Defence estate policy

Under the authority of the SGA, the following departments deal with these tasks :

>>  The Directorate for Remembrance, Heritage and Archives (DMPA), in charge of the entire defence estate policy;
>> The Defence Infrastructure Service (SID), in charge of infrastructure support and adaptation and the ministry’s estate.

Drawing on SID expertise, the DMPA defines the Ministry of Defence estates policy in liaison with the Staff, directorates and services.

It draws up joint armed forces’ estate master plans for property located in major agglomerations of the French mainland. Such property will gradually be incorporated within the boundaries of military bases.

Defence estate is thus being rationalised, by grouping services together at fewer but better adapted sites. Buildings that are declared as being of no further use to the armed forces are transferred to the Estates Service, France, for private sale.

The Ministry’s Estates policy comes within an interministerial framework defined by the Estates Service, France on the management of the entire State's estate.

Objectives

• To make use of the public estate under conditions that ensure optimal property performance and enable it to increase in value ;

• To provide suitable conditions for users ;

• To provide a practical workplace for government staff. This policy can also be used to develop the housing supply through the sale of certain property that can be disposed of.

Property development and disposal of sites

Within the framework of the strategic guidelines defined in France’s White Paper (Livre blanc) on defence and national security and the studies of the General Review of Public Policy (RGPP), three reform principles are applied :

• Pool day-to-day support and general administration functions ;

• Outsource certain non-strategic functions currently handled within the public service ;

• Concentrate the area over which forces are stationed and increase density at certain sites by grouping together entities attached to different bodies at Ministry of Defence base.

The result of this rationalisation drive is the disposal of a considerable number of military sites. For towns most affected by these measures, military site revitalisation contracts (contrats de redynamisation de site de défense, CRSD) and local revitalisation plans (plans locaux de redynamisation, PLR) have been drawn up.

Similarly, the office in charge of the sale of estate assets - the Mission pour la réalisation des actifs immobiliers (MRAI) – works within the DMPA on developing redevelopment scenarios and conversion solutions for the restructured sites, in liaison with prefectures and local authorities.

Grouping central administration at the Balard site

In 2014, the Ministry's central administration will be grouped together at the Balard site, in Paris’ 15^th arrondissement.

This plan meets the following objectives:

• Improve cohesion and ministerial governance ;

• Support the RGPP (General Review of Public Policy) by cutting central administration staff or by relocating certain central entities currently based in Paris ;

• Provide modern and practical workplace conditions for government staff ;

• Revitalise the way in which State property assets are managed by rationalising property and optimising site use.

The configuration of future defence property still needs to be defined.

Accommodation

The French Ministry of Defence provides accommodation for its nationals at property that it owns or that it has reserved by agreement with operators.

Objectives

• Compensate military personnel for the degree of occupational mobility required of them

• Provide for social concerns by facilitating access to housing for categories of personnel on low incomes

This aid, which is granted primarily but not exclusively to personnel with families, should not be thought of as a right. Unless such right is compensation for being subject to a residency obligation.

From 2009 to 2014, the reorganisation of property occupied by the Ministry implies simultaneous support operations relative to family housing, while also defining new housing needs, estimated at 2,400.

The Ministry is involved in the national plan to develop use of the national estate aimed at increasing housing supply, by selling military land to operators with a view to developing social housing programmes, some of which is reserved for Ministry personnel entitled to housing.