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 Family Accommodation (SFA) in the UK, having assumed responsibility for Northern Ireland from 1 April 2008. At 31st March 2009 it managed some 49,900 properties. The planned reduction in UK Permanent Holdings has seen 1,300 properties disposed of in the last year.

Vacant properties

There are about 8,400 vacant properties in the UK. Around 2,700 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.

Number 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 2009 there were around 40,000 entitled and eligible occupants in England, Wales and Scotland, including 1,500 in SSFA. 1,300 entitled and eligible personnel occupy SFA in Northern Ireland.
 
Permanent holdings
 
 1990   1997   2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
United Kingdom
 75.0   68.6   53.8 52.8 51.9 51.8 51.1 51.2 49.9
England & Wales
 *   *   46.3 45.8 45.3 45.1 44.9 45.2 44.9
Scotland
 *   *   4.3 4.1 3.8 3.8 3.5 3.6 3.2
Northern Ireland
 *   *   3.2 2.9 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.4 1.8
Vacant accommodation
 
 1990   1997   2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
United Kingdom
 11.8   13.2   8.8 8.2 7.9 9.5 10.1 10.5 8.4
England & Wales
 *   *   7.4 7.0 6.7 7.9 8.2 8.1 7.3
Scotland
 *   *   0.8 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.6
Northern Ireland
 *   *   0.6 0.5 0.5 0.8 1.1 1.5 0.5
Vacant properties as a percentage of all dwellings Percentage
 
 1990   1997   2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
United Kingdom
 16   19   16 16 15 18 20 21 17
England & Wales
 *   *   16 15 15 18 18 18 16
Scotland
 *   *   19 17 18 21 23 25 18
Northern Ireland
 *   *   19 17 18 28 41 63 26
Source: Housing Directorate of Defence Estates