Introduction

The Ministry of Defence is one of the largest landowners in the country, with an estate equal to about 1% of the UK land mass. The estate, spread over 4,000 sites, is critical to the effectiveness of the Armed Forces. It is used for training, accommodation and provides a base from which operations can be instigated.

The total area of the defence estate is some 373 thousand hectares (about 1,440 square miles), an area similar in size to Cornwall, and includes rights over 133 thousand hectares. It is held solely to support the delivery of defence capability. Defence Estates manages property assets ranging from barracks and airfields to rural training areas. These are valued at about £20 billion. The annual cost of new construction, maintenance and property management is over £2 billion.

For more information, visit the Defence Estates website at: http://www.defence-estates.mod.uk/

Table 6.1 shows the area of land occupied by each Service and whether owned, leased or with legal rights. The MOD owns 240 thousand hectares of land and foreshore, about the size of Dorset. The Army occupies the largest area at 157 thousand hectares, with access to a further 88 thousand hectares from various rights and grants.

Table 6.2 shows the area of MOD holdings by country. England accounts for the largest portion of MOD land holdings, where the MOD owns 190 thousand hectares and has access to a further 34 thousand hectares in rights and grants.

Table 6.2 also shows the respective areas of land and foreshore in MOD holdings, by country. Foreshore is the land between low and high tide marks. The MOD owns 222 thousand hectares of land and 19 thousand hectares of foreshore within the UK.

Table 6.3 shows the area of MOD holdings by type of use, such as airfields, training areas and barracks. Training areas occupy the largest area at 292 thousand hectares (about 1,130 square miles), including rights over 128 thousand hectares.

Larger areas of the Defence Estate

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire

The Army has been connected with Salisbury Plain since 1897 and the total area of the current estate is just over 38,000 hectares. It is 25 miles by 10 miles (40km by 16km) and occupies about one ninth of the area of Wiltshire.

Much of the land is let to farmers or is grazed under license. Approximately 12,150 hectares of the land is used for live firing and as impact areas. Public access is permanently restricted in certain areas for safety reasons.

Catterick and Feldom Training Area, Yorkshire

The area's military history dates from as far back as 1798. Later, General Lord Baden-Powell, based in Richmond from 1908 to 1910, as GOC the Northumbrian Division, was tasked by the War Office to establish a military training centre in the north of England, and he chose Catterick. Its status as a permanent training centre was secured in 1921 and a period of intensive building followed. The land comprising the current training area was acquired between 1921 and 1985 and its current size is 7870 hectares.

In conjunction with military training, Catterick Training Area is predominantly used for livestock grazing, while the better in-bye land is farmed more intensively for hay, silage and arable crops.

Otterburn Training Area, Northumberland

A military presence, in the form of Roman legions, existed in the Otterburn area as long ago as the first and second centuries AD. In 1911, the War Office bought 7,690 hectares of land and the artillery ranges were extended during the Second World War.

The training area now consists of some 22,900 hectares of land, all owned by the MOD, and is the largest single impact area range in the UK. It is partitioned into three separate Danger Areas: Redesdale Range, Otterburn Range, Bellshiels Demolition Area and has three Outside Gun Areas. Some 45,000 soldiers use the area each year. The Cheviot Dry Training Area is to the north of these areas. Otterburn Training Area also includes 2 ranges at Ponteland near Newcastle and at Whitburn on the coast between Newcastle and Sunderland. In 2007 DTE Otterburn expanded to include Ballykinler and Magilligan training areas in Northern Ireland.

Dartmoor Training Area, Devon

Military training has taken place on Dartmoor since the early 1800s, being used intensively for tactical exercises with live ammunition during the Second World War. Today the MOD uses (by freehold, lease or license) approximately 12,760 hectares of the National Park's 94,400 hectares. The Dartmoor Training Area is used for light forces' exercises, mostly for Royal Marines and other units based in the southwest.

There are three Range Danger Areas: Okehampton, Merrivale and Willsworthy, which when this land is not in use for live firing, provide for dry training with blank ammunition. There are smaller training areas at Cramber and Ringmoor.

RAF Spadeadam, Cumbria

Located on the edge of the Wark Forest between Hadrian's Wall and the Scottish Borders. The site now occupied by the RAF used to be known as the Spadeadam Wastes, mostly remote and uninhabited, until 1957 when the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Test Centre was built.

RAF Spadeadam is home to the Electronic Warfare Tactics Range, one of two such facilities in Europe, offering a unique facility for the training of aircrews in a hostile Electronic Warfare environment. The Range is contained within Low Flying Area 13, which extends from Hawick in Scotland, South to Alston in England, and from Langholm in the West to Hexham in the East.

RAF Spadeadam provides realistic Electronic Warfare training for aircrew, primarily for the RAF, but other NATO Air Forces use the range as well.

The land area is about 3642 hectares, making it the largest RAF Station in the UK. The majority of this land is sub-let for timber production to the Forestry Commission.

Service Family Accommodation - Tables 6.4 & 6.5

The Defence Housing Executive (DHE) took over responsibility for housing services from the Armed Services on 1 April 1996. In November 1996 most of the MOD's housing stock in England and Wales was sold to a private company, Annington Homes Limited (AHL). The homes required for Service families were leased back, with the condition that the MOD release a minimum number of properties over 25 years for disposal by AHL.

On 1 April 2004 the DHE ceased to be a separate Agency and became part of Defence Estates. This organisation is now called the Defence Estates' Directorate of Operations Housing. DE Ops Housing retains responsibility for managing all the Service Family Accommodation (SFA) for the Royal Navy and Marines, the Army and the Royal Air Force in the UK. It operates through a network of seven Housing Information Centres (HICs), in three regions, which report to the Directorate Head Office located at RAF Brampton in Cambridgeshire. The Director of Operations Housing reports to the Director General of Operations, Defence Estates.

Table 6.4 shows the numbers of Service Family Accommodation properties in the UK and the numbers and proportion vacant. There are around 51,000 properties in the UK, of which around 10,500 are currently vacant. There are around 40,000 occupants in England, Wales and Scotland, and around 1000 in Northern Ireland.

Table 6.5 shows the surveyed condition of Service Family Accommodation properties within Great Britain. Around 94% of properties are assessed as Standard 1 or 2 (good condition, or requiring minor improvements) as of 31st March.