Annington Research

[Nil nos tremefacit]

Hi

Compiling research on Annington for a book. Looking for links, true stories (verifiable).etc.

Annington is not one company and I already have a mass of information on the various companies (public access material from Companies House and the Internet). I have an ongoing dispute with Annington and have discovered a lot of information that would make your hair curl - the MoD undersold the MQ estate by tens of millions (NAO report).

Annington flout laws - in relation to me they have broken at least 3 laws so far. In the West Country they are guided by a firm of solicitors called Henriques Griffiths who have advised them to break the law. The solicitor acting for them is Upert Anthony 'Tony' Woodburn. He is also a part-time judge. I am seeking information relating to him or his company.

In return you might ask yourselves how, of the 50000 shares issued in Annington Holdings, 12000 have been allocated to AVM Sandy Hunter. Annington Holdings owns the companies that own all of the MQs and develops all of the estates nationwide. How does a retired senior officer end up with ownership of nearly a quarter of the MQ estate?

TVM:ok:

[LunchMonitor]

They have been mentioned once or twice on these forums Just search for annington here :
http://www.pprune.org/forums/search.php?s=

[Spot 4]

http://www.newcastle.co.uk/about/results_2001/dr_sh.jpg
Sandy Hunter (62), a retired senior RAF officer, is active in the property field as deputy chairman of Annington Holdings PLC and chairman of Home Group Limited. He chairs the Society's Audit Committee.

From the Newcastle Building Society Homepage

Was known as Peter Pan in the late seventies because he always returned to base with a Practice Pan. When an ATC Controller said "Roger Peter Pan in acknowlaged" it was actually a REAL PAN! Cry Wolf, but then again I digress. He is no fool and will have covered any misdemenours (if there are any) very wisely.

[BEagle]

'Fruit trees' Hunter of Binnsworth fame?

NnT - hope your patience and research pays off. I know how the ba$tards screwed you back then - hope they finally get nailed!

[Scirius]

Check out
MoD Press Release, Sale of Married Quarters Estate (http://www.newsrelease-archive.net/coi/depts/GMD/coi2255c.ok)

Former Air Vice-Marshal Alexander Hunter, one-time Commander British Forces Cyprus, is also Chairman of the Home Housing Association (the second largest in the UK), and a director of Newcastle Building Society. He and his wife occupied numerous married quarters in the course of his Service career.

Ideally qualified to own 12000 shares, then.

[Jackonicko]

Journos will remember him as a particularly useless and deeply unpleasant DPR (RAF)......

[BEagle]

The adjectives used in your post will be familiar to others, I feel....

[Gainesy]

Jacko,
Amen to that mate.

Paul,
Howgozit? take a luck at the Pongo forum (W3. arrse.co.uk) there are a couple of Annington threads.

[KVort DuJRoj]

What about the Chairman? Sir Thomas Macpherson, a Scots Laird no less, with at least 6 current Chairman's posts under his belt, not including all the charitable trusts & military associations he's involved in.

2 of those Chairman positions are with Annington Holdings and Annington Trust (that well known military charity). He's got 12000 shares too. How much are Annington paying him?

BTW, how old is SuperScot? 83 years old, as of 4 October.

Some pension.

[Scirius]

Hunter's Deputy Chairman of Annington Trust.

BTW, where did the 430,000 GBP come from to seed the Trust fund?

[Jackonicko]

BEags,

Steady on Beags. Let's not go too far. Before long people could be using unjustifiable and unfair terms like 'underhand', 'political', 'brown-nosing', 'second rate' and 'c***', as they may have done about other DPRs.

I can't see it myself and strictly limited myself to an observation purely relating to his performance as DPR. Otherwise I prefer 'nobility', 'integrity', 'high calibre', 'well liked', 'respected', 'highly efficient', 'popular' etc.......

[Nil nos tremefacit]

TVM

Looking for more details on sale prices of properties thus far disposed of. Most of you will know that the properties were sold at a bargain basement price that equates to a fraction of the value at the time.

Any details on Lyneham, Catterick, Little Riss etc?

