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<h1><b>Military Homes Re-Nationalisation Row Heads To
Court</b></h1>
<a href="https://tlio.org.uk/military-homes-re-nationalisation-row-heads-to-court/https://tlio.org.uk/military-homes-re-nationalisation-row-heads-to-court/">
15 August 2022</a>
<a href="https://tlio.org.uk/military-homes-re-nationalisation-row-heads-to-court/https://tlio.org.uk/author/tony/">
Tony Gosling</a>
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<br>
</a><h3><b>Military homes row heads to court</b></h3>Guy Hands files
legal claim against MoD to block renationalisation of £7.6bn housing
portfolio<br><br>
<a href="https://tlio.org.uk/military-homes-re-nationalisation-row-heads-to-court/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/02/13/rotten-deal-taxpayers-leaves-mod-tough-battle/">
By Helen Cahill – Daily Telegraph</a> – Tuesday 15 March 2022<br><br>
GUY HANDS’ housing firm has launched legal proceedings against the
Government to block the renationalisation of its portfolio of thousands
of military homes.<br><br>
Hands’ company Annington Homes has begun legal action in two courts after
talks with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over the renationalisation broke
down. Annington offered to contribute £105m to maintain the homes but was
rebuffed by the MoD.<br><br>
<img src="cid:7.0.1.0.1.20220815125819.05021a40@cultureshop.org.uk.0" width=543 height=308 alt="Emacs!">
<br><br>
Anningtorn has now launched a judicial review as well as a High Court
claim challenging the ‘MoD’s plans. Defence chiefs are trying to use
leasehold rights to reclaim homes that were first sold off by John
Major’s administration in 1996.<br><br>
Hands brokered the privatisation deal while he was head of the Principal
Financial Group at Nomura. He later purchased the properties through his
private equity firm Terra Firma. The portfolio is now valued at
£7.6bn.<br><br>
The MoD sold off 57,400 homes for £1.7bn and then rented them back on a
200-year lease.<br><br>
The Government has since been criticised for failing to properly value
the homes in the original auction. The National Audit Office has
complained officials were too cautious with their assumptions for house
prices, and missed out on vast capital growth in the portfolio. Its
report found taxpayers have lost as much as £4.2bn.<br><br>
The Government is also on the hook for hundreds of millions each year in
rent and maintenance payments on the properties. Lord Admiral West, the
former first sea lord, has described the deal as a “dream money-making
scheme for the private sector”.<br><br>
Annington said the Government could still avert a lengthy legal dispute
if it takes up the company’s offer to contribute £105m towards
maintenance. The company has warned legal proceedings could take up to
five years.<br><br>
A spokesman for Annington Homes said: “We can confirm that Annington has
begun legal proceedings against the UK Government.<br><br>
”We continue to be open to discuss with the Government to find a solution
that avoids a long and expensive legal dispute.”<br><br>
Hands was hoping to sell the portfolio in a private auction before
hearing of the MOD’s attempt to reclaim the properties. Reports suggested
he could have made more than £1.5bn from the sale.<br><br>
The MoD has so far trialled its scheme on two individual properties. The
so-called ‘enfranchisement’ scheme would allow the government to purchase
freeholds en masse at a price agreed by a court.<br><br>
Annington has argued that the scheme is not appropriate for use on a
large number of homes and that making thousands of applications will
block up the court system. But the MoD is confident it would be able to
use test cases to establish valuations for a wider group of
properties.<br><br>
Mr Hands has embarked upon lengthy legal battles in the past. His
ill-fated takeover of music group EMI sparked a legal dispute with
Citigroup that lasted seven years. Citi lent Terra Firma £2.5bn to fund
the deal.<br><br>
Mr Hands later chased the bank through the courts, both in New York and
London over allegations of fraud but he abandoned the £1.5bn case in
2016.<br><br>
The MoD declined to comment.<br>
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