"Do you mean like Halton and the Rothschilds?"
After using the Rothschilds' land at Halton as a training area during the 1st World War, the newly formed Royal Air Force decided that Halton would be a good location for either training the new apprentices that Trenchard knew he would need for this fledgling technical service or for training officers. The location was, of course, used for the former but, as I was told on many occasions during my tour there, the Halton Estate was purchased outright by the Govt from the Rothschilds and there is no requirement as such to return it, unblemished, to its former owners. I believe the sale was helped by the fact that Lionel Rothschild (1882 to 1942) had no desire for the hedonistic lifestyle of his late uncle Alfred (who died in 1918) and was unimpressed with the chalk soil of Halton as it was no good for growing rhodedendrons.
I was told that Halton will remain for the time being as it is required for accommodation for nearby HQ Air Command and, due to the termination of the in-house contract for Defence Trg Rationalisation (Package 2), the logistics training currently at Halton will remain there. Now if you want to save £12 billion (albeit over 25 years) then how about turning off the DTR Package 1 (Metrix) contract to relocate all military technical training to St Athan by 2015? Still no word of contract signature on that one expected now until Spring 2010.