'Just look after where we sleep': Thousands of soldiers living in cold, damp and mouldy conditions
The government has committed to delivering a "generational renewal" to fix the UK’s military housing by improving more than 40,000 military homes.
Thousands of military families were forced to endure unfit and sometimes dangerous conditions during a time of celebration for the UK’s Armed Forces, LBC can reveal.
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New data shows that in the four weeks prior to Remembrance Sunday, 7336 urgent call outs for emergency housing repairs were made for serving members of our Armed Forces.
Some of the Government’s contracted maintenance suppliers took close to two days on average to tend to serious health and safety issues, including leaks and total loss of power and heating.
The figures also reveal urgent call outs surged by a third compared to January this year.
It comes as the government has committed to delivering a “generational renewal” to fix the UK’s military housing by improving more than 40,000 military homes.
Read more: BBC issues apology to Princess of Wales after Remembrance blunder
One of those call outs was Mike, not his real name, who has served in the UK’s Armed Forces for 22 years and has lost count of the number of times he’s needed repairs.
He’s lived in military housing for just over ten years and said he’s had “several issues with the property regarding a range of problems, [such as] mould... the electrical system... and cracks along the house.”
He told us he’s had to pay out of pocket on a number of occasions to resolve housing issues; “I just had a recent inspection and every statement for the past 10 years has found that something is outdated... even when it’s just a new plug they’ll say ‘nope, there’s not enough funding’.”
Mike’s experience is not unique, as he told us one of his colleague’s roof caved in.
Another in Whitley, who works for RAF Brize Norton, was told noises in the floorboards were just “hot pipes.” It was only when bites were taken out of her daughter’s lunchbox that a rat infestation was found.
Mike said “I'm very honoured to be part of this system... but we just need little things back in return, little gratitude things. You don't need to give us thousands of pounds... what we need is [for officials] to look after where we sleep.”
The data on military housing repair call outs emerged as a result of Parliamentary questions submitted by the Liberal Democrats to the Armed Forces Minister.
The party has called on the Government to “up its game” and accelerate plans to improve the standard of military housing.
Lib Dem defence spokesperson, James MacCleary, told LBC: "We are potentially asking these people to put their lives on the line for us - the least we could do is give their families a warm home and a roof over their head.
"You can have all the shiniest military tech in the world that you like, but if you can't retain people with the, the skills to operate it and the morale to actually go and fight because they don't feel that they're being properly looked after, even to a basic standard, then you will not have an effective fighting force."
The figures come despite Labour pledging the “most significant transformation of UK military housing in more than 50 years”, backed by £9bn investment.
Sir Keir Starmer has also committed millions in cash to get veterans off the streets in an extension of Operation Fortitude; a referral system created to help ex-service personnel find housing support.
However, LBC’s Nick Ferrari has been following Jim, who’s 37 years old and served in the Royal Engineers in Afghanistan from 2009-2015. He is homeless, living in a caravan in Brecon, Wales.
Jim called Operation Fortitude, but was left on hold for 26 minutes before the automated call handler told him they were experiencing a 'high volume of calls'.
He was told by the automated voice that if he left his details he would get a call back, but it wasn’t until Nick's intervention that the helpline responded.
Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard said: "The state of defence housing has not been acceptable in recent years, but we are a government that is on the side of our forces and their families.
"That is why we are leading a generational renewal of Armed Forces accommodation, backed by £9 billion over the next decade, which will see 40,000 military houses modernised, refurbished or rebuilt.
"The number of issues across the estate has decreased significantly in recent years and we are working hard to drive those numbers down further, on top of upgrading 1,000 homes already this year."
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson added: “The Government is committed to renewing the contract with those who served and have served.
“We have committed £3.5 million to veteran homelessness services including Operation Fortitude, the single referral pathway for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
"On top of this, we have changed the law to make it easier for veterans to access social housing in England and in the last week have awarded £4.5 million of grants to refurbish and build new social and affordable housing for veterans."