HC Deb 07 March 1988 vol 129 cc34-5W
Mr. Cran

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the location and status of all buildings within his Department located in London and the annual cost of rents, rates and maintenance of each.

Mr. Lee

The Department of Employment Group, including the Advisory, Conciliation Arbitration Service, the Health and Safety Executive and the Manpower Services Commission, occupies accommodation in 224 locations in the London area ranging from its main headquarters building, Caxton house, Tothill street, London, SW1, down to small jobcentres and unemploy-ment benefit offices. Civil accommodation for Government Departments is held in the name of the Secretary of State for the Environment and managed by PSA. Property for the Manpower Services Commission is in part held in its own name and the HSE holds the lease for its headquarters at Baynards house, London, W2. Some properties are held freehold; the rents of leasehold buildings are determined on a strictly commercial, and therefore confidential, basis. The total annual rent, including services charges paid to landlords for DE Group occupied properties in London in 1986 –87, the last complete year for which figures are available, was £17 million. Comparable figures for rate payments, and maintenance charges paid to PSA for those properties managed by them, are £8.2 million and £1 .9 million respectively.