National statistics

MOD Land Holdings: 2000 to 2021

Published 27 May 2021

MOD UK Land Holdings 2021

Last updated: 27 May 2021

This is an annual publication which provides figures on Ministry of Defence (MOD) land holdings in the UK, by parent service, country, type of use and whether owned, leased or with legal rights.

This edition provides statistics for 2000 to 2021 (figures are given for 1 April each year), and updates figures released in the 2020 edition of this publication, which provided statistics up to 1 April 2020.

This publication does not provide information on the overseas Defence estate and includes land declared as surplus to defence requirements.

Main Points and Trends

• At 1 April 2021, the MOD owned 233,000 hectares of land and foreshore in the UK (either freehold or leasehold), which is about 1.0% of the total UK land mass. The MOD also held rights over a further 111,200 hectares, which is a further 0.5% of the total UK land mass. On 1 April 2021, the total UK land holdings for the MOD was 344,200 hectares.^{[footnote 1]}

• Since 1 April 2020, the total land holdings have decreased by 88,300 hectares. Nearly all of the reduction in land holdings is due to a restructure of the land management agreement used for training purposes by military personnel. For example, there is an initiative in Scotland to move away from legal right licences to Pay as You Train agreements, which has led to a 95,400 hectares reduction compared to 2020. The reduction contributes towards the MOD’s ongoing commitment to reduce the estate.

• The Centre had the largest area of land owned or with rights held on 1 April 2020. The Training Estate has now been transferred from the Centre to the Army, following budget delegation. Therefore, the Army on 1 April 2021 had the largest area at 224,100 hectares.

• England accounts for the largest portion of land owned or with rights held, at 254,000 hectares (73.8% of the MOD total), a decrease of 200 hectares since 2020.

• Training areas and ranges occupy the largest area at 260,700 hectares (75.7% of the MOD total, this includes land which is owned and that MOD has legal rights over), a decrease of 95,300 hectares since 2020.

Further information: DIO-DAIAnalytics@mod.gov.uk

Responsible statistician: Analysis-ChiefStatsOffice@mod.gov.uk

Background quality report: Background quality report

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Please refer to the Supplementary tables containing all data presented in this publication.

Introduction

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is one of the largest landowners in the country, operating over an estate approximately equal to 1.4% of the UK land mass. MOD sites are used for training, accommodation and provides a base from which operations can be instigated. The estate is currently managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and third party organisations, who have a remit to ensure the safety, sustainability and rationalisation of the estate. The MOD has published land holdings and building statistics since 1981.

The information in this publication, and the accompanying supplementary tables, have been taken from the Infrastructure Management System (IMS). IMS was implemented by DIO in 2014 as a mechanism to more effectively manage the defence infrastructure. Prior to the implementation of IMS, an asset verification exercise took place to capture accurately the defence estate. DIO have a clear process to ensure that IMS is updated with any changes to the estate, so the information about the defence estate is reflective of the current situation. A number of inclusions and exclusions apply to the figures in this publication. Further details of these can be found in the Methodology section of the report and Background Quality Report.

A National Statistics publication

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act of 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The continued designation of these statistics as National Statistics was confirmed in 2017 following a compliance check by the Office for Statistics Regulation. The statistics last underwent a full assessment against the Code of Practice in 2012.

Designation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

• meet identified user needs;

• are well explained and readily accessible;

• are produced according to sound methods; and

• are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest.

Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed. Further details about how this report has been developed since its confirmation as National Statistics can be found in the Background Quality Report.

UK Land Holdings for Defence

UK Land Holdings by Type of Ownership

There are several ways that land can be held by organisations, DIO manages land through the following three ways:

1. Freehold – land which has been bought on a permanent basis

2. Leasehold – land which is held by an organisation for a definitive period of time

3. Rights Held – land which is held on a (most usually) short term and contractual basis or through grants for a specific purpose. MOD holds a lot of land in this way because it is a more cost effective and flexible way to meet the changing operational requirements for defence.

