Guy Hands’ Annington sues MoD over military housing take-back plans

Annington Homes, a provider of privately rented dwellings owned by Guy Hands’ Terra Firma Capital Partners, has been given permission to bring a legal challenge to the government’s plan to take back ownership of military housing. Annington bought a large estate of armed forces housing from the Ministry of Defence in 1996 under a sale-and-leaseback deal for £1.7bn. The estate is now valued at more than £7bn. In January, the government said it planned to use the law of “enfranchisement” to take back the estate to cut costs. Annington threatened legal action. Today, the company said it had been given permission by the High Court to bring a judicial review of the plans. “The judicial review seeks to challenge on various grounds the legality of the MoD’s attempt to enfranchise certain properties which form part of the married quarters estate leased to the MoD by the Annington group,” the company said in a statement. “Among other things, Annington seeks declarations that the MoD is acting outside its statutory powers and that purported notices issued by the MoD seeking to enfranchise certain properties be quashed as unlawful. “The High Court has granted permission for the judicial review to proceed on all grounds and has also denied an application by the MoD to restrict access to court filings by non-parties to the proceedings.” It is not known when the hearing will take place. Image © Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock