By Helen Mooney
20 October 2009
A third of armed forces families say the Ministry of Defence houses they live in are in poor condition, with a quarter adding that they are also poorly maintained, according to a report.
Service families’ accommodation, published on October 20 by the Public Accounts Committee, also criticised the unsatisfactory handover of properties to families.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said that service personnel were often given little information in advance about the houses they had been allocated.
‘When they arrive, too often the property has not been cleaned properly and repairs have not been done. The MoD should improve its processes for the handover of properties. It also needs to benchmark its delivery of housing services, including maintenance, against that by other housing providers.’
The MoD has around 50,000 properties in the UK providing accommodation for 42,000 service personnel and their families. It has to manage around 20,000 service family moves each year.
The committee’s report found that approximately 90% of the MoD’s housing stock was within the top two of its four standards for condition, meeting the government's ‘decent homes’ standard. However, there were now fewer properties in the top tier at 35%, falling from 57% in 2008 – and more in the second condition at 59%, up from 37% last year.
The MPs called on the MoD to introduce a deposit scheme so that the cost of cleaning could be deducted from families leaving accommodation in an unsatisfactory condition. Families could also be given detailed information, including photographs and floor plans, before they moved in to their new homes.
Too many properties were still standing empty, about 17%, the MPs added, urging the MoD to ‘speed up its decision-making and bring more of these properties into use or dispose of them’.
Veterans minister Kevan Jones said the government expected to spend £3bn on improving service accommodation over the next ten years, and to upgrade all properties in the lower tiers by 2013.
But a spokeswoman for the Army Families Federation said Defence Estates, which manages MoD property, was ‘hamstrung by tightly controlled Whitehall budgets’ as it tried to solve problems ‘caused by decades of under-investment’.
20 October 2009
A third of armed forces families say the Ministry of Defence houses they live in are in poor condition, with a quarter adding that they are also poorly maintained, according to a report.
Service families’ accommodation, published on October 20 by the Public Accounts Committee, also criticised the unsatisfactory handover of properties to families.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said that service personnel were often given little information in advance about the houses they had been allocated.
‘When they arrive, too often the property has not been cleaned properly and repairs have not been done. The MoD should improve its processes for the handover of properties. It also needs to benchmark its delivery of housing services, including maintenance, against that by other housing providers.’
The MoD has around 50,000 properties in the UK providing accommodation for 42,000 service personnel and their families. It has to manage around 20,000 service family moves each year.
The committee’s report found that approximately 90% of the MoD’s housing stock was within the top two of its four standards for condition, meeting the government's ‘decent homes’ standard. However, there were now fewer properties in the top tier at 35%, falling from 57% in 2008 – and more in the second condition at 59%, up from 37% last year.
The MPs called on the MoD to introduce a deposit scheme so that the cost of cleaning could be deducted from families leaving accommodation in an unsatisfactory condition. Families could also be given detailed information, including photographs and floor plans, before they moved in to their new homes.
Too many properties were still standing empty, about 17%, the MPs added, urging the MoD to ‘speed up its decision-making and bring more of these properties into use or dispose of them’.
Veterans minister Kevan Jones said the government expected to spend £3bn on improving service accommodation over the next ten years, and to upgrade all properties in the lower tiers by 2013.
But a spokeswoman for the Army Families Federation said Defence Estates, which manages MoD property, was ‘hamstrung by tightly controlled Whitehall budgets’ as it tried to solve problems ‘caused by decades of under-investment’.
