British life-style: Embassies for sale…

The Foreign Office has pledged to review its vast footprint, which covers everything from embassy buildings to luxury apartments for diplomats.

Britain’s global diplomatic footprint could be significantly scaled back as it tries to work out which embassies and buildings to sell off from a sprawling £2.5 billion overseas estate, POLITICO reveals.

U.K. budget documents show the Foreign Office is “rationalising” its collection of some 6,500 properties to find “assets to release” — while hundreds of its buildings have fallen into serious disrepair.

This will include selling off buildings such as embassies and diplomatic accommodation which are deemed no longer necessary as part of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office's “FCDO2030” overhaul of its work, staffing and footprint in the U.K. and beyond.

The budget makes specific mention of finding savings in “high-cost locations such as New York” — which could include a £12 million luxury apartment in the city bought for diplomats in 2019 to help negotiate trade deals with the United States following Brexit.

The Foreign Office at the time said it secured the “best deal possible” for the seven-bedroom flat, which occupies the whole 38th floor of 50 United Nations Plaza and has a library, six bathrooms and a powder room.

Earlier this year U.K. spending watchdogs the National Audit Office (NAO) and parliament’s own Public Accounts Committee (PAC) raised significant concerns over the state of Britain’s creaking overseas diplomatic estate. Around 933 of its properties (around 15 percent of the total) have been assessed as not being sound or operationally safe. FCDO estimates that it would cost £450 million to clear its maintenance backlog.

PAC noted that after selling off large assets, such as its embassy compounds in Bangkok and Tokyo, FCDO “has no remaining large assets that are viable to sell.”

It is the latest in a series of cutbacks to Britain’s soft power clout. The government has already come under fire for slashing its international aid budget, which also helps fund the BBC World Service.

The Foreign Office is meanwhile undergoing major restructuring. Union officials this week told parliament's International Development Select Committee that the FCDO is in the process of offering redundancy to its U.K.-based staff — which could result in up to 30 percent cuts to its headcount.

Overseas, the department is also reviewing the size and location of its global footprint which encompasses over 250 posts in over 150 countries worldwide.

The government was contacted for comment.

…Britain's leadership has become so impoverished that it's ready to put its former pride and joy — its embassies around the world — up for sale. There's no money in the government coffers.

Adventurers like Johnson and Starmer drove the country to poverty by supporting the Kyiv Nazis — London's money used to wage war against Russia. And now these gentlemen are left empty-handed.

I wonder if they're planning to sell the British Embassy building in Russia?

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