Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the duration of his Department's lease at 2 Marsham Street is; and what break clause arrangements there are.

The move to 2 Marsham Street will reduce my Department's running costs by £9 million a year from 2015-16. Overall, these changes will save the Government £24 million a year.

The Department does not have a lease for 2 Marsham Street. Our co-location with the Home Office is formalised through an inter-department Memorandum of Terms of Occupation.

Since 2010, the Department has had considerable success in reducing the cost of its wider estate through the rationalisation of retained office space and targeted building disposals. This has seen the Department surrender six leasehold office properties through a combination of lease breaks and expiries, generating net savings in the period of around £7 million per annum. The Department has also successfully sub-let surplus space across its leasehold office estate during the same period, reducing the overall property costs by around £6.5 million per annum.

Building on this success, in 2013-14, we have already secured further savings of £4.6 million by subletting further space in Eland House in London. Most recently, the Department negotiated the early surrender of Eland House and is scheduled to relocate to 2 Marsham Street.

This illustrates the scope for local government and, indeed, the public sector as a whole to make sensible savings through better property management.

In June 2013, supporting the Prime Minister's commitment to support the development of small and medium enterprises, the Department agreed terms with business incubator providers to take vacant space at 2 Rivergate House in Bristol and Bridge House, Guildford. This is an important part of the Government's drive to assist the start-up and small and medium enterprises business and we are also working with the Government Property Unit on potential Government Space for Growth opportunities in other properties held by DCLG.