We live in a constantly changing world, and the pace of change has accelerated over recent years. October 2010’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), examined how Britain must organise its military capability to respond to global threats posed in the coming decades. As our armed forces change the ways in which they operate to meet the challenges of the future, so the support they receive must also evolve to reflect that change.

The new Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) came into being on 1 April 2011, with a remit to oversee the acquisition, development, management and disposal of all fixed, permanent buildings and structures, land, utilities and facility management services, with the exception of IT infrastructure. We aim to deliver better strategic management of the defence estate, providing an affordable and sustainable estate that gives our armed forces the best possible facilities in which to live, work and train.

In achieving that goal, the new organisation must achieve significant running cost reductions, and drive further estate rationalisation and commercialisation opportunities. DIO pulls together a number of roles and functions, as well as staff from the former Defence Estates (DE) organisation and personnel from organisations including the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Defence Equipment & Support.

DIO has taken on the estate management responsibilities of its predecessor DE, spending £2bn every year managing around 240,000 hectares of land – one per cent of the UK’s landmass – for the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The current military estate comprises three main areas. The built estate is made up of barracks, naval bases, depots and airfields; the housing estate comprises over 48,000 service family homes; and the defence training estate provides 16 major armed forces training areas and 104 other training areas and ranges in the UK alone.

DIO has also taken on the challenge of running an overseas estate that spans Germany,
Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and our remote overseas stations, including operational theatres such as Afghanistan. It will maintain overseas service family housing and provide estate services to the United States Visiting Forces (USVF) in the UK.

Better value for money should come from using resources differently. A new Strategic Asset-management Programme Team is translating defence infrastructure requirements into a strategic programme to deliver what our armed forces require. Meanwhile, the Next

Generation Estate Contracts (NGEC) programme will develop regional frameworks for MoD construction projects. A lot of work has gone into merging all MoD infrastructure funding and posts into DIO, with more to follow this year. Subsequent reforms will reshape DIO into a new, leaner structure.

Yet for all its assets and expenditure, the new organisation does not exist in a vacuum. It is immune to neither the SDSR nor the hardened economic times in which we currently live.
DIO now needs to prioritise its delivery plans. As Britain re-assesses the military capability that we need to stay safe in the coming decades, the new organisation must focus on getting the right estate at the right quality for the right price.

Written by Andrew Manley, Defence Infrastructure Organisation