Recommendation 12

We questioned the Department on its policy of entering into non-breakable 25-year lease agreements, which we had criticised in the past. We wanted to know whether the impact of the pandemic on the commercial property market, such as falling rents as a result of reduced demand for space, had made its policy even more unwise. We stressed that it was strange for it not to be looking at taking shorter leases.34 In April 2017, long before COVID-19, we raised our concerns about HMRC locking government into holding larger properties for longer than needed. We raised similar concerns again in January and April 2018.35