Defence Estates manage the housing and accommodation for British service personnel and their families, on behalf of the MOD.
Some Numbers 2011
40,000 Service families rely on DE for housing.
70,000 Houses and 160,000 bed spaces worldwide
20,000 annual moves into and out of accommodation.
Voids are said to be running between 18-21%
Defence Estates role includes every aspect of estate management including:
• Property planning
• Procurement of contracts and services. For example capital works and property maintenance services are outsourced, as are water and sewerage contracts.
• Advice to Ministers on politically sensitive infrastructure issues
• Planning and delivery of environment and heritage work
• Setting property-related standards for the estate
• Purchases, leases and disposals
• DE holds the estate in trust and on trust for the nation.
The majority of service family association (SFA) housing in England and Wales is either leased from a private sector company Annington Homes Limited who bought most of the MOD’s housing stock in 1996 or is provided under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Houses in Northern Ireland and Scotland and some other areas are MOD owned.
The strategy for the next decade is contained in the Defence Accommodation Management Strategy
More information on SFA entitlement and national archive info
Read Housing Fit For Heroes for more history on military housing
Update March 17th 2011. Kate Middleton and Prince William’s RAF salary of £37,170 means the couple could only obtain a mortgage of £142,000, according to the Spanish banking giant Santander.
It found a selection of properties valued at this amount across the country, many of which it described as ‘less than regal’.
They include a two-bedroom bungalow in Windsor which is a rebuilt mobile home, measuring just 50 square foot, and a parking space close to Westminster. The money could also buy them a one-bedroom flat where they first met. Telegraph’s full story
