§ Mr. RaynsfordTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what were the estimated costs of the conversion of the Royal Naval college at Greenwich to accommodate the joint service command and staff college(a) as set out in the consultation document published by his Department in January 1995 and (b) as subsequently revised, in each case taken over a 25-year period at net present value. [18471]
§ Mr. Soames[holding answer 3 March 1997]: The 1995 consultative document considered two Greenwich-based options, the difference lying in the number of students on the advanced course. The most relevant of these is the option with 312 students on the advanced course, which had a 25-year net present value of £256 million at September 1993 prices. As the Greenwich option was effectively ruled out at this point, for a variety of reasons including the fact that its costs were 25 per cent. higher than the then preferred Camberley option, no revised costs have been produced. Uplifting the figure by standard defence indices gives an NPV of approximately £290 million at April 1997 prices. Broadly comparable NPV figures for the recently announced preferred Serco/Laing proposal, albeit over a 30-year period and with an advanced course of 327 students, are around £195 million.