Property Portfolio
The Ministry of Defence is one of the United Kingdom's largest landowners owning, as of January 2010, 240,000 hectares (2,400 square kilometres) which were valued in 2009 at "nearly £20 billion". The MOD also has "rights of access" to a further 130,000 hectares. The National Audit Office estimates annual expenditure on the defence estate at £2.9 billion.
The defence estate is divided as training areas & ranges (78.1%), airfields (7%), research & development (4.9%), storage & depots (3.1%), barracks & camps (3.1%), miscellaneous (1.8%), radio sites (1.7%), and naval bases (0.3%). These are largely managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.
The headquarters of the MOD are in Whitehall and are now known as Main Building. This structure is neoclassical in style and was originally built between 1938 and 1959 to designs by Vincent Harris to house the Air Ministry and the Board of Trade. The northern entrance in Horse Guards Avenue is flanked by two monumental statues, Earth and Water, by Charles Wheeler. Opposite stands the Gurkha Monument, sculpted by Philip Jackson and unveiled in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II. Within it is the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial, and nearby are memorials to the Fleet Air Arm and RAF (to its east, facing the riverside). A major refurbishment of the building was completed under a PFI contract by Skanska in 2004.
Henry VIII's wine cellar at the Palace of Whitehall, built in 1514–1516, is in the basement of Main Building, and is used for entertainment. The entire arched brick structure of the cellar was moved a short distance in 1949.
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Famous quotes containing the word property:
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 11:21.22.