The Reserve Estate Optimisation Programme (REOP) involves construction, unit moves and disposal activities that will modernise and rationalise the reserves estate to be more efficient, and to change from a historic footprint to one that supports today’s demands.
The Ministry of Defence recognises that its estate is too large and that its scale, nature and location has not evolved enough to accommodate the Armed Forces’ future needs.
In November 2016, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced a 25-year strategy to modernise the Defence estate to support future capability requirements and launched its 25-year Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) Portfolio. The portfolio was first mobilised in late 2016 to implement the MOD’s Footprint Strategy (FS) to contribute to the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review’s (SDSR) commitment to invest in key Defence sites and reduce the department’s “Built Estate”.
SDSR also laid out that the disposal of surplus Defence Estate would release public sector land for new homes as part of wider government housing objectives. FS was announced in part as “A Better Defence Estate” (BDE) by the Secretary of State in November 2016, pledging a multi-billion investment in the estate.
The NAO audit of the progress made towards its targets showed that the Ministry of Defence had failed to reduce the size of its built estate by 30% (23,200 hectares) by 2040-41; failed to raise £1 billion through disposals by the end of March 2021; and failed to release enough land by March 2020 on which to build 55,000 homes.
At the time of the NAO audit published in June 2021, the Ministry of Defence had reduced the size of its built estate by just 2% (1,600 hectares).
In May 2022, the MOD published its annual Land Holdings report. These figures showed the MOD land holdings at 343,000 hectares. The 343,000 hectares that comprise the Defence Estate is equivalent to an area the size of Cambridgeshire. This figure dropped by 600 hectares between 2021 and 2022, equivalent to the size of the Grafham Water reservoir.
Looking back at the NAO Report “A defence estate of the right size to meet operational needs” from 2010, the Defence Estate was already approximated at 370,000 hectares in the UK and had shrunk by 3,400 hectares in the ten years to 2009. It had not at that time yet set a target to reduce the size of the built estate by 30% by 2041 but had already recognised the Defence estate could be reduced.
On 28th February 2023, the Ministry of Defence published its latest update to the DEO disposal timeline, showing key sites earmarked to be sold between 2023 and 2035. In the East Anglia region, the following sites, totalling an area of over 1,400 hectares, were included in the documents submitted to the Library of the House of Commons in June 2022:
| Location Name | Parcel Name | Disposal from | County |
| RAF WYTON (AIRFIELD) | VARIOUS PARCELS | 2022 | Cambridgeshire |
| WATERBEACH BARRACKS | VARIOUS PARCELS | 2022 Cambridgeshire | Cambridgeshire |
| GPSS ALCONBURY | ALCONBURY VALVE COMPOUND | 2022 | Cambridgeshire |
| COLCHESTER TRAINING AREA | FRIDAYWOOD FARM | 2022 | Essex |
| LTPA SHOEBURYNESS | POTTON ISLAND | 2022 | Essex |
| COLCHESTER TRAINING AREA | MIDDLEWICK RANGES NORTH | 2022 | Essex |
| WARLEY AHQ | AREA HEADQUARTERS ROYAL ANGLIAN REGIMENT WARLEY | 2022 | Essex |
| LTPA SHOEBURYNESS | RUSHLEY ISLAND | 2022 | Essex |
| DSG COLCHESTER | DSG COLCHESTER | 2022 | Essex |
| RAF HENLOW | PLAYING FIELDS | 2022 | Bedfordshire |
| GPSS HETHERSETT | HETHERSETT PSD | 2022 | Norfolk |
| GPSS MASSINGHAM | MASSINGHAM PSD | 2023 | Norfolk |
| MDPGA WEATHERSFIELD | VARIOUS PARCELS | 2025 | Essex |
| MDPGA WEATHERSFIELD | POLICE HEADQUARTERS AND TRAINING CENTRE | 2025 | Essex |
| RAF HENLOW | NORTH SITE | 2026 | Bedfordshire |
| RAF BARNHAM | RAF BARNHAM | 2027 | Suffolk |
| ROBERTSON BARRACKS | ROBERTSON BARRACKS | 2029 | Norfolk |
This timeline shows the order of events that have contributed to the Reserve Estate Optimisation Programme coming in to support the long-term Defence goals.
