Hundreds of UK military families live in 'indecent' housing units

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Daily Mail
12 Mar 2023 11:13

The UK military homes lack the accepted amounts of repair and maintenance and are not in a "decent" state to be considered proper for living.

British soldiers stand next to their national flag. (Photo: Zurab Kurtsikidze/EPA)

Around 600 families of British military personnel are living in houses that fall below the legal minimum of proper accommodation standard, UK's Daily Mail revealed on Sunday.

The housing units, that are lacking the accepted amounts of repair and maintenance, are not in a "decent" state to be considered appropriate for living.

Air Commodore James Savage, the Head of Accommodation for the Armed Forces, admitted that 8,000 repairs have not yet been completed on military homes, including houses suffering from black mold and damp and heating problems, noting that the issue will take months to be resolved.

Payments to private companies responsible for the repairs have been withheld earlier last month by officials.

The British government held daily briefings in January to address the issue with the heads of military housing following numerous complaints by military families of severe cold and worsening damp issues.

Minister for Defense Procurement Alex Chalk said last week that as of March 1, 585 military homes do not meet living standards. Military homes occupied by troops and their families do not meet this standard as of March 1.

Savage said to Soldier Magazine that "direct-level meetings are still happening two or three times a week."

"There is very close engagement and close supervision of what they are doing, and we absolutely intend to do so until the standard of performance is up to the degree required," he said. "Realistically, that is not going to happen overnight. It is months’ work to get to that point, but we are not accepting anything below what we set out in the contracts."

The issues have also impacted members of one of the UK's top army regiments, the First Queen’s Dragoon Guards - also known as The Welsh Cavalry.

The Cavalry's servicemembers are feeling undervalued and that they were "not important enough to have [their] roof fixed," the manager of the pastoral care for the guards and their families, Reverand Ailsa Whorton, revealed.

- UK MoD threatens military families -

In November 2022, the UK's Defense Ministry threatened the families of the British Armed Forces servicemembers to get their pay docked if they do not drop charges over conditions of poor housing.

The claims made by these families tackled the government's failure to provide families with safe and well-maintained homes. Normally, army families are allowed to file complaints since they are entitled to benefits issued by the service family accommodation (SFA) system.

But government lawyers have instead resorted to threatening the families of army men and women that in the event of a judgment in their favor, their pay will be docked.

- An apology -

In September 2022, David Bowden, the former director of accommodation of the MoD’s Defense Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), apologized to the troops and their families for the poor level of repair services following the new accommodation contracts.

“I want to apologise to you for the unacceptable levels of service you have received under the new accommodation contracts and for the disruption and inconvenience these failures have caused you,” Bowden wrote then. “These contracts were designed firmly with families in mind and will deliver significant benefits for families. However, it is clear that the service you have received so far is well below what you have a right to expect.”

On his part, Collette Musgrave, Chief Executive of the Army Famies Federation (AFF), said, “We recognize that the poor level of service is incredibly disappointing and frustrating for Army families. We have been raising their concerns at the highest levels to push for rapid and significant improvements."

“DIO may now have officially recognized the issues we have been flagging to them, but what families want to see is real and immediate improvements that deliver the service they were promised, and give them confidence that their homes are safe and secure. We hope that this acknowledgment is a first step in that direction.’’

- UK funds foreign wars, IMF warns of 'sobering economy' -

This comes as Britain is currently hosting and funding the training of reportedly around 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers across the UK, in addition to sending billions of dollars worth of military aid and payments to Kiev, leaving its own people to their own fate.

After all, it seems that the UK is following in the US footsteps of embracing Ukraine and ignoring their own soldiers who are losing their battles to mold, damp, and extremely poor housing conditions.

The inflation rate hit a four-decade high in January, increasing to 11.1%, and the government attributed the reasons for this economic downturn to the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, without any mention of all the aid pouring into Ukraine. In the meantime, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed in November that the standard of living in the UK will fall by 7% in the next two years.

The retail industry in #Britain had a "brutal" year in 2022, with more stores closing than at any other time in the previous five years. Industry groups predict that 2023 will be just as difficult.#Inflation pic.twitter.com/niL09Hljyk
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) January 5, 2023

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), on its part, said, "The outlook for the UK economy is sobering: for 2023, the output is expected to contract and inflation to remain elevated."

IMF warned that the British public will be passing through torrid times as the new fiscal plan tries to counteract inflation during times of recession. This dire situation is assessed to be the result of the skyrocketing energy prices.

The consequences of this are that a recession is expected to last for more than a year as the UK's GDP may decrease by 2%, and unemployment might grow from 3.5% to 4.9% in the third quarter of 2024.

The central bank predicts that the UK entered a recession in the third quarter of 2022, and the recession will be ongoing until 2024.