Armed Forces Bill

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Wednesday 6th July 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, like so many other noble Lords, I will concentrate my remarks on the Armed Forces covenant. Mixed up in the covenant are the effects on members of the Armed Forces and the effects on former members of the Armed Forces. I am struck that, unlike the United States of America, where veterans’ organisations are courted by politicians and form an effective lobby, here in the UK we seem only to notice veterans when they parade on events such as Remembrance Day.

How we look after our veterans and how we mark and respect the sacrifices that they have made must be one of the signs of a caring and moral society. Therefore I welcome the improvements outlined in the Bill, and I welcome particularly the many comments made by many noble Lords here today about how veterans will be helped. We need to ensure that there are more than adequate welfare services for veterans and that on returning to civilian life the former service personnel are not disadvantaged as compared with the general populace. I was at a meeting this morning with the civil servants of the DCLG, talking about housing in another environment within the Localism Bill. When I said that I was going to say something about housing today, members of the DCLG said, “We do a lot with squaddies”, who leave the service, having been there from an early age, and are suddenly thrust into the real world of which they have no knowledge. They have found great difficulty in dealing with housing, social services and cleaning. It is not only a new world; it is a changed world from the one that they left, and that needs to be addressed. The Ministry of Defence deals with the transition to civilian life. I ask the Minister whether he truly believes that the MoD is suitably equipped to be the veterans’ champion.

Another matter on which I trust the Minister will comment is the lack of progress in responding to the campaign for a UK national defence medal. I know the pride that my late father had in his Second World War medals, which were handed down to me, his only son—that is the only war I can remember; the Crimean War was a bit before my time. The Minister will have received a detailed comment from retired Colonel Scriven on Parts 2 and 5 of the draft final medal review dealing with the UK national defence medal. I ask the Minister whether the Government are prepared to move forward to recognise all those who have served the nation by awarding such a medal.

As I said earlier, the other group to be covered by the covenant are the current serving personnel. The matters of concern include healthcare, education and housing. Reports of the quality of housing give rise to great concern. Our servicemen and servicewomen deserve better than the—I use the word carefully—shoddy housing that they may have to endure. Too many of the 44,000 forces family homes in the UK are in a dire state. I understand that there are thousands of complaints over the state of housing repairs and maintenance. The Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey relates that the standard of their housing is a major factor in their decision to leave the service. Work is being done by the coalition Government, but I would like the Minister to confirm that a baby born in forces family housing this week will not have to wait until he or she is a soldier before the home they were born in is modernised. The task must be to increase the refurbishment of family homes so that they can all be tackled within 10 years.

I am aware of the commitments made on housing in The Armed Forces Covenant: Today and Tomorrow, but I am really worried that the MoD’s commitment is only to, in its words,

“examine the scope for refurbishing Service accommodation from efficiencies”,

made within the MoD. A number of further initiatives are suggested but they seem to me to be too little and too late for service personnel. I have come to the conclusion that the Government recognise the problem—they have no problem with recognising the problem—but, having spoken to people at the MoD, I believe, in view of the financial situation, that it seems unlikely at this time that funds will be found in the MoD budget for any significant refurbishment of military homes. I believe that the Government need to be more radical and take new initiatives.

Therefore, I very much welcome the Army’s new employment model of not moving personnel around the country willy-nilly; thus they will be encouraged to buy their own homes in communities and in and around garrison towns. All encouragement and support must be given to them all to get onto the home ownership ladder, as so many people want to do. There will still of course be a great need for single-person rented housing for service personnel. In my view, the MoD needs to think outside the box on this issue. I ask the Minister whether it would be appropriate to call a round table of housing associations to build new homes for service personnel or to renovate existing stock to a high standard. If nothing happens, I certainly intend to visit some of this housing and talk to housing associations, having been a long-time director of an arm’s-length management organisation, a housing association, until a year ago. I believe that housing associations have to be brought into the scenario to deal with a situation that, in my view, will not be dealt with by the MoD because it will not have sufficient money available to deal with it, despite wanting to do so.

Finally, I ask the Minister if we can wait until April 2013, which is the implementation date for the next generation estate contracts that, we are told, will replace current arrangements for management, maintenance and development of UK service accommodation, and whether the Minister realistically thinks that housing procurement policy, as it affects our covenant with the Armed Forces, is fit for purpose.