Rodents and mould blight freezing Royal Navy, Army and RAF houses over Christmas amid 'urgent repairs' plan
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Festering mould and rodents were reported at armed forces accommodation over the Christmas period amid a drive to carry out ‘urgent repairs’.
Published Ministry of Defence (MoD) data showed that 1,249 urgent repair callouts were carried out over the festive period. This was measured from December 20, 2025, and January 1, 2026.
The most common request was to fix a broken boiler, with people dealing with the cold inside Service Family Accommodation. A total of 584 callouts were made for those incidents. Other common reasons include burst pipes (114), replacing pipes (89), repairing electrical faults (58), and fixing broken doors (37).
On three occasions, people were called to deal with rodent issues, with mould needing to be clear up on three other occasions.
Minister for defence readiness and industry, Luke Pollard, said: “The Ministry of Defence has recently published the Defence Housing Strategy which sets out a vision for the future transformation of military homes; 90 per cent of military homes will be upgraded, renewed or rebuilt, through a record £9bn investment over a decade.”
Essential improvements to were rolled out in Portsmouth over Christmas, with enhancements to 30 homes ahead of schedule. Damp, mould, infestations, and delayed repairs have ben blighting military homes for years, with several being declared as being “unfit for human habitation”.
As of Christmas Eve, 500 homes in the south of England received upgrades as part of a programme to immediately restore 1,000 sites across the UK. Improvements at a further 250 properties are scheduled within the coming months.
The Defence Housing Strategy was announced in parliament on November 3, with £9bn being invested to transform more than 40,000 family homes. A Defence Housing Service is being set up to take over the management of service accommodation after years of complaints.
“Our Armed Forces and their families sacrifice so much for our country, the least they deserve are safe and decent homes,” defence secretary John Healey previously said. “We are ending the decades of neglect and giving our dedicated Armed Forces families the homes they deserve.”