Cadets and reservists to benefit from REOP construction, unit moves and disposals that will modernise and rationalise the Reserve & Cadet estate to be more efficient.
Mr Tobias Ellwood, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (2017-21019) stated during a debate about the Better Defence Estate in the House of Commons: “It has very much been at the forefront of our minds to make sure that we do not lose the important asset of our reservist capability and our cadets simply because of the defence estate optimisation programme.”
The Reserve Estate Optimisation Programme (REOP) is a major Defence investment which aims to optimise the “Volunteer Estate” (comprising the Army Reserve Centres and Cadet Centres owned and managed by the RFCA on behalf of the MOD) to be more efficient, and to change from a historic footprint to one that supports today’s demands.
REOP is linked to improving the lived experience of Reserves and Cadets by providing modern, energy-efficient, fit-for-purpose training locations, situated geographically to maintain the visibility of uniformed organisations while eliminating duplication of land holdings in similar areas to provide better value for money for the taxpayer.
Run as separate organisations at every level, the Army Cadets and the Air Cadets for example have traditionally occupied their own buildings, funded by separate funding streams. In some circumstances those are leased within schools or community centres, but more often than not the Cadet buildings are standalone venues occupied only by the cadets. Since the cadets only meet a few nights a week and are at school all day, some cadet buildings do sit empty most of the time. REOP is fast-tracking the push to modify the best-placed Cadet Huts into Joint Cade Centres. These provide better value for money and ensures the youth organisations remain accessible to young people in both urban and rural areas across the country.
The 13 RFCAs maintain the estate to the required legal standard, ensuring that all sites are kept in good condition, fit-for-purpose and secure through good project and facilities management. The RFCAs are responsible on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for the upkeep of 460 Reserve Forces’ sites and 2,300 Cadet sites in the UK. In East Anglia, our professionally qualified team manage an estate comprised of 14 Army Reserve Centres and 190 Cadet sites, totalling 500 individual buildings and acres of land.
The programme was approved by the Secretary of State for Defence based on recommendations collated from all the Estates Teams from all 13 RFCAs put forward in early 2022. The recommendations included specific project & locations that could be delivered in the first tranche of REOP.
In July 2022, a pre-market tender was launched by the Council of Reserve Forces and Cadets’ Association for Tranche 1 of the Reserve Estate Optimisation Programme (REOP)
The REOP Programme is planned by Defence to be delivered in a series of 3 sequential Tranches. REOP Tranche 1 consists of projects which represent immediate optimisation opportunities for the Volunteer Estate, and focuses principally on improving the cadet experience. The mandated delivery timescale for Tranche 1 is 30 months as of January 2022, and it consists of the following two workstreams:
- A group of ‘early wins’ projects, which has received approval to proceed and is currently in delivery. The ‘early wins’ projects do not fall within scope of the Council of RFCA’s market engagement survey.
- A group of more complex ‘remainder’ projects, consisting of new build Joint Cadet Centres (JCC’s) along with refurbishments and extensions to existing cadet facilities.
The REOP workstream is separate to the Future Defence Infrastructure Strategy (FDIS), which is currently the highest value facilities management procurement in Europe valued at £3 Billion over the next ten years. While FDIS has also come about as a result of SDSR and the Better Defence Estate strategy, FDIS focusses on modernising the Defence estate by revising the way the Defence estate is maintained leading to better value for money estates services for Armed Forces customers.
The specified contract start date for Tranche 1 REOP works under the tender agreement is 02 Oct 2023. The RFCA’s External Scrutiny Team recommendations from the latest review into the state and capability assessment of the Reserve Forces published in May 2022 notes that contractors are reporting a shortage of staff and rising costs and long delivery times for steel and timber. This item will no doubt be expanded on in the next report by the External Scrutiny Team, the publication date for which has not yet been announced.