‘The Ministry of Defence and its contractor CarillionAmey are badly letting down
service families by providing them with poor accommodation, and often leaving them
for too long without basic living requirements such as heating, hot water or cooking
facilities. It is unacceptable that such problems with service housing have continued
for many years. In certain cases, frustration with the failure to undertake small-scale
repairs may be driving some highly trained personnel to leave the military, wasting the
investment made in them.
It appears to have taken the Secretary of State’s intervention to secure improvements from the contractor, CarillionAmey, although we await confirmation that progress is real and can be sustained. In the coming months, the Department must decide whether to retain the contractor, based on evidence of an improved and sustainable level of service. Regardless of that decision, the Department has an opportunity with the announcement of the Future Accommodation Model at the end of 2016 to better tailor its housing to the needs of service families in the 21st century. We plan to scrutinise progress later in the year as part of a wider inquiry on defence infrastructure.’
