§ Lord Vivianasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether any service married quarters estates have become "mixed estates" with council tenants; and if so, whether they will (a) list these estates; and (b) give reasons why this has occurred when assurances were given to the contrary by the Ministry of Defence and Annington Homes. [HL2025]
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham DeanThere are no instances of mixed estates which are contrary to the agreement reached at the time of the sale of the families quarters estate to Annington Homes Ltd (AHL) in November 1996.
It might be helpful to clarify what this means in the context of the sale agreement. There are two definitions of mixed estate: one is where civilian residents are "pepper-potted" among military occupants of service families accommodation (SFA) and the second is where civilians occupy houses adjacent to a military "patch". In recognition of the sensitivity of the "patch" ethos, the terms of the sale agreement precluded the former but allowed for the latter. A condition of the sale is that those SFA, identified by the MoD as surplus to operational requirements, are to be disposed of in discrete blocks. As a result, there are estates where civilians are now residing in former service families' quarters which are situated adjacent to or alongside a military "patch"; hence the term, mixed estate.
Prior to the sale, there were some SFA scattered around big towns occupied by Territorial Army and Careers Information Office staffs and this situation maintains. However, there are no examples of mixed estates where military occupants are "pepper-potted" among civilians.
Over 3,000 properties have been released to AHL throughout England and Wales under the terms of the guaranteed release scheme. The majority of these properties have been sold to private individuals and it is not possible to identify each estate where service families are adjacent to civilians.