The report, entitled ‘Investigation into NHS Property Services Limited’, also found that the chair of the company’s board was “not recruited through open competition”, but instead put forward by the then-chief executive of the NHS, Sir David Nicholson, and a former DH permanent secretary.
The DH said that “the way the NHS estate was previously managed was inefficient... Managing it together under one company means we can spread best practice and make savings – simply bringing energy demand into one place has already saved £1.3m.”