The difference in the purchase and sale price equates to the loss to the taxpayer. Many properties were refurbished at public expense and then sold off at a massive profit to Annington. It is a joke that Annington should buy the housing, lease it back and then, after it has been refurbished and handed back, make a massive mark up. There appears to be little benefit to the taxpayer and a large benefit to the Annington group.

[Blunty]

Anningtons bought the whole of the MoD estate for, I think, £ 1.2 Billion an absolute snip, if you had the money. One of the ideas, when DHE was working badly was to buy it back, so they revalued the whole estate. Oops now its worth £3.6 Billion no option then. Also there is a part of the deal with Anningtons that says we have to give 10% of the estate back to them for sales. It all seems very dubious.

[The Gorilla]

Why should anyone be surprised at these people feathering their own nests? They have been doing it for years now.

Portillo was responible for the Annington fiasco in what was yet another short term fumble. But he was ultimately supported by our Senior Airships in the MOD.

Today the corruption within all levels of the MOD is plain to see.
I can quote many examples from the last 10 years alone!!

:ugh:

[In Tor Wot]

You were asking about recent cost of sales etc - High Wycombe, 3 bed semi (no garage) ex airman qtr, £168k for 25 yr lease - not sold freehold.

Similar prices asked for RAF Halton ex airman quarters (next to the old hospital) but these sold freehold. Ex Wg Cdr qtr, to you my boy, £396k. Not a bad mark-up for a £12k original price to Annington.

BTW - HQSTC currently has in excess of 100 (approx 112) personnel on ERA at the moment (avg £1500 per month) which is paid for by the RAF.

So if the RAF is coughing £160-170k a month because there aren't enough quarters, why are they being allowed to continue to sell qtrs at High Wycombe? :mad:

[The Gorilla]

Because Old Boy, those homes BELONG to Annington Homes. Well actually in truth Annington Homes is merely a front company for Japanese Banks - consortium thereof.

Portaloo sold the lot to them circa 1996. The deal was they were to be leased back to the MOD and a certain percentage would be sold every year. Even from the outset the maths meant that one day in the future the MOD would have no housing stock left!! That was brought up at the time but the MOD said they had plans and the time to sort it out!! Yeah right!!

The increase in house prices has meant the Japs want to cash in and who can blame them? So houses are being sold much faster than was envisaged and often for huge sums. Scampton in last nights echo - 2 bedroom mid terrace shoebox - £89K!! A 4 bedroom woodchip mansion like the one I occupied went for £125K at Scampton, I ask you!!!!!

The MOD will eventually bitch about it but they let it happen. I don't think they will get any sympathy from the treasury when they ask for a larger Defence budget to pay for an huge increase in ERA!!

[Roland Pulfrew]

Ex AMQs at Halton are on the market for £250K according to the Bucks Herald (local paper). Understand that there are officers and SNCOs out on ERA in the local area because there are not enough quarters to go around. Future of Halton? Expanding under DTR, therefore more personnel, therefore more MQs required, therefore more out on ERA, therefore even smaller budgets for other vital works!!!

How come DHE/Annington aren't footing the bill for ERA?? What a cock-up of a PPP/PFI that one was!!!:* :*

[BEagle]

Now Roly, PPP/PFI cock-up? Surely the PPP/PFI is seen as A Good Thing by your illustrious hierarchy? Or is it just a way of keeping ever more civil serpents in cosy jobs.

Can you think of any other areas currently under the shadow of PPP/PFI? I'll bet there's one you know of....:E

[The Gorilla]

Roland

Why should the DHE or Annington foot the bill? This blunder was not a PFI!! It wasn't a cock up - it was planned this way!!

The DHE is merely an MOD agency set up to administer the lease and maintenance of the housing stock from Annington Homes. DHE therefore = the MOD!!

Annington Homes OWNS THE ENTIRE STOCK of former MQ's.

From day one it was written that each year a percentage of the estate would be sold off until eventually there would be none left.
The original target date for nil stock was 99 years, but the contract allowed Annington to sell more or less homes as they dictated. Currently they are selling more due to the higher house prices.

There was a big outcry at the time and all the problems now being encountered were dismissed by the MOD in their usual arrogant fashion.

