§ Mrs. Bridget PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the square footage and cost of office apace rented by his Department and its agencies and the number of his Department's or agencies' buildings partly or fully unoccupied together with the square footage of that unoccupied office space and its estimated rental value where available in each of the past five financial years. [27721]
453W
§ Mr. BurtThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out in the tables:
Square footage and cost of rented office space Year Square footage Rent passed to property holdings (PH) division of the Department of Environment £000 1991–92 16,290,696 138,521 1992–93 18,083,520 177,214 1993–94 16,049,124 191,709 1994–95 18,029,700 201,125 1995–96 18,341,856 206,402 Property Holdings division of the Department of the Environment was responsible for the cost of vacant Common User (Office) Estate up to and including 31 March 1996.
Size and cost of vacant office space Year Vacant or under-utilised properties Cost £000 1991–92 Minimal Minimal 1993–94 1994–95 (first ¾) 1994–95 (last ¼) 95,046 ft2 420 1995–96 95,046 ft2 1,682 Information for each executive agency could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
In response to the information required regarding properties on the Common User (Office) Estate, I refer the hon. Member to the recent reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment on 31 January, Official Report, columns 648–50.