MoD renting empty homes

The government said it will seek to reduce the number of empty homes maintained by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) after the Liberal Democrats claimed it was wasting more than £25 million a year on unoccupied properties.

The MoD argues it has to maintain some empty housing stock to accommodate movements within the armed forces but the Liberal Democrats said the number of empty properties appeared "extraordinarily high".

Lib Dem defence spokesman Nick Harvey discovered at least 8,200 homes rented by the MoD to house military families are unoccupied, representing 20 per cent of the stock for married couples.

The majority of these are rented from a housing company, to which the MoD had sold more than 57,000 properties in 1996.

The then-Conservative government sold the homes to Annington Homes in a £1.6 billion deal. The MoD has rented back 41,000 properties and is responsible for their maintenance.

Under the terms of the deal, any surplus stock was supposed to be sold off by Annington and profits shared with the Treasury.

Presenting his figures to the BBC, Mr Harvey said the proportion of empty homes was extraordinarily high.

Mr Harvey said: "One accepts some will be empty while they're organising people to come and go, but it's an incredible percentage that a private sector operator could never sustain."

Defence minister Derek Twigg said the MoD had already held a review into the level of empty homes and maintained that surplus stock had to be available to allow for the movements of the forces.

Mr Twigg told the BBC: "These are the number of properties we need to have because we need to make sure that people have properties to go to."

Nevertheless, a MoD spokesman said the government was working to reduce the level of unoccupied properties.

A spokesperson added: "As part of our military housing policy, we are committed to have houses readily available for families, when people need them so people do not have to wait for family houses."

The MoD estimates at least 7,500 homes are kept vacant, at an average annual rent of £3,500 a property.