In my opinion, Annington Homes and the Japanese banks are entirely blameless in this. They were the winning bidders in the last desperate throes of a dieing conservative government. Portlillo was the man responsible and the Tories needed hard cash to try and buy the election. In the event they got £2 billion for the sale and still lost the election. This all history now, but the long-term problems remain.

The MOD has to sort out this problem and find cuts from somewhere to take account of the increase in ERA over the coming years. Either that or build some new housing estates using its current budgets. I see from this morning’s teletext that super carriers are starting to have "Economy cuts" made to them! More defence cuts I say!!

I can tell you what the attitude in Civvie Street is to this:

Why do the Services need to have their own supply of homes any way?

No doubt over the coming years we shall hear more of this in the press, as ERA eats up more and more of the annual defence budget.

Bottom line - If you sell the family silver you can't have a silver service meal!!



:ok: :ok:

[Mr C Hinecap]

Gorilla - that might be the attitude in some of Civvie St, but not all of it.

We need our own supply of homes because this is MORE than a job! Granted, the ethos, spirit etc is being eroded, but there is some of it out there.

If I am to move house every couple of yrs, going anywhere the military wants me to, usually at short notice, then if there is a stock of houses roughly the number of people going to work there it is easier. Although a single guy, I'd hope a family chap (or chapess) could go off to do their duty knowing there is an infrastructure there to look after those at home.

Regardless of your political alliances etc, this is seen, by many of those IN the military, as a rolling goat that really galls.

It doesn't matter who screwed up - it IS screwed up. Big style.

PS - do you own shares in Annington? Are you A Labour Spinner?

[StopStart]

This was a standard MoD get rich quick scheme that was such a monumental cock up it was untrue. I know of one case where a serving chap has been moved out of his quarter and into ERA so Annington could have his house. Appalling.

The public don't care because this is just another example of successive governments' love of getting things on the Never Never; making them look good today and sod what happens tomorrow. They'll be buying stuff at Dixons next at the knock down rate of 29.8% APR.......

As for servicemen getting cheap housing, I agree there needs to be some parity with the civvy world. If we were to lose the housing entitlement, would it be possible to see a similar concession by the civvies? How about civvy employers choose 30 staff each year, at random, take them out the back and shoot them? That would bring some parity with the military.....

:mad:

[European Crash]

I have sympathy with the sentiments but I think that we - the MOD plc - will find it increasingly difficult to justify in the future to the Treasury the provision of housing. At present, SFA is heavily subsidised (where else could you rent a 3 brm detached house with a garage (albeit leaky) in the Chilterns for about GBP 300 pcm, inclusive of 'council tax') and not be subject to Inland Revenue fringe benefit taxation.

Yes, I can hear the screams now - ours is not a job, its a life style etc etc - however teachers, police, nurses, fire-fighters and other public-sector workers have to provide housing within their gnerally meagre salaries (well, perhaps not fire-fighters!). For years the RN has encouraged private home ownership away from home ports (read - discourage married patches) without any obvious operational penalty.

As one who has lived all over the country in a variety of well-maintained and spacious SFA, my most satisfying experience was to sit recently on my own front step of my modest terraced house with a mug of tea and a newspaper and contemplating my (large)mortgage. I suggest that other people try it and appreciate the concept of self-reliance. I believe - and I have socialised this with a number of colleagues - that SFA should be regarded as a transitionary step and not as a substitute womb. Too many people are still leaving the Services without adequate provision of housing. In many cases it is their own fault.

I suspect this may have upset some/a lot of people.

[steamchicken]

To re-iterate a previous post, the lead manager of the bid for the houses was the Principal Finance unit of Nomura Securities. This outfit had a very high profile in the late 90s, specialising in buying up assets that produced a reliable cash flow - 3,000 pubs for example. The chief was a bloke called Guy Hands.

Generally, their ventures worked like this - you negotiate a price with the owner, keeping it as low as you can. You cough up part of the financing from your own resources (say 20%). Then you cut up that price into bonds guaranteed on the cash flow and sell them on the stock market to raise the rest of the money and pony up. (This is called "securitisation".) You now have a) the assets. b) the debt. c) the cashflow. (for example the rent) Clearly, part of the cash is written down to paying the interest coupon on the bonds. You can effectively forget about it. The rest, obviously, you pocket. This is where the clever bit comes in.

