MOD 'withholding payments' from contractors responsible for maintaining military homes

Contractors responsible for repairing service families' homes are having their payments withheld while "performance remains sub-par", the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has confirmed.

Speaking about the Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) contract at the Defence Select Committee, David Williams, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, confirmed that contractors have been "placed in default" after thousands of military families were left to live in damp and mouldy homes.

During questions at the committee on Wednesday, Mr Williams confirmed that since January there have been 3,600 cases reported of damp and mould and the three firms have managed to "assess" up to 2,800 of those.

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Mr Williams did go on to confirm that any initial assessment would likely be dealt with by a "clean and a paint", as the companies are struggling to find enough specialist surveyors to deal with the mould issues.

When probed on how many of the three firms were having payments withheld, the Permanent Under-Secretary confirmed the MOD is withholding payment but said "I would have to check, but I think from all three."

The contracts are worth £640m in total and make up part of the MOD's £3-billion Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) programme.

The three companies benefiting from the FDIS contract include Pinnacle Group Ltd, Amey and VIVO.

Forces News approached all three companies for a comment.

An MOD spokesperson said: "The financial situation continues to receive careful and urgent attention, but we will not hesitate to enforce financial consequences if performance continues to be unacceptable."

Speaking at the same meeting, Conservative MP Mark Francois said that "recruitment into the Armed Forces is, unfortunately, falling", and that "outflow from the Armed Forces, unfortunately, is rising".

He added: "So we've got fewer people coming in and more people deciding to leave and there is an overwhelming amount of anecdotal evidence that the poor state of housing for service personnel and their families is definitely one of the contributory factors, if not, very often, the straw that breaks the camel's back."

Meanwhile, in a post to social media, the Second Sea Lord says he will "personally review progress" of fixing sailors' accommodation.

Second Sea Lord Martin J Connell said in a post on Twitter: "I met the MD of @VIVODefence last week to agree how to improve service delivery. I stressed the importance of putting our families first in fixing SFA (Service Family Accommodation)."

In the tweet, the Second Sea Lord said that more maintenance contractors are being recruited into the Portsmouth area to fix the backlog of work, adding: "I'll personally review progress," and then thanked the families who'd already reached out and made him aware of their problems with accommodation.