Defence Secretary John Healey has pledged to improve the quality of accommodation for service families, describing the Government’s recent action to repurchase military homes as a “decisive break with the past.”
Responding to a question in the House of Commons from Clive Jones, Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham, about plans to improve service accommodation, Healey linked current issues to the controversial sale of military homes under a previous Conservative administration.
“The fire sale of military family homes by Conservative Ministers in 1996 was probably the worst privatisation ever,” said Healey. “The Government were paying £600,000 a day to rent back the homes and then paying all the repair costs, with no power to plan or to do the major upgrades needed.”
The Defence Secretary confirmed that the Government had repurchased 36,000 homes in January, launched a defence housing review in February, and would publish plans for upgrades in the summer.
Labour MP Lillian Jones also raised the importance of service accommodation, saying: “The men and women of our armed forces perform the ultimate public service. They and their families make considerable sacrifices to keep all of us in the UK safe and secure. Does [the Secretary of State] agree that the least we owe our servicemen and women is decent housing that they can proudly call home?”
Healey agreed, responding: “My hon. Friend is right; the sacrifice that those who serve in uniform make to keep us all safe is exceptional. The least that their families deserve is a decent home—it is, after all, the heart of all our lives.”
Personally I think that the Government should focus on giving servicmen and women weapons to defend themselves. We need to be moving onto a cold war footing and accepting that a war footing is not impossible. If that happens who knows what accomodation will be needed and where.
Mark, it shouldn’t be a binary choice between housing service personnel properly and procuring more weapons. When I was serving (to 2009) there were significant problems with service housing and had been for decades. I only had minor problems with my various Married Quarters but some junior ranks places were in bad shape, with dodgy wiring and mould.
For the singles the situation was very varied. I was interested that illegal migrants thought that Napier Barracks was substandard, yet we used it just before then to house teenage army cadets for weekend training or for longer periods. The cadets never complained.
I am sure you know that service personnel pay rent for service-provided accommodation. They expect to get decent facilities and humane treatment.
I am making a good salary from home $4580-$5240/week , which is amazing under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now its my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone,
Here is I started_______ 𝐖𝐖𝐖.𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝟏.𝐂𝐎𝐌