In 2023, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust sought approval to connect Worthing Hospital to the town’s developing district heating network. Powered by air source heat pumps, the system would provide efficient, low-carbon heating while replacing ageing gas and oil-fired boilers. Bill Marsden was appointed via Artelia UK to prepare the business case to secure funding for the £20m project, supported by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS).

Although the project offered significant carbon reduction benefits, the investment needed to demonstrate long-term affordability for the Trust. Low-carbon energy sources can carry higher initial costs compared with conventional heating, and demonstrating value for money was essential to gain Board approval.

Working collaboratively with the Trust’s estates and finance teams, Artelia UK and engineering advisors AECOM, Bill:

The business case was approved by the Trust Board in 2024, unlocking funding and enabling construction to begin on site. Following approval, Bill was appointed as Project Manager to guide the scheme through its design stages, before handover to a colleague for delivery.

The Royal Marsden won a tender to provide community healthcare services in the London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton. At appointment, RMH took over the running of existing services that were provided from 16 separate premises across the two boroughs. RMH’s Director of Projects and Estates appointed Marsden Project Services to review this disparate estate, particularly its costs, and advise on opportunities to reduce the estates and FM costs.

RMH needed to understand what the best options were to rationalise the estate and focus services on the premises that offered the best quality and most accessible accommodation, most suitable for modern healthcare services. They wanted to see how expensive each premises was to run, and which had break clauses and opportunities to vacate.

The task of putting together a detailed picture of building occupancy and its costs was complicated by two factors: firstly by gaps in the information (e.g. undocumented occupancy, missing or unvalidated pieces of FM servicing cost data); and secondly by differences in how circulation and plant space were allocated to multiple healthcare organisations occupying the same building.

Bill Marsden obtained all the available data from the building landlords, put together a database of floor areas and occupancy costs (rent, rates, depreciation, line-by-line services charges, etc). He benchmarked the FM costs against industry standards, set out the lease break opportunities and other relevant data, and gleaned the view of the service managers and director on the quality and accessibility, setting the important factors out in a report.

Based on Bill’s analysis and advice, RMH was able to move its community services HQ out of an expensive office building and into a much more affordable one, in which the total cost per workstation desk p.a. was around 50% of what had been incurred previously, even allowing for depreciation of capital expenditure on the fit-out. The new location was also more accessibly located for the area in which the services were provided. Additionally, Bill identified two of the premises that could be vacated without any loss of service provision, by co-locating teams in other premises. One of these moves helped the landlord achieve vacant possession for a planned disposal.