With 60% of SFA not fit for purpose, Government must improve housing offer
Tan Dhesi, the chair of the Defence Select Committee, says the Government needs to fix military housing if it wants to stop people leaving the Armed Forces "at an absurd rate".
People are the beating heart of our Armed Forces, and where they and their families live is at the core of the Ministry of Defence's offer.
Providing free and subsidised housing is an attempt to minimise the impact of the unique challenges posed by military life – the unpredictability, the frequent upheaval and the remote locations.
The Defence Committee's report today finds that service personnel and their families have had to tolerate shockingly poor conditions and persistent uncertainty over the allocation of housing.
It is well known that the military is losing personnel at an astounding rate. Morale has reached record lows, with almost six in every 10 personnel describing their morale as low.
And that almost one-third of those intending to leave cite accommodation provision as a factor points to a severe problem.
Evidence received in the last Parliament shows the extent of the accommodation crisis gripping the military.
Shockingly, a third of Single Living Accommodation – provided to single and unaccompanied personnel, usually in a block on a base – and two-thirds of Service Families Accommodation are in such poor condition that they are essentially no longer fit for purpose.
Service personnel and their families told the Defence Committee of homes blighted by damp and mould – unsafe living conditions that pose a threat to the health of our forces and their loved ones.
Hundreds of personnel were placed in accommodation that hadn't had basic gas safety checks.
Families' accommodation requiring maintenance and major works have felt helpless and frustrated by slow response times, missed appointments and lengthy delays in resolving severe issues over winter months, such as loss of heating, hot water and cooking facilities.
On top of this, uncertainty over housing allocation is a significant source of frustration for families.
Service personnel and their families make immense sacrifices to serve their country and yet they have been left in limbo.
The previous government's announcement of the Modernised Accommodation Offer was seriously mishandled, leading to even more stress and confusion.
Since that government put the offer on hold back in February, there have been no further public announcements, leaving families in the dark about their future entitlement.
It is hardly surprising that our report finds that the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) – the organisation responsible for maintaining the defence estate – has lost the trust of personnel and their families.
The roots of many of the problems facing the defence estate now date back decades, but things can't continue this way. It is simply wrong to treat the people who put their lives on the line for their country in this way.
While the inquiry leading to this report took place in the previous Parliament, my colleagues and I on the Defence Committee were determined to bring this work forward.
Leaving the inquiry unfinished would have been a disservice to the personnel and their family members who took the time to write and speak to us.
We understand the strain that problems with service accommodation places on personnel, and our report calls for the government to confront this head-on.
The government must make ongoing funding commitments to invest properly in the defence estate before it deteriorates beyond repair.
This will be expensive and might seem hard to justify in the current economic climate. But there is no obvious alternative to a professionally planned and delivered programme of major investment.
The current policy of patch and make-do is quickly running out of rope.
The Ministry of Defence also needs to demonstrate a genuine "family first" approach to win back the trust of families.
Communication needs to improve fundamentally, from information about basic maintenance to policy announcements.
The confusion around the allocation of accommodation needs to be resolved quickly.
The Strategic Defence Review is ongoing, but the Ministry of Defence cannot postpone decisions until then.
Families cannot be made to wait for much longer.
With war raging in Europe, and conflict engulfing the Middle East, the world is an increasingly volatile and unpredictable place.
If the government is serious about keeping the talented personnel it has – and making an attractive offer to potential new recruits – addressing service accommodation is essential.
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