'I worry about where I'll live in the new year'

A family facing eviction from their home say they intend to "make the most" of their last Christmas at the property.

In July 2023, Claire Griffin and several neighbours were given Section 21 notices telling them to leave their rented homes, former military accommodation, in Catterick Garrison.

In total, 13 families on the same street received eviction letters telling them the landlord was selling their homes, and Claire's is the last family left on the estate.

She told the BBC she was "content" to have a home for Christmas, but "I still feel worried about where I'm going to be in the new year".

Claire said the next stage in her eviction process was to "go to the courts and argue our case… that I have two sons and have nowhere else to go".

She has been living in her North Yorkshire home for eight years, and her sons have many happy memories of Christmases gone by. But this Christmas is different.

"I would be doing more things with my children. I wouldn't be feeling as low as I am currently," the 32-year-old said.

'We're in a homeless centre after mass eviction'

Despite her precarious position, Claire is determined to make the last Christmas for her boys in their beloved home extra special.

"We're going to make the most of it," Claire said.

She and her boys will have a "sleep over" in their living room and watch the classic Christmas movie Home Alone.

Most other evicted families on her street either found private accommodation or council houses. But some have already ended up needing to spend time in a homeless centre.

Claire is worried because, in the 15 months since she was first told she would have to leave, she has found private rentals too rare and too expensive.

And she has been unsuccessful bidding on any council houses that have become available.

This means that, unless she can find somewhere in the next few months, she and her two boys will have to go to the same homeless centre others have ended up in.

She said she thought they would find somewhere, "but nothing, nothing at all."

Claire's landlord, Annington, owns more than 40,000 units in the UK, and many were used by the Army for service family accommodation before the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sold them in 1996.

On Tuesday, the MoD announced it was buying back its old service accommodation from Annington in a deal worth £6bn.

But Claire's home and the others on her street are being sold on the private market, so will not return to government ownership.

Annington said it was part of its long-term business strategy to periodically sell off its housing stock.

Claire said it was "disheartening" that the government could not include her home in the deal, or arrange for social housing to acquire the Annington homes that were being sold privately.

The government said the deal would save millions of pounds in rental costs and maintenance fees and allow it to refurbish an Army estate in poor condition.

Claire has ties to the armed forces, but not enough to secure her a house in the place she's called home for years, and the only place her children have ever known.

Claire and her boys will make the most of this Christmas. But she knows the new year will bring challenges.

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