§ Mr. HendersonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table setting out, for each Government Department(a) the total stock of commercial property owned by each Department, by both square footage and number of units, (b) the amount of such commercial property which is currently empty, by both square footage and number of units and (c) the proportion of such empty commercial property as a percentage of the total stock owned by each Department, in terms of both square footage and of number of units.
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe Secretary of State for the Environment is responsible for the Government office estate, space on which is allocated to Departments in relation to their operational needs. This estate, known as the common user estate, is made up of over 3,000 buildings with a total floor area of approximately 7,515,000 m2, of which 2,801,000 m2 is freehold and the remaining 4,714,000 m2 is leasehold. Currently, some 934,700 m2 or, 12.5 per cent., of the CUE is vacant.
In addition, the Department of the Environment has its own, specialist, departmental estate with an area of some 87,000 m2, none of which is vacant.