New Hard Facilities Management arrangements for reserves and cadets come into force

New arrangements to provide Hard Facilities Management (HFM) to Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites used by reserves and cadets have come into effect today (1 August 2024).

The MOD’s existing Built Estate contracts, which provide HFM services to Defence sites across the UK, were amended to add the additional sites into their scope. The Built Estate contracts were awarded to Mitie Defence, VIVO Defence Services and VINCI Facilities Defence by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) in 2021.

The amendment sees 1,622 sites, which are supported by the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCA) and are known as the Volunteer Estate, receive key maintenance work, repairs, servicing and hard facilities management through the existing MOD Built Estate contracts.

The adoption of the Built Estate arrangements across the RFCA sites will not only achieve better value for money, but also deliver a higher standard of service for users by enabling the RFCA to build on the benefits of the contracts already in use across the Regular Estate.

These benefits include the adoption of industry best practice maintenance standards, improved health and safety compliance and the use of improved technology to inform and manage the delivery of services.

Maj Gen (Retd) Jamie Gordon, Chief Executive, Council Reserves Forces’ and Cadets’ Association said: 

“Today, we go live with new contractors to deliver Hard Facilities Management across the Volunteer Estate (VE).  Through this new contact, we will continue to ensure that the Volunteer Estate remains safe and functional for all reserves and cadets to work and train. This is but one of the changes that we enacted so that we can deliver the best support to the UK’s reserves and cadets, as we have done over the past 116 years.”

Jerry Moloney, Chief Executive Officer of VIVO Defence Services, said:

“We are really looking forward to providing asset and facilities management services across eight of the Volunteer Estate’s thirteen UK regions.

“Since we started operations two years ago, we have grown to become one of the largest providers of estate services to the military in the UK and are committed to helping enable our country’s defence capability through innovation and new ways of working.

“Working for the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association and assisting them in the important role they play for the MOD is really important to us and I thank everyone involved during our mobilisation period for their hard work and support.”