Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Wednesday 13th June 2012 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

1. What savings to the public purse have resulted from changes to the Government estate in the last two years.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

The moratorium on new leases and on passing over breaks in existing leases has helped us across central Government to save the taxpayer some £278 million from property in just the first 10 months of the coalition Government’s time in office. To date, central Government have got out of more than 900 leases and released freeholds, and last year alone the size of the estate fell by 6%.

[Graham Evans]

Will my right hon. Friend reassure the House that the Government will get value for taxpayers’ money by ensuring that, wherever possible, the publicly owned freehold estate is used to avoid the need for expensive leases?

[Mr Maude]

That is exactly our approach. Far too much of the freehold estate is under-occupied and far too many expensive leasehold properties are occupied in a very inefficient way. In Bristol alone we discovered that central Government, in their different forms, occupied 115 separate addresses, which is very inefficient and not at all conducive to joined-up government.