Government operational efficiency is moving centre stage in this election, as parties seek to reduce the deficit while assuring the public that their beloved public services will remain unscathed.

A favourite has been making efficiency savings within public property, an issue central to the government’s operational efficiency program and the subject of continual reports and reviews, such as the Lyons report in 2004 and the recent Ian Smith review.

One solution to efficiency savings is 'hubbing' government properties together to take advantage of shared services. For the last few years, the Waveney Campus Project, a planned co-location of local and central government facilities in a purpose built 'hub' was held up by the Office of Government Commerce as a perfect example of sharing services.

Since last week that project is the subject of a review by the overview and scrutiny committee into why it collapsed. The reason seems to be that no one had realised what a complicated project it was. The three different partners from local and central government could not communicate with each other and eventually everyone agreed it was too risky to proceed.

A decision one feels they could have made before spending £8m on land purchases and other associated works. The next government must learn these lessons before introducing further efficiency savings.