More than one in 10 forces family homes treated for damp and mould in last six months
More than 1 in 10 forces family homes have been treated for damp and mould in the last six months, according to the results of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by BFBS Forces News.
The request was submitted following hundreds of comments responding to an Army spouse telling us she had to take her toddler to hospital because she was ill due to mould in their Service Family Accommodation (SFA).
After being inundated with stories of frustration from those living in accommodation affected by mould, we put an FOI request to the MOD to find out just how bad the numbers are.
The MOD currently has 47,700 SFA properties in the UK.
According to the FOI, between April and November 2025, there have been 6,391 reports of damp and mould.
Over the same time period there have been 5,550 SFA properties treated for damp and mould – that is 11.6% of SFA, so more than one in 10.
During that time 20 families were offered alternative accommodation because the problem was so bad.
What is quite interesting, is when you look at the number of times properties had to be treated over the last six months.
Hundreds of properties need repeat visits to tackle the problem – 1,158 homes were treated more than once, with some families needing up to six visits to tackle the problem.
Here is the breakdown:
Strict time frames
Awaab's Law came into force in October which requires social landlords to fix emergency repairs within 24 hours, and significant hazards including damp and mould, within strict time frames upon receiving a report.
The regulations under that law, introduced following the tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in 2020, who died due to prolonged exposure to mould in his Rochdale home, apply to social housing.
Although the MOD is not a registered provider of social housing, it says that as a responsible landlord it is adopting the standard across the UK on a voluntary basis.
The MOD told us that there has been considerable focus to identify and tackle damp and mould in SFA properties, saying that severe cases are triaged within 24 hours, with attendance within 48 hours.
Lower-level cases are responded to within 10 days.
As part of our FOI request we also asked for the numbers for Single Living Accommodation (SLA) but the Defence Infrastructure Organisation could not give them to us.
The organisation said it does not track the data by individual rooms, only by building, making it "challenging to separate" the real figures.
'Directly affected fall in morale'
Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard refused to guarantee that the government's £9 billion commitment to military housing in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) would be protected when questioned in the House of Commons.
Asked whether the funding is still secured, Mr Pollard said: "It was a scandal that so many of our Armed Forces personnel were being asked and required to live in accommodation with black mould, broken boilers and leaky roofs.
"It directly affected the fall in morale that we saw in every single service for nearly the duration of the Conservative government.
"It led to the retention and recruitment crisis and it is the reason why, in opposition, we said we would make improving defence housing a priority."
He went on: "In government, why we have announced a £9bn programme to improve defence homes, and we have set out already, not only did we have a target of delivering improvements to the 1,000 worst defence homes by Christmas, a target we achieved and delivered ahead of time, but we have now also completed the next 200 most appalling homes, and we are getting after it.
"By the next decade, nine in 10 defence homes will either have been rebuilt or refurbished, giving our people the homes that they should have had for many, many years."
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