facilities costs and achieving savings require information on the facilities owned and leased by the municipalities. The facilities data of the municipalities is currently being collected for the first time in one information system, where it is available not just to the municipalities but also helps to build an overall national picture of the facilities used by the municipalities.
Working in close cooperation with voluntary municipalities, Senate Properties’ Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit compiles in one information system up-to-date, accurate information on the facilities owned and leased by municipalities. Senate Properties has signed a cooperation agreement on municipal facility data services with 202 municipalities in mainland Finland. In addition, forms of cooperation and the starting date for the introduction of facility data services are currently being explored with representatives of around ten municipalities.
Up-to-date, accurate information compiled by the Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit together its contracting municipalities supports not just the facilities management and strategic decision-making of the municipalities but also helps to form an overall national picture of the municipalities’ facilities stock. Facility data services customised for municipalities can help to build a nationally and also internationally unique situational picture of the existing facilities used by municipalities, including the number of facilities, floor areas, purposes of use, condition, costs and investments.
“Facility information was earlier decentralised in the municipalities. There has not necessarily been a view of the building stock of individual municipalities, its management and use. This is why it has not earlier been possible to form an accurate municipality-specific or national situational picture of the full extent of the facilities used by the municipalities. Standardised facility information compiled in one place and comparable at different levels of public administration is in great demand,” says Marko Suomela, Manager of the Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit.
Up-to-date, accurate information about the facilities owned and leased by municipalities improves the possibilities to assess the development prospects and risks of overall municipal finances and those of individual municipalities and to develop the facilities use of the municipalities while retaining premises that are healthy, safe and fit for purpose. Up-to-date, accurate facility information also complements the overall picture of general government finances.
Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit has actively continued the work started in the Municipalities’ facility and real estate management data development project
A number of projects during the 2000s has sought to clarify and improve the use of the municipalities’ facilities. The Municipalities’ facility and real estate management data development project, commissioned by the Ministry of Finance and carried out by the Counties’ Service Centre for Facilities and Real Estate Management (Maakuntien tilakeskus), launched in spring 2020. The goals of the two-year Municipalities’ facility and real estate management data development project included improving the management and database of the municipalities’ building stock and creating an overall picture of the existing facilities used by the municipalities. One of the objectives of the project was to compile the facilities data of the municipalities into one information system where it would be readily accessible, updatable and maintainable by the municipalities.
The Municipalities’ facility and real estate management data project ended at the close of 2021. The project provided municipalities with tools for everyday facilities management, strategic decision-making and various reporting needs and also provided a platform to form a national situational picture of the municipalities’ building stock. Two in three municipalities in mainland Finland took part in it. Once the project had ended, cooperation between the municipalities and the Municipalities’ Facility Data Services continued in the Counties’ Service Centre for Facilities and Real Estate Management. Ensuring and improving the quality of facility data became one of the key goals alongside development of the compilation of facility data and the information system.
The Municipal Government Facilities Information Services transferred to Senate Properties in October 2022, when the Counties’ Service Centre for Facilities and Real Estate Management was named the wellbeing services counties’ centre of excellence for facilities and real estate management. The Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit works actively with municipalities in mainland Finland by among other things compiling information about the facilities of the municipalities, expanding and processing the existing facility database and by compiling reporting possibilities. Alongside free facility data services, the Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit has customised a municipality-specific premises management development programme, where the municipality and the Municipal Government Facilities Information Service Unit build an overall picture of the municipality’s premises management and draw up a long-term strategic facilities programme that responds to changes in the municipality’s operating environment and service network.
Senate Properties is the property expert and work environment partner of the Finnish government. We work with our clients to create work environments to support their work and we are responsible for their maintenance. We want to provide the best possible conditions and facilities to do the work that helps to make Finland one of the best functioning and safest places in the world. We develop the State’s property assets and look after properties of cultural and historical importance. Responsibility is at the heart of everything we do. www.senaatti.fi/en/
