To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what departmental assets are planned to be sold in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11; what the (i) description and (ii) book value is of each such asset; what the expected revenue is from each such sale; and by what date each asset is expected to have been sold. (310243)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 11 January 2010, Official Report, column 676W.

The Government have stated their intention to realise £16 billion from asset and property sales over the period by 2013-14. On 7 December the Government published the “Operational Efficiency Programme: Asset Portfolio”, setting out the next steps for the delivery of the £16 billion by 2013-14.

DEFRA has approximately £6.9 million (book value £10.2 million) of surplus properties for disposal in 2009-10, arising from the sale of land, residential and office premises. Anticipated disposals from land and laboratory premises are expected to realise £9 million in 2010-11 (book value £8 million).

Not all future asset disposals have been finalised, and for reasons of commercial sensitivity it is not possible to identify publicly each asset to be disposed of, or to set out deadlines for sales as this can have a negative impact on values.

DEFRA’s latest published asset management strategy is available on its website at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/about/how/busplan/spending-review/docs/asset-management-strategy.pdf

The strategy is currently being updated following the creation of the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the transfer of certain functions from DEFRA to DECC, and it is planned that the new version of the strategy will be published in the spring.