The clever bit is this - you think of a way to sell the assets for more than you bought them for. (for example, you sell some of the houses every year) Crucially, although you only have to repay the sum that you borrowed , you get the whole wad when you sell up. (NB the interest and repayments on the bonds were paid from the cashflow of those assets - the rent) So, even if the value of the assets hasn't gone up that far, you get the selling price minus the proportion of the bill you paid for yourself, rather than funding from those bonds - that is to say a killing. (This is called "leverage" - if you paid 20% out of your firm's money and securitised the rest, and the assets rose in value by 15%, you get a 95% profit - even assuming every penny of income from the asset went to paying the interest on the bonds. It is usually horribly risky as it works in the opposite sense as well, but in this case you are fairly safe due to the guaranteed cashflow, covering your repayments, and the asset backing, covering your own investment and guaranteeing those bonds doubly.)

Clever, eh? Well Mr. Hands was indeed clever - Oxford double first and a McKinsey's management consultant, they don't tend to be thick. And if that career path sounds familiar it's because it is. Hands followed it at the same time as William Hague, and was such a good friend that he could advise foetus boy to "forget about the leadership and spend the next five years f*cking your brains out with Ffyon." In '96, of course, Hague was in the cabinet. Funny that.

[The Gorilla]

C Hinecap

This has nothing to do with Labour. This was a done and dusted deal before Labour came to power; they have to live with it just like the Railways problem. I am only telling you the way it was. I had a vested interest in a MQ I wanted to purchase at the time this all happened.

Some people don't seem to understand where the problem lies!
It is impossible to own shares in a Government Agency (Annington Homes) - an MOD one at that. The MOD could have resisted this in 1996, they didn't. I suspect because a lot of Senior Officers were busy feathering their own nests, as alluded to in this thread. The MOD will get no extra money from Government (Labour) to sort out a problem that another Government (Conservative) caused.

Does any one know what the present target date is for the final houses to be sold off?

It may still seem like it’s a long way off, but, as people’s experiences from Scampton will tell you – there’s a lot of turbulence to come!!



:ok:

[Nil nos tremefacit]

Back to the original purpose of the thread:

TVM for info thus far, but I need to work in specifics. If you have details of local newspapers, property mags etc where properties have been advertised at above prices with approximate dates I can get mates to obtain them. If there are any property websites where there are adverts please let me know. If you have anything you can send me please contact me and I'll give you a forwarding address.

Feel free to contact me. I will keep all names and sources discreet. The purpose of the research is to work towards some sort of conclusion as to how much money has been lost to the public purse and how. After all, it was never beyond the wit of man to set up an internal MoD agency that could maximise profit for the taxpayer. An MoD agency would not have been allowed to sell off houses that were still required.

Anything specific on named individuals is gratefully received, especially Mr Woodburn from Henriques Griffiths in Bristol. Nothing libellous or unsubstantiated can be used, but useful leads can be followed up.

Once again, TVM

:ok:

[Grimweasel]

I was told by an ex DHE person at secret wilts airbase that the MQ's there were bought for the equivalent of £12000 a house! The first tranche were sold off @£69000 some years ago. Not a bad profit what? Then the recent sale at Compton Bassett near said secret airbase, the lowest price 2 bed went for £109,000. Some £97k profit. This is disgusting. Why on earth should a bunch of eastern greedy mongs ( the crimes of their forefathers should never be forgotten!) make so much money out of the British tax payer. Portillo should be taken to court over the fiasco and be banned from any future governmental decisions!

[The Gorilla]

Nil Nos

No problem, I will sort you this next Fridays Lincs Echo property pages. Theres always loads of RAF Scampton houses in it!!

Good Luck

:ok:

[Roland Pulfrew]

The Gorilla

I agree with most of what you say. I cannot deny it. However, the bit of the equation that you are missing is that a large chunk of the money paid by the Japanese was supposed to be returned to DHE to modernise all of the quarters. When Tony Bliar came to power the Treasury renaged on the deal and hey presto no modernisation for those of use that move on a regular basis. Apart from double glazing my quarter hasn't had anything done to it since the 50s.

