MoD create DIO to manage its property and FM

24 February 2011

Defence Secretary, Dr. Liam Fox has created a single organisation to manage Defence property. Called The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), it will deliver strategic management of the military estate and save £1.2bn over the first four years alone.

The DIO will bring together all those working on estate and infrastructure activity from across the Ministry of Defence to be a ‘one stop shop’ managing the majority of infrastructure services across Defence and delivering an essential part of the Defence reform agenda. DIO will take on the estate management responsibilities Defence Estates, overseeing the physical maintenance of buildings and equipment including support services and supply of energy and water. It will also take on supporting of military estates in Germany, Cyprus, Falkland Islands and Gibraltar, operational theatres such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and the management of infrastructure PFI contracts.
The DIO will bring together about 7000 staff mostly from Defence Estates. There will a reduction of about 2,500 posts by 2014 and savings of £1.2bn over the first four years through estate rationalisation and other efficiency measures.
Creating a single defence infrastructure organisation will be carried out in phases, and it will take a number of years to fully transform the business. Phase 1 involves merging all MOD infrastructure funding and posts into one organisation by 1 April 2011. Subsequent phases should start in the financial year 2011-12 to transform the organisation to its final structure. Defence infrastructure staff are already working on rationalising 'soft' FM contract, a first step towards DIO taking responsibility for 'total FM'. Ultimately, single regional contracts will cover 'soft' and 'hard' FM.
DIO will take on the responsibilities of Defence Estates, which currently spends some £2bn each year managing around 240,000 hectares of land and property on behalf of the MoD, making the department one of the country's largest landowners, with an estate equivalent to one per cent of the UK landmass. The current military estate comprises three main areas: the Built Estate comprising barracks, naval bases, depots and airfields; the Housing Estate comprising over 48,000 service family homes; and the Defence Training Estate comprising16 major armed forces training areas and 104 other training areas and ranges in the UK.