§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the total cost to date of consultancy payments made to firms in relation to work carried out to develop his Department's plans for the proposed sell-off of its housing stock. [6888]
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§ Mr. ArbuthnotThe total cost to date of consultancy payments made to firms in relation to new arrangements for the married quarters estate, including work carried out on the previous proposal for a housing trust and on the establishment of the Defence Housing Executive, amounts to some £5.9 million, exclusive of VAT, on the basis of invoices received by early December. Such firms include financial legal and property advisers. Of this total, approximately £1.6 million has been incurred, subsequent to the abandonment of the housing trust proposal, on the development of the proposal to transfer the married quarters estate to the private sector announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence on 30 November 1995,Official Report, columns 810–11.
§ Mr. JamiesonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the approximate value of(a) land that has planning consent and (b) land that does not have planning consent that is planned to be sold in addition to the 73,000 dwellings already announced in the plans to privatise his Department's service dwellings. [5944]
§ Mr. Arbuthnot[holding answer 18 December 1995]: As set out in the preliminary information memorandum for the sale of the married quarters estate, a copy of which is in the Library of the House, the current expectation is that the number of dwellings to be sold will be approximately 60,000. The extent of the land to be included in the sale varies from, in a few cases, little more than that on which the quarters stand to, at the other extreme, spacious grounds with low density housing. Our assessment of the value of the married quarters estate under the terms of the proposed sale is commercially confidential.