NHS: Empty Property

(asked on 3rd February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with NHS Property Services on under-occupancy of the NHS estate; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of selling unoccupied NHS property to fund capital investment in the Health Service.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 10th February 2020

NHS Property Services aims to reduce vacant space in its estate by engaging with tenants to make sure that their accommodation meets their operational needs. NHS Property Services has introduced more flexible occupancy options; and incentives to more quickly identify opportunities for the re-let or sale of properties. By March 2019, NHS Property Services had reduced vacant space across its portfolio to 6.9% from 12% in April 2017.

NHS Property Services works closely with local clinical commissioning groups and National Health Service providers to optimise the estate and where appropriate to release properties for sale which are surplus to local healthcare requirements. Where properties are vacant for over six months without a defined future healthcare use, NHS Property Services will seek to market the property to mitigate ongoing costs locally.

The current policy is that capital receipts from the sale of surplus sites are reinvested in backlog maintenance in the NHS Property Services estate, according to needs and priorities on a national basis.

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