Firstly a big thank you for the help pointing me in this direction, I have
managed to get this far ( section of code below) in reading a text file and
creating an XML file from it..

code
       Do
           Dim t As New Transaction
           importLine = StripQuotes(sr.ReadLine)
           If InStr(importLine, "TRAILER RECORD") Then Exit Do
           ' Set the values
           t.LedgerRef = s.LedgerKey
           t.Licence = s.License
           s.Transactions.Add(t)
       Loop Until InStr(importLine, "TRAILER RECORD") > 0

CLass

Imports System.Xml.Serialization
Imports System.IO

Public Class Transaction

   Public _LedgerRef As String
   <XmlAttribute("LedgerRef")> _
   Public Property LedgerRef() As String
       Get
           Return _LedgerRef
       End Get
       Set(ByVal value As String)
           _LedgerRef = value
       End Set
   End Property

           Public _Licence As String
   <XmlAttribute("Licence")> _
   Public Property Licence() As String
       Get
           Return _Licence
       End Get
       Set(ByVal value As String)
           _Licence = value
       End Set
   End Property

End Class

section ox XML result

 <Transactions>
   <Transaction LedgerRef="11111158908068131138" Licence="111111" >
     <_LedgerRef>11111158908068131138</_LedgerRef>
     <_Licence>111111</_Licence>
   </Transaction>
   <Transaction LedgerRef="22222258908068131138" Licence="222222" >
     <_LedgerRef>22222258908068131138</_LedgerRef>
     <_Licence>222222</_Licence>
   </Transaction>
.. etc

what im trying to achieve is the following

 <Transactions>
   <Transaction LedgerRef="11111158908068131138" Licence="111111" />
   <Transaction LedgerRef="22222258908068131138" Licence="222222" />

etc

any suggestions