The scandal that is 11,000 empty MOD houses

What a scandal it is that more than 11,000 Ministry of Defence homes across the UK are sitting empty, costing the taxpayer (that’s you and me) more than £25m a year in rent and maintenance?

The MOD says it is doing its best to reduce the numbers but has to budget for thousands of service family house moves every year.

Part of the current situation appears to be the 1996 sale and leaseback deal between the MoD and Annington Property Limited of over 55,000 residential properties.

The MoD agreed to rent homes back from the property company for 200 years. Yes, that’s right, 200 years.

Now I realise the MOD needs some “spares” for when members of the forces and their families have to move in a hurry but surely not 11,000 properties.

The homelessness situation faced by some members of the general public is at crisis point and the government appears to be ignoring a way to help ease that situation.

My reader got in touch with a response to my PETA piece on December 6: “I entirely agree. Every time I put my sprouts into boiling water I ask myself ‘How can I do this to living vegetables?’ When I could be cooking meat that is long dead.”