UK DEFENCE – WAKE UP CALL FOR DIO
By Howard Wheeldon, FRAeS, Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd.
19 Jun 14. When I last wrote on the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) back in November last year detailing the extensive process of change that the revamped organisation had gone through since it was formed in 2011 I gave it a very reasonable set of marks. I take nothing back from what I said back then but over the past few months I have become increasingly aware that while further progress has been made in terms of process and change management in some other areas of responsibility the DIO may stand to be accused of lacking competence and still failing to deliver.
First let me provide a quick reminder of what the DIO currently is. As the largest landowner in Britain worth an estimated £25bn, larger than either the National Trust or Forestry Commission in terms of land, property and infrastructure, the DIO runs an annual budget of £3.3bn. With its work impacting on all three armed services DIO manages around 230,000 hectares of land and infrastructure including Royal Navy dockyards, Royal Air Force bases, Army barracks, camps plus various MOD training areas spread over the UK. Abroad the DIO is responsible for MOD estates in Germany, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands together with individual sites in Norway, Poland, Kenya, Canada, Oman, Belize and Nepal. DIO is responsible for a very large portfolio of property including 45,000 military buildings, 50,000 houses together with 35,000 flats and other types of military based living accommodation. With responsibility for 841 listed buildings, 170 sites of special scientific interest plus another 130 external UK sites designated as areas for nature conservation plus some 750 scheduled monuments efficient management of assets is a crucial part of its work.
A product of the Levene Defence Review DIO was intended to bring together all property and infrastructure management under a single organisation designed to optimise investment and strategic management of the vast defence estate. The intention was to bring about change in both attitude and approach in terms of management of the defence estate whilst making the system efficient and affordable. As mentioned, when I last wrote on the DIO I gave it good marks for the work it had so far done in terms of reorganisation in what was after all a relatively short period of just over two years.
It was always intended that DIO would have a ‘Strategic Business Partner’ and to that end in March this year the Ministry of Defence announced that Capita, working in conjunction with URS and PA Consulting would be the preferred bidder in what would be a 10-year contract worth £400m and that had as its aim the hope that cost savings of perhaps £300m per annum could be eventually be made during the period of the contract.
Initially my understanding is that the new partnership will be expected to deliver an 18-month transformation project designed to produce a blueprint for the future strategic asset management of the estate which, when approved by the MOD, is intended to create a world-class infrastructure delivery organisation capable of supporting long term objectives.
So far so good and I am relatively relaxed that the chosen ‘strategic business partner’ will deliver. But I note an increased level of concern being levied by some at individual DIO performance on the ground and there are also concerns that the organisation may be slow in reacting to some of the more immediate priorities of the military. An example of this and one that impacts both the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy is the seemingly slow progress adapting RAF Marham to accommodate F-35 Joint Strike Fighter STOVL aircraft. With an arrival date planned for 2018 at which time 617 Squadron will be stood-up as the primary operational unit for Lightening ll given the large amount of infrastructure work required time is of the essence. A second concern is work to adapt the