§ Mr. HendryTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr. Straw) of 11 January,Official Report, columns 633–34, if he will break down the figures for vacant residential properties owned by his Department by county; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonAs at 31 December 1992, MOD owned 9,253 vacant properties, of which 9,087 were Service married quarters and 166 were MOD civilian houses. The married quarters were broken down by county as follows:
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Number England Avon 38 Bedfordshire 48 Berkshire 212 Buckinghamshire 80 Cambridgeshire 249 Cheshire 135 Cleveland 4 Cornwall 277 Cumbria 28 Derbyshire 0 Devon 296 Dorset 248 Durham 1 610W
Number East Sussex 20 Essex 279 Gloucestershire 55 Greater London 590 Greater Manchester 11 Hampshire 933 Hereford and Worcester 48 Hertfordshire 54 Humberside 69 Isle of Wight 0 Kent 379 Lancashire 62 Leicestershire 80 Lincolnshire 450 Merseyside 13 Norfolk 114 Northamptonshire 8 Northumberland 21 North Yorkshire 358 Nottinghamshire 51 Oxfordshire 569 Salop 93 Somerset 76 South Yorkshire 158 Staffordshire 63 Suffolk 220 Surrey 169 Tyne and Wear 2 Warwickshire 128 West Midlands 55 West Yorkshire 5 West Sussex 12 Wiltshire 834 7,595 Wales Clwyd 75 Dyfed 162 Gwent 12 Gwynedd 23 Mid Glamorgan 0 Powys 30 South Glamorgan 11 West Glamorgan 0 313 Scotland Borders 21 Central 0 Dumfries and Galloway 3 Fife 78 Grampian 98 Highlands 61 Lothian 172 Orkney 0 Shetland 18 Strathclyde 240 Tayside 79 Western Isles 47 817 Northern Ireland Antrim 56 Armagh 11 Down 151 Fermanagh 6 Londonderry 104 Tyrone 34 362 Of these 9,087 properties, 2,217 were either undergoing waiting major maintenance or modernisation, 1,690 were allocated to Service families who were due to move in shortly, 594 were being held for agreed deployments or deployments under study and 274 were being considered for possible disposal.
The civilian houses were broken down by county as follows:
Number England Berkshire 33 Devon 7 Gloucestershire 4 Hampshire 3 Hereford and Worcester 1 Kent 3 Wiltshire 9 60 Wales Dyfed 5 5 Scotland Fife 3 Strathclyde 98 101 In addition there were 1,872 vacant surplus married quarters in the process of being sold, broken down by county as follows:
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Number England Avon 12 Bedfordshire 8 Cambridgeshire 2 Cheshire 12 Cornwall 6 Cumbria 2 Devon 287 Dorset 7 East Sussex 3 Essex 1 Gloucestershire 3 Greater London 39 Hampshire 888 Kent 70 Lancashire 1 North Yorkshire 14 Nottinghamshire 23 Oxfordshire 19 Shropshire 32 Somerset 9 South Yorkshire 119 Staffordshire 27 Surrey 1 Warwickshire 9 Wiltshire 71 1,665 Wales Gwent 1 1 Scotland Dumfries and Galloway 27 Fife 85 Grampian 3 Highlands 1
Number Lothian 44 Shetland 2 Western Isles 9 171 Northern Ireland Fermanagh 3 Londonderry 32 35 There were also 57 vacant civilian houses in the process of being sold, broken down by county as follows:
Number England Bedfordshire 1 Cumbria 4 Gloucestershire 5 Hampshire 11 Middlesex 3 Wiltshire 4 28 Wales Gwent 1 1 Scotland Highland 11 Strathclyde 17 28