THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE has reacted to protests over the possible closure of Kinloss Barracks by insisting that their purpose is to help in the building of new homes on surplus land.
While the MOD continue to insist that no decision have been taken over Kinloss and several other defence estate properties, they have released a statement saying that the intent of the current review is to sell ‘surplus land’ with the profits being used on all UK armed forces.
Reacting to criticism that previous land sales has resulted in very few new homes actually being built, a statement was issued saying: “Our plan is about generating money to spend on our armed forces by selling land we don’t need for new homes we do.
“We’ve already made £500million through land sales and around 6000 houses are currently being built on that land. Every single pound we make gets spent on defence.
“Sometimes we sell land without planning permission. That’s so we stop spending taxpayer money on maintaining a site we don’t need and spend it on things like our new fighter jets or aircraft carriers instead. We make no apology for doing that.”
In response to Monday’s claims by Moray MP Angus Robertson, the spokesman said that a number of bases were being looked at in the review with profits being used to spend on such as the new P-8A aircraft ordered for RAF Lossiemouth.
A statement said: “MOD land currently spans about half a million football pitches. We are looking to sell what we don’t need so new homes can be built on it.
“Every penny made will be invested back into defence on things like the new maritime aircraft at Lossiemouth or the new destroyers being built on the Clyde. We’ve currently named 22 sites but no decisions about future ones have been taken.”