PFI Filthy housing for service people at St Athan

Defence Procurement Debate 19 June 2008 a complete farce over the sale of Annington Homes, which has left the Army’s housing stock in the hands of a private company here

Now we may have a New Labour bigger Farce....privatsing miltary training and super garrisons...or even McGarrisons! Metrix Serco linked to Japenese Bank Nomura here

Protests as Japanese bank wins share of forces' homes Independent, The (London), Sep 4, 1996 by Chris Blackhurst Westminster Correspondent

Michael Portillo, Secretary of State for Defence, yesterday sparked a welter of allegations about lack of patriotism, sleaze and "Tory fat cats lining their pockets" when the MoD announced the preferred bidder for its pounds 1.6bn married-quarters houses. The winning consortium, Annington Homes, includes Nomura, the Japanese bank, Amec, the construction group which has made rich pickings from previous privatisations, and Royal Bank of Scotland and Hambros, two banks with close links with the Conservative Party

Annington made no secret of its intention to profit from the deal. Sir Tommy Macpherson, the consortium chairman, said it would be seeking a stock market listing in "five to seven years". He refused to be drawn on the expected size of the profit from the share sale, but, if past experience is anything to go by, it will be considerable and will provoke a political outcry.

'Filthy' home angers RAF couple (Military accomadation owned by Japenese bank)
BBC News - UK

An RAF engineer who moved from Scotland to St Athan in south Wales wants to leave the forces because of the state of his family's accommodation there.Aarron Campbell, 22, claims he and his pregnant wife and baby were given "filthy and flea-infested" quarters.........Mr Campbell's wife Davina, 24, was horrified at the standard of their accommodation at the RAF base in the Vale of Glamorgan and said their six-month-old baby Chloe was bitten all over by fleas.

"The MoD sent us to a welfare house while our quarters were fumigated...the place they gave us was disgusting, with ripped carpets, filthy cupboards and kitchen doors hanging off their hinges, " said Mrs Campbell.The couple were moved but that was not much better, she added.

John Smith, the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, said he had asked the Ministry of Defence to investigate the accommodation at St Athan. "I am deeply concerned. The problem here appears to be that the property was absolutely filthy and that could not have happened 20 or 30 years ago," he said.

"The entire housing stock of the Ministry of Defence was sold to a Japanese bank (Nomura) some 10 or 12 years ago and what that means is the liaison officer on camp has limited control over the standards of these properties.

"It is going to change at St Athan because with the new technical academy being built - the housing accommodation and just as importantly, the single person accommodation, is going to be transformed."

(Really..Heard it all before ...Don't mention The Annington Homes PFI deal which was heavily criticised by the National Audit Office. Michael Portillo sold Ministry of Defence married quarters to Nomura, who then rented them back to the army. The audit office found that Portillo had sold the houses for between £77 million and £139 million less than they were worth.) Story from BBC NEWS: Published: 2008/10/03 07:23:49 GMT

...Back story Sale of Defence Homes 'Cost Millions' here .

A house of Commons Debate on 16 June 2008 re Annington Homes. here
Bob Russell (Shadow Minister, Defence; Colchester, Liberal Democrat)...
As for Annington Homes, will the Minister confirm that over the past 12 years, the Government have paid more rent to Annington Homes than the Tory Government received during the privatisation in 1996? If that money could be invested in upgrading the homes of Army families, instead of lining the pockets of Annington, perhaps retention would be better than it is.

Derek Twigg (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Minister for Veterans), Ministry of Defence; Halton, Labour) As the hon. Gentleman knows, the amount paid for the sale was around £1.6 billion, and I have written to him with the details of the rent that is being paid. The key thing is that most people now accept that that deal, which was done by the previous Government, was not in the interests of armed forces personnel or their families, and we have had to deal with a legacy of decades of underinvestment.

Linda Gilroy (Plymouth, Sutton, Labour) Not only does that deal not represent good value for money, as my hon. Friend confirmed, but Annington Homes must be making a handsome profit out of the arrangement. People are always looking to the Government for such things, but it is right to look to industries that make handsome profits out of the defence market. What discussions has the Under-Secretary had with Annington Homes to ask what it can do to put money back into the armed services?...

Robert Key (Salisbury, Conservative) But does the Under-Secretary agree that what matters to our armed forces and their families is the quality of the management of those homes? The Defence Committee found lamentable shortcomings in everyday management—taps working, loos flushing—issues that matter so much. In the new supergarrisons, will there be a new housing management system, which is an improvement on the current system?

Serco links to Japensese Bank Nomura here

New Capital in 1999

In early 1999, Nomura International, the European division of a Japanese investment bank, established a £1 billion ($1.7 billion) fund along with Serco for the purpose of bidding on and financing large public infrastructure projects. Two major projects coming up for bidding were those for Britain's National Air Traffic Control System and portions of the London Underground.

Note ..Big profits for defence big guns former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen who is a consultant to Terra Firma which has interests in Annington Homes, owner of MoD properties.

Britain: Government think tank sets out plans for privatisation of ...

The Commission’s sponsors include KPMG, Serco Plc, Nomura Securities, Norwich Union ...Japanese global investment bank Nomura has established a European ..