NHS: Empty Property

(asked on 26th February 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on retention of unused NHS properties left vacant after three years.


Answered by
Dan Poulter Portrait
Dan Poulter
This question was answered on 3rd March 2015

Over the current spending review period the Department has not returned any income from asset sales to HM Treasury and the proceeds have remained within the National Health Service.

It is the responsibility of each NHS organisation to decide how its property is used; decisions about whether buildings are surplus to NHS requirements are determined locally. The Department provides guidance on the management of property owned by NHS organisations in its publication Health Building Note 00-08 The efficient management of healthcare estates and facilities. This states that surplus property should be sold as soon as possible, but it does not make any reference to the period when a site is vacant.

The publication can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-efficient-management-of-healthcare-estates-and-facilities-health-building-note-00-08

The Department does not hold centrally, information about the value of currently unused NHS property. Between 2010-11 and 2013-14 foundation trusts and NHS trusts reported that they had disposed of £684 million worth of capital assets.

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