As at 1 April 2021, the MOD managed 344,200 hectares of land within the UK. In total, this is about 1.4% of the UK land mass. This is a decrease of 88,300 hectares over the past year. The reduction contributes towards the MOD’s ongoing commitment to reduce the estate.

Chart 1: Type of holding, as at 1 April 2021

Alt text: a graph showing the type of holding percentage split for freehold, leasehold and rights held.

Source: DIO (IMS)

Chart 1 shows that just over two thirds (233,000 hectares) of the land is owned (either freehold or leasehold), which is 7,200 hectares more than the figure reported at 1 April 2020.

On 1 April 2021, the MOD held a further 111,200 hectares through legal rights, which is 95,500 hectares less than the figure reported at 1 April 2020.

UK Land Holdings by Parent Service Area

Following budget delegation in 2020, ownership of the training estate transferred from the Centre to the Army, this has resulted in the Army becoming the parent service area with the largest land holding. As shown in Chart 2, the Army owned or had rights over the largest area, at 224,100 hectares (65.1% of the MOD total), and much of this comprises of the training estate (93.2% of the Army’s total).

Chart 2: Parent service area, as at 1 April 2021

Alt text: a graph showing the parent service area percentage split for Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, the centre and other.

Source Data: DIO (IMS)

‘The Centre’ includes Defence Equipment & Support, Defence Infrastructure Organisation (including former Defence Training Estate and Service family quarters leased from Annington Property Ltd.) and Centre Top Level Budget holders.

The ‘Other’ category in chart 2 includes Permanent Joint Headquarters and Trading Funds.

UK Land Holdings by Country

On 1 April 2021, the majority of land holdings were in England. The England land holdings were 254,000 hectares (73.8% of the MOD total), a decrease of 200 hectares since 2020.

The Scotland land holdings have decreased by 88,000 hectares since 2020. As of 1 April 2021, the Scotland land holdings stood at 65,100 hectares (18.9% of the MOD total). Nearly all of this reduction is explained by a restructure of the land management agreement with land used for training purposes by military personnel.

The Wales land holdings was 23,300 hectares, a decrease of 100 hectares since 2020 (6.8% of the MOD total). Northern Ireland has remained the same, accounting for 0.5% of land holdings.

Chart 3: Type of land held by country, as at 1 April 2021

Alt text: a graph showing the type of land held by all MOD then by the UK home countries.

Source: DIO (IMS)

Alt text: a map showing the type of land held by the UK home countries.

UK Land Holdings by Type of Use

Chart 4 below shows that on 1 April 2021 training areas and ranges occupy the largest area, at 260,700 hectares (75.7% of the MOD total), this has decreased by 95,300 hectares since 2020. Nearly all of this reduction is explained by a restructure of the land management agreement with land used for training purposes by military personnel. Training areas and ranges also make up 99.4% of the land MOD holds legal rights to (110,500 hectares out of the total 111,200 hectares).

Research and development occupy 35,800 hectares (10.4% of the MOD total) which is an increase of 7,300 hectares from the previous year. This increase is a result of a new agreement and improved data quality. Other types of use have stayed broadly the same.

Chart 4: Type of use, as at 1 April 2021

Alt text: a graph showing the type of use percentage split for airfields, training area and ranges, barracks and camps, storage and supply depots, research and development, and other.

Source: DIO (IMS)

Detailed figures on the MOD’s UK land holdings at 1 April each year since 2000 can be found in Table 1 (by parent Service), Table 2 (by country) and Table 3 (by type of use): MOD Land Holdings Bulletin Index

Methodology

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is the estate expert for defence, supporting the armed forces to enable military capability by planning, building, maintaining, and servicing infrastructure. We are responsible for enabling defence people to live, work, train and deploy at home and overseas. Our vision is to equip defence with a significantly smaller, more efficient, better quality estate.

