MoD announces sale of RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth

The others include RAF Barnham, near Thetford, and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk.

Defence Minister Mark Lancaster announced the release of the 12 sites this afternoon as part of the department’s ‘drive for greater efficiency’.

The income generated from the sales will be ploughed back into defence, in line with an announcement in the summer that all MoD savings would be reinvested into a defence budget that will rise every year of this parliament.

These sites will form the first tranche of the MoD’s plan to reduce the size of its ‘built estate’ by 30 per cent. That estate is currently one per cent of all UK land, at 452,000 hectares.

Mark Lancaster said: “By streamlining the Defence estate, we will ensure that it better meets the needs of the Armed Forces well into the future. Defence has the strongest incentive to become more efficient; with every pound we make by disposing of excess land reinvested into a defence budget that keeps Britain safe.

“We are also making an important contribution of 55,000 homes to the wider government housing targets. Every acre that we can free up will ensure that more people have the opportunity to own their own home.”

The 12 sites are:

RAF sites Mildenhall and Barnham in Suffolk and Molesworth and Alconbury in Cambridgeshire.

Kneller Hall in Twickenham

Claro and Deverell barracks in Ripon

Lodge Hill in Kent

Craigiehall in Edinburgh

HMS Nelson Wardroom in Portsmouth

Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire

MoD Felton in London

The MoD says will announce further sites ‘in due course, with a full list published in the Footprint Strategy later in 2016’.