Recommendation 3

The Department has made slow progress in reducing the size of its estate. Since 2015–16, the Department has reduced its built estate by just 2%. It has spent too long planning and re-organising, thereby delaying disposals. Recently, the Department appears to be getting a better grip on estate optimisation. It now has a central 6 Optimising the defence estate team coordinating the DEO Portfolio and has resolved a funding gap to 2031. The Department has also delegated more responsibility for estate management to TLBs. It must now live up to its new Permanent Secretary’s mantra of “delivery, delivery, delivery” and tackle significant challenges. In 2019, the Department ended its 10- year contract with its Strategic Business Partner five years early because it was not delivering expected benefits. This created a skills and capabilities gap which the Department is seeking to fill by building in-house capabilities, although it currently remains reliant on contractors. To maximise sales receipts, the Department is working with local authorities to include site disposals in local plans and is developing strategies to dispose of large and complex sites. It has also started looking at ways to speed up the slow and complex process of rehousing displaced units and selling vacated sites, including engaging with the government-wide Project Speed, which aims to quicken infrastructure projects. Recommendation: By the end of this Parliament, the Department must be able to demonstrate that it has built on recent developments to deliver planned site disposals. Each June, it should provide the Committee with an update on its progress, reporting against its revised performance framework. It should also identify and apply good practice from across the public and private sectors to ensure it is achieving timely disposals which maximise returns.