Defence Secretary tells firms responsible for maintaining UK military homes to 'up their game'
The Defence Secretary has told private firms responsible for maintaining military housing to "up their game".
In a tweet, he said: “I have been contacted by a number of people about the inadequate response by @PinnacleSF @mod_dio @VIVODefence. I have directed those responsible for accommodation services to up their game. I shall be speaking to all the chief executives directly early next week.
"And yes, I am working over the weekend and I expect those who are contracted to look after our service personnel to do the same!"
His response comes after social media was flooded last week by claims military families had been left with housing issues such as broken heating, damp and mould – with no help from the private firms expected to fix these problems.
Senior military officers were among the personnel posting their complaints on social media.
A serving British Army officer posted he's "tired of living like this", as his newborn baby is forced to sleep in what he described as a mouldy military home.
In a now-deleted twitter post, the Commander of Aldershot Garrison, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Burley, said: "Sat in a garrison housing meeting with representatives from @VIVODefence and @PinnacleSF and it's a litany of failure.
"Lots of good people in the room but none of us have access to the levers of improvement. Disappointing @mod_dio our people deserve so much better than this."
Alongside the tweet from the Defence Secretary, the MOD also posted a statement in response to the complaints saying: "It is unacceptable that some of our personnel and their families are not receiving the level of accommodation services that they deserve.
"Across the 46,197 homes managed through the contract, some homes are experiencing issues due to the sharp drop in temperatures.
"We are working quickly with our contractors to resolve heating and hot water problems, on top of spending tens of millions of pounds to upgrade thousands of military homes in the last year.
"Defence Ministers met providers this week, and the Defence Secretary is meeting Chief Executives next week.
"Our providers have increased staffing levels and are starting to improve response times."
Pinnacle group, who are responsible for almost 50,000 military home, updated their twitter page this weekend to say they are experiencing "extremely high call volumes" and that they "are only able to take emergency or urgent calls for repairs at present."
Join Our Newsletter
