Chapter 6 - Land Holdings and Buildings
 
Table 6.4 Service family accommodation in the United Kingdom, at 31 March each year in
                     thousands of dwellings
Defence Estates' Directorate of Operations Housing is responsible for Service Families Accommodation (SFA) in England, Wales and Scotland. At 31st April 2008 it managed some 48,800 properties, and assumed responsibility for Northern Ireland from 1 April 2008.
Vacant properties

There are about 9000 vacant properties in England, Wales and Scotland. Around 2500 of these are either awaiting incoming deployments, modernisation or disposal, whilst the remainder are available to let or are already under offer to Service families.

Numbers of Occupants

DE Ops Housing provides SFA for entitled Service personnel in accordance with Tri-Service Accommodation Regulations, as well as for other entitled/eligible personnel, and for core welfare purposes. SFA is temporarily utilised for other defence purposes such as single living accommodation.
DE Ops Housing also reports on the number of Substitute Service Family Accommodation (SSFA) properties occupied by entitled Service personnel, i.e. those who would otherwise occupy SFA were it available when and where required. SSFA is private property, is not part of DE Ops Housing stock, and is provided under contract. At 2 April 2008 there were over 39,000 entitled and eligible occupants in England , Wales and Scotland , including 1,175 in SSFA. 1000 entitled and eligible personnel occupy SFA in Northern Ireland and this will have increased to approx 1340 by September 2008 as 3 major Unit Moves complete.
 
Permanent holdings
1990   1997   2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
United Kingdom
 75.0   68.6   55.8 53.8 52.8 51.9 51.8 51.1 51.2
England & Wales
 *   *   48.1 46.3 45.8 45.3 45.1 44.9 45.2
Scotland
 *   *   4.5 4.3 4.1 3.8 3.8 3.5 3.6
Northern Ireland
 *   *   3.2 3.2 2.9 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.4
Vacant accommodation
1990   1997   2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
United Kingdom
 11.8   13.2   9.4 8.8 8.2 7.9 9.5 10.1 10.5
England & Wales
 *   *   8.1 7.4 7.0 6.7 7.9 8.2 8.1
Scotland
 *   *   0.7 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.9
Northern Ireland
 *   *   0.6 0.6 0.5 0.5 0.8 1.1 1.5
Vacant properties as a percentage of all dwellings Percentage
1990   1997   2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
United Kingdom
 16   19   17 16 16 15 18 20 21
England & Wales
 *   *   17 16 15 15 18 18 18
Scotland
 *   *   16 19 17 18 21 23 25
Northern Ireland
 *   *   19 19 17 18 28 41 63
Source: Housing Directorate of Defence Estates