Given that the south of England is desperate for accommodation for policemen, nurses, teachers and doctors, wouldn't it have been far more sensible to keep the family jewels and rent "excess" properties to these professions at military rental rates. That way the properties could have paid their way. Doctors, policemen etc could afford to live in the SE!! Still too late now, jewels sold, armed forces personnel forced to buy own properties, therefore less willing to move, therefore less flexibility?!?

Still at least the large secret airbase in Oxfordshire will be the first of the new (PFI) married quarter build to replace those MQs built, paid for by servicemans rent and sold off by Portaloo. And the taxpayer got a good deal!!!!!!!!!:sad:

[The Gorilla]

Roland

I agree with everything you say 110%

People aren't going to join if they are required to move every 3 to 5 years and have obstacles in their way.

Perhaps the idea of local service will raise its ugly head yet again??

:)

[Scirius]

2/3 beds at Halton for 155,000, some 4 beds for 200,000 GBP.

You might find the investor statements at the Annington Homes website (http://www.annington.co.uk/corporate.html) interesting. Their own figures in the latest investor statement show the average value per 'unit' as 121,830 GBP.

Where are the really cheap MQs that are dragging this average value down?

[D-IFF_ident]

Is the provision of SFA still in the terms of service?

If so, do we all get ERA when Annington has sold all the quarters?

Private accommodation near a secret Oxfordshire airbase currently rents at around £1500 pcm for a 4 bedroom property...

[KVort DuJRoj]

Portsmouth Council are on record complaining about both Annington and DHE not doing enough to ensure servicemen get a fair chance to buy ex-MQs.

[CDS]

Nil: Re your Q about Henriques Griffiths - they were involved in a high profile solicitor's negligence case. I'll see if I can dig it out:ok:

[Nil nos tremefacit]

CDS,

Is that Taylor Downs & Co. Ltd v. Henriques Griffiths - "solicitor's negligence relating to commercial property and company directors' conduct"

You don't know which solicitor was negligent do you?
:cool:

[Laser Jet]

Taylor Downs folded earlier this year. Hope it was nothing to do with the negligence of Henriques Griffiths.

Woodburn has links with the Small Landlords Association in the west country. Annington are a slightly larger landlord.

[Nil nos tremefacit]

Thanks for the various offers of support. The forwarding address for documents is:

E Smith
Independent Research and Support
c/o 11 Kingsway
Rugby
Warwickshire
CV22 5PA

Things will make their way to me in due course.

[MQE]

Valley prices are 65 - 85000 for 2/3 bed; sold through Burrells in Holyhead.

[SirPeterHardingsLovechild]

NNT, I was going to get you the details of the Devizes MQ's but it's all on their website, so I won't bother.

http://www.anningtonhomes.co.uk/index.html

The 2 beds started at £123K and all went on the first day to the campers.

The 3 bed semis are not selling well at all, and start at £138K

They've been on the market for a couple of months now.

That should keep the hoi polloi away!

It seems that Devizes is slightly more desirable than Valley :}

[Delta Hotel Echo]

You want to look at Army Housing News Nov 03 (http://www.army.mod.uk/soldierwelfare/supportagencies/aws/jshao/2003_Housing_Matters_Mag_Index/HM_25_Nov_03.htm) Page 19

North Lincolnshire's about as undesirable as Valley ;)

[oxymoron]

According to the Banbury Guardian (http://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=687&ArticleID=528152) Annington aren't the only ones to own property at Kineton.

Apparently CCRE do too; 25 properties, which couldn't be put up for sale with the Annington ones in August because of "legal complications".

What legal complications could there be in a legitimate agent of Annington selling Annington property? Were these properties included in Annington's figures for the houses going on sale in Kineton on 17 October?

CCRE claims their properties will go for between 60000 - 90000 GBP. Annington are selling theirs at 106000 GBP (2 beds) to 130000 GBP (4 beds). Why the difference in price? Or have CCRE changed their mind since they set the price band back in July?

