British troops 'failed' over 'scandalous' military homes as major changes unveiled

Defence Secretary John Healey said British troops have been "failed" by below-par housing as he announced further changes to improve service accommodation. A new service is set to run military housing with thousands of homes due to be modernised, refurbished or rebuilt over the next decade as part of a £9 billion overhaul.

The Defence Housing Service will take over management of service accommodation following years of complaints about poor quality homes. The state of military housing has significantly contributed to the retention crisis that has engulfed the forces in recent years at a critical time for defence. Mr Healey, who was visiting newly refurbished homes in west London, said there has been a "scandal" in forces housing for decades.

He said: "Defence has failed those who serve on their housing.

"We ask extraordinary things of those who serve, we ask them to deploy sometimes at a week's notice to the other side of the world, we ask them and their families to move every three years, and the very least they deserve is a decent home.

"The very last thing you want our forces to worry about is whether their husband or wife and child back home is living in a damp, cold, leaky home - we're putting an end to that."

The service will operate as an arm's-length public body, with Mr Healey claiming it will represent better value for taxpayer money.

When created, it will be one of the largest publicly owned housing providers in the country.

It is part of a 10-year defence housing strategy, launched on Monday, that will see £9 billion invested in service accommodation and 100,000 homes built on surplus MoD land, with military families and veterans set to get priority.

It follows a decision earlier in the year to take 36,000 service family accommodation (SFA) homes back into public ownership, which the MoD said saves the taxpayer £600,000 per day.

The MoD has also promised to carry out an "urgent review" of single living accommodation (SLA), which houses more than half of military personnel.

Mr Healey has described the strategy as "the biggest renewal of armed forces housing in more than 50 years".

Military accommodation has been heavily criticised in recent years.

A report by the Defence Select Committee last year found problems with maintenance and historic underinvestment left two-thirds of SFA housing "essentially no longer fit for purpose".

MPs also found around a third of the 133,000 SLA spaces were not fit for purpose.

Complaints have included persistent damp and mould problems, long delays for maintenance work, outdated facilities and furniture, and poor communication from those responsible for operating the accommodation.

Poor accommodation has been cited as one reason for the military's struggle to retain personnel, with 40% of service members saying it had made them more likely to leave the Armed Forces.

Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge said it is "vital" troops and their families are provided with the "best quality accommodation".

He added: "We will carefully consider Labour's proposals but, like all their defence policy papers so far, this is months late and we now need to see real ambition in practice when it comes to overhauling defence accommodation."