Part IV - Charge-out rates

Section E: Estate charges

1. The space used by a project or activity is a specific resource that can be linked to that activity. The costs of this space – estates costs – need to be allocated to that activity. This can be done using a measure of the space used. These measures, called estates charges, can be:
   • quite specific (e.g. square metres used for a certain number of days); or
   • a proxy, such as a £ charge for each FTE using that space.
2. Sometimes a combination is used. In either case, the allocation needs to reflect both the space actually used by that project, and the surrounding space (workshops, secretarial offices, academic offices, etc.).
3. The most common type of estates charges, and perhaps one of the least onerous to calculate and apply, is a £ charge for each FTE using that space. This is acceptable for TRAC. It is the focus of the following paragraphs.   Other methods are discussed in Chapter E.4.
4. This section focuses on the estates charges for Research. Full robustness in the data and calculations should be achieved by the beginning of August 2007 (2006/07 data, applied to research projects from February 2008). It particularly requires:
   • full-time equivalent numbers to be robustly calculated;
   • estates costs which have been attributed between Teaching, Research, and Other activities, and academic departments, on the basis of usage to take account of the levels of cost of different types of space.
5. It is good practice for an institution:
   • to introduce fully robust methods sooner than August 2007;
   • to ensure that the estates charging methods they introduce assist in their internal space management, resource allocation and sustainability processes.
6. The estates charges should be historically based. For example, data from the 2004/05 year (included in the annual TRAC report submitted at 31 January 2006) is used to produce the estates charges applied from 1 February 2006 to 31 January 2007. As with indirect cost rates, estates charges can be used for up to 18 months (until 31 July of the following year) – after that time, until they are re-calculated, non-compliant default rates should be charged.
7. Estates charges should be calculated once a year, and apply from the 1 February of each year for the following 12 months.