The Defence Infrastructure Organisation intends to commission a study on options for private finance across the Ministry of Defence estate, alongside a review of departmental space standards, feeding into a plan for investment and disinvestment over the next decade and a strategic direction running to around 2050, according to a pipeline notice published on Friday.
The notice describes work to “undertake a study review of MOD Space Standards and an overarching study report on options for PFI across the MOD estate”, with the resulting Recapitalisation Plan setting the plan for investment, from both departmental and private funding, and for disinvestment.
The contract is valued at £750,000 excluding VAT, running from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2029, and is marked as particularly suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises. It falls under the light touch regime and is classified under development services of real estate.
Pipeline notices of this kind are published purely for information and carry no commitment, and the organisation has asked that it not be contacted about this one, with further detail to follow in a tender notice if the opportunity progresses.
Two distinct pieces of work sit within the same requirement readers will note, the first of which concerns space standards, which govern how much floor area the department allocates for a given function, covering everything from single living accommodation to offices and technical buildings. Reviewing them determines how much estate the department needs in the first place, which is the starting point for deciding what to keep, what to rebuild and what to dispose of.
The second element concerns private finance, the mechanism through which a substantial part of the defence estate was delivered from the 1990s onwards, including Project Allenby Connaught covering garrisons around Aldershot and Salisbury Plain, the Colchester garrison rebuild, and the Main Building refurbishment in Whitehall.
The Treasury abolished PFI and its successor PF2 for new projects in the 2018 budget, following reviews by the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee which examined the cost of capital, the length of the contracts and the difficulty of varying requirements once a deal was signed. A number of defence arrangements entered under the model are due to reach the end of their terms over the coming years.
The estate problem
The Ministry of Defence holds around one per cent of the United Kingdom’s land mass and is among the largest property owners in the country. The condition of the estate and the size of the maintenance backlog have been examined by the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office on several occasions.
The Defence Investment Plan committed £26 billion to modernising critical naval base infrastructure alone, of which £15.1 billion goes to regenerating HM Naval Base Clyde and £7.1 billion to Devonport and its dockyard over the next decade under Project Royal Oak. Luke Pollard told Parliament this month that the Devonport figure reflects both historic underinvestment in infrastructure and evolving operational requirements.
The department bought back the married quarters estate from Annington Homes in January 2025, ending an arrangement entered into in 1996, and the Armed Forces Bill now before Parliament carries measures on service accommodation standards.
Buy your own kit?
Go fund me?
Perhaps we are talking about the vast sum of money being raised for the water industry. About £250 Billion thus far with about another £100 Billion by 2030 I believe. Probably close to a Trillion by the time all the work is done in 2050. Could keep the British taxpayer paying out for hundreds of years.