§ Sir Timothy Kitsonasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the total number of houses at present standing vacant at Catterick garrison; and if he will consider offering some of the properties to the local authority.
§ Mr. GoodhartThere are at present 716 married quarters empty at Catterick garrison. Some 250 are needed for future Service occupation; the rest either have been or will shortly he passed to the Property Services Agency for disposal together with about 200 others that have yet to be vacated. In normal circumstances disposal would be by sale on the open market and the local authority would of course have the opportunity to bid for them if it wished. In this case, however, because of the large numbers involved and the unlikelihood, given the military environment, of the PSA being able to sell them all quickly, I am prepared to discuss with the local authority the possibility of making a number available to it for a short period. A condition of any agreement will be that the local authority must vacate the houses when the period granted by the agreement expires.
§ Sir Timothy Kitsonasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many houses which have been built within the last 20 years at Catterick camp are now of inferior standard, poor quality and recommended for demolition.
§ Mr. GoodhartAt Catterick there are 271 timber framed married quarters of a type known as 5M which were built in the years 1965 and 1966 and which are now below standard. They have therefore been included among those quarters to be disposed of in order to reduce the number surplus in Catterick. If the 5M quarters cannot be sold on the open market, consideration will have to be given to demolition, but no decision on this has yet been taken. 99 other quarters of the same type were passed to the Property Services Agency for sale last year. They have not yet been sold.