Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many empty homes does Annington holds on behalf of his Department.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) leases 37,620 properties in England and Wales that are owned by Annington Homes Ltd (AHL). Of these, 7,230 are vacant. No properties are leased from AHL in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In the UK, there are a total of 9,230 vacant Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties. A total of 4,629 are required by the MOD. The remaining 4,601 have either been identified for disposal or are in process for modernisation.

The MOD is required to retain an overall management margin of short-term, empty, properties to ensure their availability for when Service Personnel (SP) apply for accommodation, and to also allow for intrusive major improvement works to be carried out.

Information on other units of vacant property that could be repurposed for residential accommodation is not held.