§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many vacant dwellings are owned by his Department in Plymouth.
§ Mr. SoamesAs at 30 September my Department owned 302 vacant dwellings in Plymouth in the following categories:
- Service married quarters—281
- Former married quarters in the process of sale—16
- Civilian houses—5
A large number of the vacant service married quarters were undergoing or awaiting major maintenance, held for future deployments, or formed part of the management margin needed to ensure that accommodation is available for entitled service families.
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list(a) the number of dwellings owned by his Department and (b) the number of dwellings owned by his Department which are currently unoccupied for (i) Devon and (ii) Cornwall.
§ Mr. SoamesAs at 30 September, my Department owned the following dwellings in Devon and Cornwall:
Stock Vacant Devon Service married quarters 3,040 342 Former married quarters in the process of sale 16 16 Civilian houses 9 0 Former civilian houses in the process of sale 0 0 Cornwall Service married quarters 1,138 259 Former married quarters in the process of sale 2 2 Civilian houses 0 0 Former civilian houses in the process of sale 1 0 A large number of the vacant service married quarters were undergoing or awaiting major maintenance, held for future deployments, or formed part of the management margin needed to ensure that accommodation is available for entitled service families.
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many dwellings are currently owned by his Department.
§ Mr. SoamesAs at 30 September my Department owned 74,686 dwellings in the following categories:
- Service married quarters—70,851
- Former married quarters in the process of sale—2,744
- Civilian houses—581
- Former civilian houses in the process of sale—510
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many former wives of service personnel have been evicted from Ministry of Defence properties in each year since 1989.
§ Mr. SoamesAll former wives of service personnel are allowed to remain in their married quarter for at least 93 813W days and are not normally evicted unless alternative accommodation is available to them. Figures for evictions are not held in a uniform format by the services. The figures give the number of actual evictions in respect of the Army, but for the Navy and RAF represent the number of warrants issued for the repossession of a married quarter. In most cases no eviction results, because alternative accommodation becomes available.
1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 Navy 13 19 12 33 29 123 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 RAF 23 8 47 19 44 117 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 Army 6 9 12 14 5 111 Note: 1 To date.
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the cost of providing maintenance and security on the vacant dwellings owned by his Department for each year since 1990.
§ Mr. SoamesThe cost of providing maintenance and security for surplus dwellings in the process of being sold was as follows:
Financial year
- 1993–94—£231,000
- 1994–95—to date—£124,000
Service married quarters Civilian houses Former married quarters in the process of sale Total North Devon 43 0 0 43 Exeter 7 0 0 7 Honiton 0 0 0 0 Plymouth Devonport 215 5 16 236 Plymouth Drake 8 0 0 8 Plymouth Sutton 58 0 0 58 Torridge and West Devon 11 0 0 11 Falmouth and Camborne 0 0 0 0 North Cornwall 158 0 2 160 St. Ives 88 0 0 88 South-east Cornwall 13 0 0 13 A large number of the vacant service married quarters were undergoing or awaiting major maintenance, held for future deployments, or formed part of the management margin needed to ensure that accommodation is available for entitled service families.
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many dwellings owned by his Department are currently unoccupied.
§ Mr. SoamesAs at 30 September my Department owned 11,995 vacant dwellings in the following categories:
- Service married quarters —9,715
- Former married quarters in the process of sale —2,014
- Civilian houses —209
- Former civilian houses in the process of sale —57
The majority of the vacant service married quarters were undergoing or awaiting major maintenance, held for future deployments, or formed part of the management margin needed to ensure that accommodation is available for entitled service families. Of the vacant civilian houses, 68 were leased properties awaiting return to Dumbarton 814W Figures for previous years are not available. Security for empty dwellings which are not surplus to requirements is provided by the Ministry of Defence police and military patrols and costs are therefore not separately identifiable.
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many dwellings owned by his Department have been sold to(a) local authorities and (b) housing associations since 1992.
§ Mr. SoamesThe following numbers of dwellings have been sold to local authorities and housing associations since 1992:
Financial year Local authorities Housing associations 1992–93 24 235 1993–94 27 97 1994–95—to date Nil 237 In addition, 120 flats at Rowner were sold to Barratts (Builders) in 1993–94. These will form part of a scheme involving a housing association.
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many vacant dwellings are owned by his Department in each parliamentary constituency in Devon and Cornwall.
§ Mr. SoamesAs at 30 September, my Department owned the following vacant dwellings in each parliamentary constituency in Devon and Cornwall:
district council, 91 were houses recently taken over from the United States air force awaiting occupation by Ministry of Defence police staff and the remainder were mainly properties in secure areas which could not be sold for security or safeguarding reasons.