The U.K. Ministry of Defence has appointed Jacobs as a strategic environmental and technical adviser to help redevelop surplus military land for community use.
The initiative is part of the Defence Estate Optimisation portfolio, a $6.5 billion government program to modernize and make defense infrastructure more sustainable. As a consultant, Jacobs will provide environmental and sustainable development support for 13 disposal sites in England and Scotland, including planning appraisals, site surveys and stakeholder engagement.
According to Alex Lane, head of Jacobs’ Cities & Places Europe sector, his company is looking forward to applying its expertise in defense infrastructure to contribute to regeneration and sustainability. “This is a significant opportunity to leverage collective intelligences, programmatic thinking and alternative solutions to optimize outcomes from the change program,” he said.
Jacobs joins Tetra Tech and Drees and Sommer UK as technical consultants, while Savills UK, Avison Young and WSP GL Hearn were selected as strategic property advisers. According to the MoD, the companies will work in pairs as they provide advice on the best use of former military sites for residential and commercial purposes, ensuring that local community needs are considered.
Sustainable Infrastructure
Created in 2016, DEO is an investment initiative to enhance the U.K. defense infrastructure to meet current and future requirements. The biggest program of its kind, DEO is in charge of providing new and renovated accommodations for MoD’s over 40,000 military personnel and their families. It also aims to create training and office spaces and build over a hundred specialized facilities for almost 64,000 people.
In line with sustainability and optimization goals, sites no longer needed for military purposes will be redeveloped for new uses, such as housing and businesses. So far, the MoD says, the DEO program has sold over 1,430 hectares of surplus land at 25 different sites, with 32,000 new houses to be built across the country.
“Working with industry experts helps us to ensure we are finding the right future use for sites which are surplus to military requirements, considering local needs and generating value for the taxpayer,” Catherine Davies, head of estates for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, said in a statement.