Press Release - Managing reductions in the number of vacant
family quarters
27 April 2000
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to
Parliament today that 23 per cent (over 14,000 houses) of the
family quarters estate held in Great Britain by the Ministry of
Defence (the Department) was vacant, costing some £39 milliona year
in rent and maintenance. The Executive disposed of nearly 2,000
houses in 1999 and plan to dispose of around a further 6,500
quarters by the end of 2001. Reducing the level of vacancies to the
Department’s target of 13 per cent would achieve savings of £17
million a year.
The Department’s Defence Housing Executive (the Executive)
manage the family quarters estate in Great Britain on a tri-Service
basis. The National Audit Office examined the scale and cost of
vacant quarters currently held; how the Executive plan to reduce
vacant quarters; the management of the estate to minimise vacant
quarters; and the arrangements for identifying and disposing of
houses that are surplus to requirements.
The National Audit Office found that:
- high military turnover, some 20,000 moves a year in Great
Britain, and factors like the housing modernisation programme,
require a management margin of temporarily empty houses;
- as at September 1999, 9,500 houses were unallocated, of which
the Executive estimate 5,000 were under offer to incoming families.
A proportion of the unallocated houses will be brought back into
use relatively quickly, as demonstrated by an age analysis which
showed that almost 4,000 had been empty for less than three months.
The analysis also showed that over 3,800 houses had been empty for
more than 6 months, of which 346 had been empty for over three
years;
- to help them to deliver housing that meets the Services’
requirements, the Executive seek to identify, over a five year
horizon, the size and disposition of the estate that will be
required. Although an improvement on previous planning, the process
was insufficiently precise to permit a firm grasp of the importance
of the various factors that influence demand, take-up and vacancy
rates within the family quarters estate;
- the Executive’s key target to reduce the number of vacant
quarters to 13 per cent of the estate by March 2002 was devised
from a pragmatic assessment of what seemed possible in 1995, when
it was set, rather than a detailed analysis of what level of
vacancies were needed to run the system cost-effectively;
- service personnel often provide area housing staff with as
little as two weeks notice of departure, despite usually having
received up to three months notice of posting. This lack of advance
notice inhibits sensible forward planning and leads to houses
remaining empty longer than would otherwise be necessary; and
- the current consultation process with the Services to identify
surplus properties for disposal is too time consuming. And issues
such as the continued security of military bases following the
release of housing situated behind the perimeter fencing, and
uncertainties about the future location of personnel make some
Service commanders reluctant to declare properties as surplus, even
though they lacked a clearly identified requirement for them.
To improve their management of the family quarters estate, and
to reduce the level of vacant houses held, the National Audit
Office recommends that the Department should:
- in improving their planning, include specific analysis of
stocks, performance, quality of service and other indicators and
how they relate to demand and the level of vacant property
held;
- set individual area vacancy targets by reference to local
operational factors, and a clear understanding of the need for
empty properties for specific purposes, and derive the Executive’s
overall vacancy target from the sum of area targets;
- ensure that the Services provide posting information to housing
staff, in advance of direct notification of imminent departure by
the Service person in question; and
- streamline consultation with the Services by promoting
concurrent comment from various Service stakeholders, rather than
the existing sequential and repetitive process.
Sir John said today:
"High levels of empty houses within the family quarters
estate has been a long running problem and represent a significant
drain on public resources. By implementing the NAO recommendations
the Department could reduce the level of vacant housing held and
could free up significant resources for the benefit of Service
families through improvements to the quality of the remaining
housing stock."
Notes for Editors
The Department provide around 63,000 family quarters in Great
Britain to cater for the needs of some 84,000 entitled Service
personnel and their dependants. The bulk of the estate, some 53,000
homes, is owned by Annington Homes Limited and leased back to the
Department under the terms of a sale agreement drawn up in 1996.
The Department, through the Defence Housing Executive, nevertheless
remain responsible for the management, maintenance and upgrade of
the family quarters estate in Great Britain.
Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website at http://www.nao.org.uk/ Hard copies can
be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the head
of the National Audit Office employing some 750 staff. He and the
NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 30/00
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