Introduction
The Ministry of Defence (the Department) holds one of the largest estates in the country, accounting for approximately 1.8% of the UK land mass and valued at £31 billion. The defence estate is crucial to the county’s defence capability. It includes land and also buildings such as offices, houses, storage units and training facilities (the ‘built estate’). It also includes 50,000 Service Family Accommodation units. In 2015–16 the Department spent £4.8 billion (12%) of its budget on its estate, mainly on maintaining, building and upgrading the built part of it. The Government has set targets for the Department to reduce its built estate by 30% by 2040 and make £1 billion between 2016–17 and 2020–21 by disposing of estate it no longer needs. The Department is also the largest contributor to the government’s objective of releasing land to build 160,000 new homes between 2015 and 2020, and has a target of releasing enough land to build 55,000 homes. In 2011 the Department established the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to manage the estate centrally.
20 March 2017