For more information, visit the Defence Infrastructure Organisation website

Data Sources and Quality

The land holding figures are derived from the DIO Infrastructure Management System (IMS) which contains information on all non-sensitive property assets that are owned, occupied or over which the MOD hold rights. The figures in the publication do have notable inclusions and exclusions which are as follows (these caveats apply to all figures from 2011):

• The figures presented include land occupied by all MOD TLB holders (including United States Visiting Forces (USVF) occupied sites); all Trading Funds and Agencies (including Defence Support Group, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and the Hydrographic Office).

• Civil estate (for example offices) owned by MOD that are currently being used by another Government Department, and not at all by MOD, are excluded.

• The reserve (or volunteer) estate is included from 2016, this is due to a data quality improvement. Comparable figures for earlier years are not available.

• The Rights figures for England & Scotland include those agreements where Training on Private Land (ToPL) has been formalised with the landowner through a legal Agreement.

• Information on PFI (Private Finance Initiative), dockyard, and AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) assets are currently being reviewed, any updates will be reflected in later publications.

• In Wales significant amounts of ToPL occurs on an informal agreement basis so these figures are not included. As most of the land held under Rights agreements is used for training, which is driven by operational requirements, the extent of Rights held can vary significantly from year to year.

• Changes to the estate which have not been captured on IMS at the time the data was extracted for this bulletin are not included.

• Due to the way the data is held in the IMS, it is no longer possible to show the extent of foreshore held by the MOD. Therefore, separate figures for this are no longer shown but are included in the totals provided.

Data quality improvements to the IMS were reinforced as a result of recommendations from the National Audit Office 2010 report: ‘A Defence Estate of the Right Size to meet Operational Needs’. Further information about these improvements and other aspects of data quality can be found in the Background Quality Report.

Further Information

Symbols

Symbol
||	discontinuity in time series
*	not applicable
..	not available
–	zero or rounded to zero

Rounding

Within this publication, all figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred hectares or to one decimal place for percentages. Where rounding has been used, totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts.

Revisions

No revisions have been made to this edition.

Corrections to the published statistics will be made if errors are found, or if figures change as a result of improvements to methodology or changes to definitions. When making corrections, we will follow the Ministry of Defence Statistics Revisions and Corrections Policy. All corrected figures will be identified by the symbol “r”, and an explanation will be given of the reason for and size of the revision. Corrections which would have a significant impact on the utility of the statistics will be corrected as soon as possible, by reissuing the publication. Minor errors will also be corrected, but for convenience these corrections may be timed to coincide with the next annual release of the publication.

Contact Us

This publication has been produced by the Data, Analytics and Insight team in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

We welcome feedback on our statistical products. If you have any comments or questions about this publication or about our statistics in general, you can contact us as follows:

Data, Analytics and Insight team (DIO)

Email: DIO-DAIAnalytics@mod.gov.uk

If you require information which is not available within this or other available publications, you may wish to submit a Request for Information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Ministry of Defence.

Other contact points within Defence Statistics are:

Defence Expenditure Analysis	033 6793 4531	Analysis-Expenditure-Head@mod.gov.uk
Price Indices	030 6793 2100	Analysis-Econ-PI-SeniorTeamLdr@mod.gov.uk
Naval Service Manpower	023 9254 7426	Analysis-Navy-Hd@mod.gov.uk
Army Manpower	01264 886175	Analysis-Army-Hd@mod.gov.uk
RAF Manpower	01494 496822	Analysis-Air-Hd@mod.gov.uk
Tri-Service Manpower	020 7807 8896	Analysis-Tri-Hd@mod.gov.uk
Civilian Manpower	020 7218 1359	Analysis-Surveys-Civilian-Hd@mod.gov.uk
Health Information	030 6798 4423	Analysis-Health-PQ-FOI@mod.gov.uk

If you wish to correspond by mail, our postal address is:

Data, Analytics and Insight (National Statistics)
Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Kingston Road
Sutton Coldfield
West Midlands
B75 7RL

For general MOD enquiries, please call: 020 7218 9000

1. The best recorded estimate of total UK land mass 242,495km² or 24,249,500 hectares. This figure is published by United Nations Statistics and can be found at the following link: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/dyb/documents/dyb2019/table03.pdf ↩