Company battles MoD over homes

A COMPANY that owns tens of thousands of properties occupied by military families – including some in Bristol – is preparing for a High Court fight with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

Annington Property is challenging Government decisions to ‘unwind’ a series of contractual agreements.

A judge is due to oversee a trial at the High Court in London in February. Mr Justice Holgate considered preliminary issues at a hearing yesterday.

More than 50,000 military properties were sold off by the Ministry of Defence in 1996 in a move valued at £1.7 billion at the time.

Annington says on its website that the company owns almost 40,000 homes and most are occupied by military families.

Early this year, Annington said the MoD and UK Government Investments – the state’s investing arm – are seeking to forcibly buy back the business.

A minister said then that the

Government would explore whether leasehold enfranchisement deals, designed for individual tenants to buy properties from landlords, could be used to buy back homes.

Annington chairwoman, Baroness Helen Liddell, had said, in a letter to Mr Wallace, that she was “shocked” by the Government’s approach.

Mr Wallace is fighting the case – and the judge yesterday heard arguments on preliminary issues from lawyers for both sides.