:E

[814man]

Delta Hotel Echo
Page 17 to be precise.
There are soon to become a lot more houses for sale at the former RAF Kirton Lindsey as the Army have recently announced that they are to move the current unit out out next year and favourite option is to close the base.
As for comparisons with Valley – having served at both Valley and Scampton (the nearest RAF base to KL) - I’d say that they are hardly in the same league.

[The Gorilla]

814

You are correct sir, Valley is more desirable!!

:p

[oxymoron]

According to the Annual Abstract of Statistics, 2003 (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/product.asp?vlnk=94), service manpower strengths dropped by 9600 between 1997 and 2001. Deployment in England and Wales rose by 800 over the same period.

So why were 9400 MQs sold off during this time?

As a comparison, 13,200 personnel and 3300 MQs were deemed surplus between 1996 and 1997.:E

[Scirius]

Cunning Plan:

No MQ = No Families = No Distractions = Less Welfare Officers = Cheaper

[Blunty]

I note that after selling off the Quarters opposite RAF HW. The owners of the land (I presume Anningtons) have applied for planning permission to build 11 new houses. These houses will be placed in the area that was once a childrens playground!

[KVort DuJRoj]

MoD pays Annington the rent each year, so seeing a bill for over 100 million GBP in its issued statistics makes sense. Take a bow, Annington Recievables Ltd.

So why is it also paying Annington Property Ltd an unspecified annual amount which it coyly brackets at between 10 and 25 million GBP? And what are they paying for?

How many versions of Annington are out there?

[Woff1965]

Who do Annington sub-contract their maintenance to?

[European Crash]

This is the beauty of it! The MOD funds the maintenance and modernising of the Annington-owned quarters, managed by DHE and subcontracted the the usual gang of facilities management companies!

As a landlord of several small properties, I would be over the moon if my tenants clubbed together and said:

"There there, EC, let us maintain these properties at our expense; oh, we think the kitchens need to be refurbished, too. We'll sort it out"


Haven't seen it in the thread - but SFA in Scotland are still MOD owned; there are several patches in England that the MOD (Defence Estates Agency) are ineptly trying to sell privately eg: Wroughton OFQs: Refurbished, large quarters with stunning views of the Marlborough Downs; 5 mins from the M4 - then left to be vandalised, then put them on the market for a fraction of their realisable worth.

[Nil nos tremefacit]

Thanks for the responses thus far.

I've got hundreds of pages of material, but still need more juicy stuff as a set of accounts never made good reading.

:ok:

[Vage Rot]

I'm thinking of starting to sell the 'Big Issue' at the main gate - a bit pre-emptive but at this rate we'll all be homeless in a few years!!!

[KVort DuJRoj]

Well, the Deputy Chairman of Annington's not going to be too fussed about that. Until the middle of this year he was on the board of a major housing trust that has responsibility for over 40,000 houses nationwide. That's in addition to being on the board of a company with responsibility for 43,000+ houses (after they'd flogged off as many as possible in the past few years).

Wonder if he owns 24% of the shares in that trust as well?:mad:

[Delta Hotel Echo]

What's this? A suggestion that the words "feather" and "nest" might apply to Hunter?

[Scirius]

Delta Hotel, such a cynical attitude. That's called a portfolio of opportunities. ;)

[oxymoron]

Hmmm....

A certain person's portfolio appears very limited currently. Other than Annington Holdings, just a couple of toy directorships (HMS Trincomalee Trust and Kenton Bar Bunker Company). Playing with boats and playing at soldiers in his spare time?

The ex-portfolio is a lot more interesting. Seems he resigned from the Home Housing Trust, Urban Housing Trust Ltd and Paramount Homes at the same time (mid 2003). Conflict of interests maybe?

Then there's the ex-directorships of the Great North Air Ambulance Service Trading Company Ltd, Blackfriars (Stowell Street) Management Company Ltd, The Union Jack Club and ANNINGTON HOMES LTD.

Not to mention his ex-directorship of Clyde Helicopters, now defunct.

Nil nos, are you collating information on DHE admin c)ck-ups?