Accredited official statistics

MOD Land Holdings: 2000 to 2024

Published 30 May 2024

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

This edition provides statistics for 2000 to 2024 (figures are given for 1 April each year), and updates figures released in the 2023 edition of this publication, which provided statistics up to 1 April 2023.

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

Main Points and Trends

• On 1 April 2024, the MOD owned 231,600 hectares of land and foreshore in the UK (either freehold or leasehold), which is about 0.9% of the total UK land mass^{[footnote 1]}. The MOD also held rights over a further 110,400 hectares, which is a further 0.5% of the total UK land mass. On 1 April 2024, the total UK land holdings for the MOD was 342,000 hectares (1.4% of the total UK land mass).

• Since 1 April 2023, the total land holdings have decreased by 1,500 hectares. The reduction contributes towards the MOD’s ongoing commitment to reduce the estate.

• The Army had the largest area of land owned or with rights held on 1 April 2024, at 258,500 hectares (75.6% of the MOD total).

• England accounts for the largest portion of land owned or with rights held, at 252,000 hectares (73.7% of the MOD total), a decrease of 1,500 hectares since 2023.

• Training areas and ranges occupy the largest area at 259,300 hectares (75.8% of the MOD total, this includes land which is owned, and that MOD has legal rights over), a decrease of 900 hectares since 2023.

Further information: DIODEx-GeospatialAndAnalytics@mod.gov.uk

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

Background quality report: Background quality report

Would you like to be added to our contact list, so that we can inform you about updates to our statistics and consult you if we’re thinking of making changes? You can subscribe to updates by emailing DIODEx-GeospatialAndAnalytics@mod.gov.uk

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 provide 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 manage the defence infrastructure more effectively. 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.

Accredited Official Statistics publication

Accredited Official Statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

These Accredited Official Statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2017. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘Accredited Official Statistics’.

Accreditation 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.

Further information on the accreditation process can be found here: Accreditation explanation web page

Once statistics have been designated as Accredited Official 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 an Accredited Official Statistic can be found in the Background Quality Report.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards.

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

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 of 1 April 2024, the MOD managed 342,000 hectares of land within the UK. In total, this is about 1.4% of the UK land mass. This is a decrease of 1,500 hectares over the past year. The reduction contributes towards the MOD’s ongoing commitment to reduce the estate.

Chart 1: Type of holding, as of 1 April 2024

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 (231,600 hectares) of the land was owned (either freehold or leasehold), which is 600 hectares less than the figure reported on 1 April 2023.

On 1 April 2024, the MOD held a further 110,400 hectares through legal rights, which is 900 hectares less than the figure reported on 1 April 2023.

UK Land Holdings by Top Level Budget Holder

Following budget delegation in 2020, ownership of the training estate transferred from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation to the Army, this resulted in the Army becoming the Top Level Budget Holder with the largest land holding.

As shown in Chart 2, the Army owned or had rights over the largest area, at 258,500 hectares (75.6% of the MOD total), and much of this comprises of the training estate (93.8% of the Army’s land holding is training estate).

Chart 2: Top Level Budget holder, as of 1 April 2024

A graph showing the top level budget holder area percentage split.

Source Data: DIO (IMS)

The ‘Other’ category in chart 2 includes Head Office, Defence Business Services, Ministry of Defence Police and Trading Funds (such as Defence Electronics and Components Agency, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and UK Hydrographic Office).

Navy Command includes the Defence Nuclear Organisation.

UK Land Holdings by Country

On 1 April 2024, the majority of land holdings were in England. The England land holdings were 252,000 hectares (73.7% of the MOD total), a decrease of 1,500 hectares since 2023.

As of 1 April 2024, the Scotland land holdings stood at 64,900 hectares (19.0% of the MOD total), the Wales land holdings were 23,300 hectares (6.8% of the MOD total), and the Northern Ireland land holdings were 1,800 hectares (0.5% of the MOD total). Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland land holdings have remained largely the same since 2023.

Chart 3: Type of land held by country, as of 1 April 2024

A graph showing the type of land held by all MOD then by the UK home countries.

Source: DIO (IMS)

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 2024 training areas and ranges occupied the largest area, at 259,300 hectares (75.8% of the MOD total), this has decreased by 900 hectares since 2023. Training areas and ranges also make up 99.2% of the land MOD holds legal rights to (109,500 hectares out of the total 110,400 hectares).

Research and development occupies 35,700 hectares (10.5% of the MOD total) which has remained approximately the same compared to 2023. The airfields use has decreased by 200 hectares since 2023 to 15,200 hectares, and barracks and camps has also decreased by 700 hectares to 13,300 hectares. Miscellaneous use has increased by 400 to hectares. Other types of use have stayed broadly the same.

Chart 4: Type of use, as of 1 April 2024

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 top level budget holder), 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 Electronics and Components Agency, 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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

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

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

There are no revisions 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 shorthand [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 Exploitation 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 Exploitation team (DIO)

Email:   DIODEx-GeospatialAndAnalytics@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.

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

Data Exploitation (Accredited Statistics)

Defence Infrastructure Organisation Head Office

St George’s House

DMS Whittington

Lichfield

Staffordshire

WS14 9PY

For general MOD enquiries, please call: 020 7218 9000

1. The best recorded estimate of total UK land mass 244,376km² or 24,437,600 hectares. This figure is published by United Nations Statistics and can be found at Demographic and Social Statistics (World Summary: Table 3 - Population by sex, annual rate of population increase, surface area and density). ↩