Government sells £1.1bn of properties

The government has generated £1.1bn in proceeds from offloading real estate in the year ended 31 March 2023, according to its latest figures. Findings from the Government Estate: Annual Data Publication 2022-23 show it sold 306 properties from eight departments during the period. The government is targeting £1.5bn of disposals by 2025. It said the amount raised so far is the outcome of a “major drive to make more efficient use of government land and buildings”. There were 180 land disposals, which raised £222.2m. The majority of those were made by Homes England, which sold 112 land assets, accounting for around 500 hectares. The land sold by Homes England is expected to unlock development opportunities for more than 5,000 houses and facilitate regeneration projects across the UK. The Ministry of Defence disposed of 24 assets over the course of the year, raising £65.1m. In addition, NHS trusts sold 21 sites, generating £34.3m, and NHS Property Services disposed of five secondary health care sites, which raised an additional £4.6m. Actions include work to consolidate the number of buildings that public services are provided from, to create multi-department, integrated buildings and offices. Government land and property is offloaded when it is no longer needed to support public service delivery, or where there are opportunities to make better use of the property for regeneration, such as residential or commercial developments. Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said: “We want to make government more efficient in all areas as we change this country for the better, and today’s report shows the public estate is playing its part. “We are clear that we want to see a smaller, better and greener public estate, and we want to use public property to stimulate economic growth and create opportunities for jobs and regeneration. “Those were the principles we built our Government Property Strategy around, and I am pleased we have made such impressive progress in just the first year.” The government manages the biggest single property portfolio in the UK, comprising 142,954 built assets in 2021-22, according to the report findings. Those assets were valued at a combined £179.4bn during that same year, which was an increase of £4.5bn from 2020-21. Data for valuations for the period ending March 2023 was not available for all of the government’s portfolios. However, the report provisionally showed that the total estate’s asset value grew by 2.6%, mainly driven by a 3.4% increase in the value of its schools portfolio. Notably, the value of its office estate almost doubled between 2020-21 and 2021-22. The news comes ahead of the government’s annual State of the Estate report, which will provide the full picture of the portfolio’s size, make-up, value and performance. It is set to be published early this year. To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@eg.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @EGPropertyNews Photo © imageBROKER/Shutterstock