After backlash caused the MoD to retract new housing plan it shows urgent reform is needed in defence accommodation

29 February 2024, 13:36

• Alfie Usher is a veteran who served in Afghanistan twice, and was part of the parachute regiment for 10 years, he now runs Military Fill Your boots and claimsbible.com

By Alfie Usher

@MilitaryBanter

This week, after years worth of planning, the Ministry of Defence temporarily launched a new accommodation offer for military personnel.

However, the offer was shortly redacted and taken off the table in under a week seemingly in response to a scathing Telegraph article, input from Officers wives and influential Officers themselves.

Over the last five years, I have received a noticeable increase in complaints in the form of direct messages concerning the state of military accommodation across the UK.

These complaints range from justifiable rants about lazy maintenance and poor communication to desperate pleas concerning the health and well-being of young children.

It is no secret that military accommodation has been underfunded and mismanaged for decades and there have been many accounts of soldiers and their families living in houses with collapsing bedrooms, toxic mould and asbestos.

It is unacceptable that this standard of living or lack of has been normalised regardless of numerous MPs continuing to preach their outrage towards this issue.

I would never claim that Officers do not have their fair share of accommodation issues, however, now this topic is at the forefront of everyone's mind, this is the only time I can recall that the more influential personnel have commented on the housing situation.

It would appear that those who have in the past stayed silent regardless of the scale and gravitas of the issue, are now suddenly outraged at the thought of potentially being made to live in the same conditions with their own families.

Despite this, I don’t think robbing Peter to pay Paul makes anyone better off.

This week has very much shone a light on how the MOD goes about dealing with change. We must also remember the new accommodation offer was full of much broader changes than just those impacting Officer allowances.

If the current state of defence housing is allowed to continue and the new accommodation offer u-turn stays in place it is hard to not assume that those with power only seem to care when the “offer” being eroded directly impacts them, and not those they command.

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