Defence Command Paper: How the £400m will be invested in service family accommodation

More detail about how the funding and plans outlined in the Defence Command Paper Refresh (DCP23) will be delivered over the next few years has been released by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

It was a headline announcement for personnel, that £400m is to be spent modernising accommodation that UK "service families deserve".

According to the MOD, the money outlined in the DCP23 will be invested in service family accommodation over the next two years, and this is to tackle some of the most urgent issues and help ensure service families' homes are up to standard.

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The funding will include a focus on damp and mould mitigation and prevention work across thousands of homes and high-quality refurbishments to around 1,000 void homes so they can be made available for service families.

These latest details come at an opportune time with the release of the UK Tri-Service Families Continuous Attitude Survey Results 2023, which appears to show that satisfaction with service families' accommodation has plummeted.

According to the MOD report, "the proportions of families satisfied with the overall standard, and the quality of maintenance/ repair of SFA/SSFA have also fallen to their lowest levels reported since these questions were first asked in 2015".

This comes after waves of complaints over the state of military housing and assurances in a Christmas 2022 letter from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace that the "unacceptable" situation surrounding military families' accommodation was a priority.

Mr Wallace announced the service accommodation cash windfall in the Commons on Tuesday, saying: "And since all our Armed Forces personnel deserve the best quality accommodation, we are injecting a further £400m to improve our service accommodation in the next two years.

"Many of us over Christmas would have been frustrated by the support our service personnel and the families receive from those tasked with looking after their accommodation.

"It is for that reason I've withheld their profit and used the money to free for one year only the rent increases our personnel were due to pay," added Mr Wallace, who said this is "likely to be one of my last appearances at this despatch box" after earlier confirmation he plans to resign at the next Cabinet reshuffle.

Global Response Force

As well as the details on how the Government's £2.5bn investment in the UK Armed Forces will be invested into accommodation, more detail has been provided for the Global Response Force (GRF).

During the announcement of the DCP23, it was mentioned that the GRF will enable the UK to 'get there first', bringing together deployed and high-readiness forces, and drawing on capabilities from all domains.

The GRF will be developed through better integration across all five domains, with partners across Government, and able to operate at range independently or with allies. It will be an evolution of the Army's GRF, announced in DCP21.

According to the MOD, this is in recognition of the complexity of today's security challenges and the need for enhanced integration between the UK's Armed Forces, bringing together forces from across land, sea, air, space and cyber.

The GRF will look to combine extant capabilities to deliver a more productive (ready, integrated and lethal) joint force able to operate at pace globally and in support of Nato.

It will complement the Nato New Force Model by bringing together the UK's deployed and high-readiness forces under a single command.

This is seen as a direct response to the lessons learned early on in the war in Ukraine about the need to respond rapidly to the changing threat picture.

Five-year acquisition deadline

The MOD also recognised that certain major projects will need exceptions, however, they want to challenge the department to change its mindset and set itself tough targets.

Going forward it will aim to build on the "positive experiences" of Type 31 and Boxer acquisition by seeking to acquire core platforms that are modular by design, rather than delivering major one-off capabilities.