Thousands of military homes across the UK will be modernised, refurbished or rebuilt over the next decade under a £9bn government plan to improve defence housing.
The Ministry of Defence’s new housing strategy will see improvements made to almost all of its 47,700 homes for military families in what Defence Secretary John Healey said will be the “biggest renewal of Armed Forces housing in more than 50 years”.
The plan is in response to consistent complaints from serving personnel about the state of their accommodation.
In 2022, dozens of members and their families told the BBC they were having to live in damp, mould-infested housing without heating.
A Commons defence committee last year found two-thirds of homes for service families needed “extensive refurbishment or rebuilding” to meet modern standards.
Under the new strategy, service family accommodation (SFA) will be refurbished with new kitchens, bathrooms and heating systems.
About 14,000 will receive either “substantial refurbishment” or be completely replaced.
The plans are part of the government’s wider defence housing strategy, to be published on Monday. A total of £4bn in funding to tackle the housing problem had already been announced.
The government says it has also identified surplus MoD land which could be used to build 100,000 new homes for civilian and military families.
Healey said: “This is a new chapter – a decisive break from decades of underinvestment, with a building programme to back Britain’s military families and drive economic growth across the country.”
Almost three years ago, the BBC was contacted by families in military accommodation in Sandhurst who had been living without heating for days.
“We’re at breaking point and something has to change. The system is broken,” they said at the time.
In response to the story, the MoD said it was working with its contractors to improve the service. But a report released in December last year found those problems “still exist”.
“It is shocking that until a policy change in 2022, it was considered acceptable to house families in properties known to have damp and mould,” the report said.
The MoD last year announced it would acquire 36,347 military houses from property company Annington Homes for nearly £6bn, reversing a privatisation deal struck in 1996 under the Conservative government.
The deal would save millions in rent and maintenance costs, the MoD said, money that would be put towards fixing military accommodation.
