This time the States cannot afford to miss

The Strategic Asset Management Plan (Samp) was one of the most attractive ideas to come before any Assembly.

It presented deputies with a chance to finally get to grips with the States’ then billion-pound-plus portfolio of properties and ensure that the most was being made of hundreds of publicly-owned buildings.

Sadly, the States of 2013 got itself in a tangle over ‘centralisation’ and scuffed its shot.

The island has been waiting more than five years since that mistake. Each day that has passed has seen thousands in potential savings going begging.

According to the targets set by the States for this latest attempt to right that wrong, the savings could amount to more than £2m. a year with millions more to come in property sales.

There is no handy acronym this time but the plan for Optimising the Use of the States Land and Property Portfolio has at its heart the same simple concept: keep the buildings that are needed and sell the rest.

There will be some pain. The States Trading and Supervisory Board says this is not just about reorganising the deckchairs.

To achieve substantial savings the public sector is going to have to go through a transformation. Inevitably, there will be staff and politicians who find that uncomfortable.

There will also need to be some expensive upgrading work done to make buildings suitable for their new purpose.

But, as has been seen with the closure of the old Cornet Street tax offices, it can be done. The committee silos are not indestructible.

There is also some short-term financial pain. A million pounds is needed from the transformation fund to assess what needs to be done with the 4,000-plus building units and 2,606 land parcels covering 12% of the Bailiwick’s total land area.

But that will be money well spent if it allows the island to trim its £2bn property portfolio down to a level commensurate with the size and necessary functions of its government.

This time deputies have to put the ball into the back of the net.