General Sir Richard Barrons: Servicemen Were Living In "Unacceptable" Accommodation

A retired British Army officer has told Forces News he hopes the collapse of Carillion could lead to a change in the way the Armed Forces works.

Former head of Joint Forces Command General Sir Richard Barrons and other military chiefs told the Ministry of Defence they were concerned about the standard of the maintenance three years ago.

Speaking to Forces News, General Sir Richard said:

“I wrote to Michael Fallon and said we’ve had enough- this drama had gone on for many years.

“We had single servicemen and families living in accommodation that was shocking and unacceptable.

“Some people in Carillion were working really hard to fix this- they were battling with not enough money, but there were also some examples of really poor performance.

“Nothing the Government says will make up for the fact that if they don’t put enough money into service accommodation, nothing will fix it.

“If there is a silver lining to the collapse of Carillion, it might allow the MOD to have a rethink about the delivery of some of these services.”