Public Accounts Committee
10 September 2026
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Public Accounts Committee House of Commons
00:04 - 01:33
Speaker 11
Order. Welcome to the session of the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday the 10th of September 2026. Today, we are examining armed forces housing and the Ministry of Defence repurchase of service family accommodation from Annington Homes. In 1996 the MOD sold around 55,000 houses to Annington Homes for 1.7 billion. By 2024 the NAO estimated the deal had left the government 14.5 billion worse off.
So, the MOD has bought back more than 36,000 homes at a cost of 6 billion, ending an expensive arrangement but not undoing nearly three decades of poor value or weakened control over a vital part of the defence estate. But the repurchase and the MOD's proposed 9 billion defence housing strategy offer a major opportunity to repair and refurbish service family accommodation. However, success will critically depend on the MOD building capacity and expertise to achieve this. So this morning we will examine how the MOD plans to use this opportunity to improve military housing and what lessons government must learn before selling public assets for short-term gain. So we've got a very senior cast this morning and I'm very grateful to everybody for sparing time to come and see us this morning.
Jeremy, would you like to introduce yourself to begin with please?
01:33 - 01:36
Speaker 4
Jeremy Pocklington, I'm the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence.
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