Hundreds of millions allocated to fix "sub-standard" Royal Navy, Army and RAF houses in south east England
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Hundreds of millions of pounds is being allocated to improve military housing branded as “sub-standard”.
Thousands of armed forces families in the south east of England will benefit from £1.5bn of additional funding. This is part of a wider £7 billion nationwide investment that will be confirmed in the government’s upcoming Strategic Defence Review (SDR).
Defence secretary John Healey said: “Our Armed Forces personnel make extraordinary sacrifices to serve our country. For too long, many military families have lived in sub-standard homes, but this government is taking decisive action to fix the dire state of military accommodation and ensure that our heroes and their loved ones live in the homes they deserve. Our government is determined to end the hollowing out of our Armed Forces. We are investing and acting fast, to fix forces housing and renew the nation’s contract with those who serve.”
What is in the financial package?
It’s hoped the £1.5bn being ploughed into service and family accommodation will help improve recruitment, retention and morale. This will apply to 27,200 South East Service Family Accommodation (SFA) homes. Urgent repairs and maintenance will be carried out, from fixing unreliable boilers and leaky roofs to tackling damp and mould.
New armed forces housing will also be developed. The government is looking for potential home developments on surplus MoD land. It announced earlier this year that 36,000 military homes will be brought back into public ownership, 783 in Portsmouth.
Additional spending on military accommodation will reach £7bn across this parliament, as part of what is known as the Defence Housing Strategy. Labour MP Al Carns, minister for veterans and people, said it was a necessary step to better support serving personnel.
He added: “After years of unacceptable living conditions our service personnel had to endure, we are delivering the much-needed investment into military homes in [insert region] that puts our service families first. This new funding will ensure that those who protect our nation, and their families, can live in homes they can be proud of. We promised better housing for our military families across the United Kingdom and we are delivering on that promise."
The delivery of the government's new Consumer Charter will see immediate investment in urgent renovation of 1,000 homes in most need of repair. The Charter will also see basic consumer rights rapidly introduced for forces families, including essential property information and higher move-in standards, more reliable repairs, a named housing officer for every family, and access to a robust complaints system.