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Question
Does my hon. Friend agree that bringing Annington homes back into public ownership is a decisive break from the past, marking a chance to renew the contract between the nation and those who serve? Will he keep the Government honest on commitments to improve service life and accommodation?
Minister reply
The Minister welcomes the shadow's comments, affirming support for scrutiny of government work through the Armed Forces Commissioner. While Tuesday’s announcement is welcome, there remains significant planning and delivery required.
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Question
Does the Chair agree that this long-overdue change to address substandard conditions for service personnel is welcome across the House? Are the backlog of repairs and basic services unacceptable, warranting immediate action?
Minister reply
The Minister fully agrees with the Liberal Democrat spokesman, stating that it is unacceptable to expect servicemen and women to live in such poor conditions and looks forward to urgent remediation.
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Question
Does he agree that service housing is the foundation upon which service personnel commit to our country, marking a journey of repairing a damaged contract? Is this the start of improving conditions?
Minister reply
The Minister fully concurs with Calvin Bailey’s perspective, noting his experience in armed forces and affirming that service accommodation is crucial. He sees this as the beginning of remedying past issues.
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Question
For the record, I declare an interest: I participated in the inquiry while serving on the Committee in the previous Parliament. I thank the Committee Chairman for kindly pointing that out. Also for the record, we welcome the Annington decision, partly because we had done a lot of work on that prior to the election. I thank the Minister for playing fair on that. Now that we have hopefully resolved the issue of the ownership of the estate, there is still the question of its management. Changing the ownership does not fix the boiler. Will the Chairman of the Committee be pleased to hear that, in the same bipartisan spirit, we are happy to work with the Department and Ministers to see if we can provide proposals for improving the management of the estate now that, hopefully, we have resolved the ownership question?
Minister reply
The right hon. Gentleman is indeed right, not only in his considerable contribution to the deliberations relating to the service accommodation report, but in preceding years, when he served in such a distinguished manner on the Defence Committee, which, by the way, works on a cross-party basis and the report was agreed unanimously. He is also right to highlight that the management of the contracts will be essential. The Committee’s report has identified the serious problems and now the ball is in the Government’s court as to how they manage that. However, it is great to see the cross-party working and I hope that will help to address the issues in a more timely manner.
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Question
I welcome the Committee’s “Service Accommodation” report and recommendations, but I am not surprised by its findings. I also welcome the Government’s move to purchase back housing stock that should never have been sold off and the hundreds of houses that will bring back to Portsmouth. However, the issue of Ministry of Defence housing is huge, because of the years of managed decline under the previous Government. There has been no real investment, just sticking plasters. Portsmouth in particular has been underfunded, and those in naval properties miss out more than most, because they can be in their homes for longer than those in other services as they are based at the port. There is a cap on void works, which means that, if a family moves out, the house needs renovating and it will be withdrawn. This causes undue stress to families who have already selected schools, sorted out their removals and left jobs. There is not always a guarantee of a house in the same area. There is so much to say on behalf of Portsmouth service personnel, but, lifting words from the pages of the report, I invite the Committee and the Ministers to meet me, the contractors and service personnel in Portsmouth to see the reality of the situation.
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is 100% right. She is also speaking with considerable experience, because of the importance of Portsmouth to our nation’s defence, and the sheer scale of its service accommodation. Indeed, I look forward to visiting Portsmouth. The Defence Committee, along with its staff, will be visiting the city very soon. And, yes, every instance of substandard accommodation is unacceptable, and we must collectively work to rectify matters.
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Question
Some 40 years ago, I was growing up in army accommodation, because my dad was serving in the Royal Signals. Even then, I remember my parents talking about the problems that they were having with their accommodation. It is extraordinary that all this time later, things have probably got worse, rather than better. I want to put on record that this is about not only service personnel but their spouses and children who live in the accommodation. When service personnel are serving away from home, often for months at a time, the family’s health and mental health is impacted by the quality of their accommodation. Does the Chair of the Committee agree that the impact on mental health is important?
Minister reply
I could not agree more with the hon. Member. She has got to the nub of it. If our brave servicemen and women are anxious about what is going on with their families when they are serving around the world, that affects their mental health. It also affects the mental health of the families themselves—the partners and the children. It is extremely important that we rectify matters, otherwise armed services personnel will vote with their feet and walk away.
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Question
I wholeheartedly support this excellent report of my hon. Friend and his Select Committee. May I also ask them to look at the issue of housing for veterans, which is a very important matter? Many veterans in Reading live in poor-quality, rented accommodation, despite the fact that Reading borough council has prioritised their needs in the council house waiting lists. There are simply not enough council houses to go around. We have particular problems with our British Gurkha community who are struggling in poor accommodation. Will the Select Committee look into that matter?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend has been a champion of veterans, particularly Gurkha veterans. I know that he recently visited Aldershot and many other places, including Westminster Hall, to champion their cause. He is right that veterans’ issues need to be resolved. I think that he, along with his constituents, will have been happy with the Government’s recent announcement of homes for veterans, but we must keep pushing to ensure the best possible outcome for our veterans.
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Question
I wish you a merry Yorkshire Christmas, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank my hon. Friend for the Committee’s report. As we are admitting things, let me say that, in the 1980s, I, too, lived in armed services accommodation for a brief period. It is important for us to remember how many children live in armed services accommodation. I have been raising this issue since 2018, at the time of the CarillionAmey contract. Catterick garrison in Yorkshire has one of the largest stocks of armed forces housing, and I know that my hon. Friend knows how poor much of the maintenance work has been. He has already mentioned mould, rats, and conditions that are unfit for children, or anybody, to live in. Does he think that service families who suffered the most egregious examples of poor maintenance should be able to receive compensation from those private companies?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend, along with other hon. Members, speaks with a great deal of experience having lived in service accommodation. When I had the honour recently to visit Catterick, I was able to see for myself some of the service accommodation. We do need to ensure that people are held to account. I have no doubt that the Government will put pressure on those management companies to ensure that compensation commensurate with what people have suffered should be forthcoming.