Guy Hands has withdrawn a £105m offer to repair “appalling” military housing, saying it was contingent on the Ministry of Defence dropping plans to forcibly buy the homes back.
Annington Homes, which is owned by Hands’ Terra Firma, has owned about 38,000 service properties since 1996.
In a letter to defence minister Alex Chalk, the former Labour cabinet minister Helen Liddell, who is chair of Annington Homes, said: “We made this offer as an attempt to rebalance our relationship, improve housing conditions on the estate and to avoid protracted and expensive legal proceedings in relation to the enfranchisement notices issued by your department.
“To date, we have received no formal response to our offer and as a result have been forced to reconsider our position. Please accept this letter as notification that Annington Ltd withdraws its offer of £105m in respect of the married quarters estate.”
