Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Defence

Oral Answers to Questions

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts
Monday 24th March 2025

(4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Healey Portrait John Healey
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I can indeed. My hon. Friend and I stood on a manifesto, on which we were elected as a Government, that committed to ending the scandal of forces family homes. The buy-back that we have put in place is the start of delivering on that promise for armed forces families and delivering, as we are doing on a number of fronts, for defence.

Caroline Dinenage Portrait Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)
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The litany of complaints I receive from service families in accommodation in Gosport include damp, black mould, unsafe electrical wiring and waste water flowing into homes. One constituent wrote to me that:

“The overall condition of our flat is unfit for purpose, unhygienic and quite frankly a threat to our safety.”

This has been going on for decades, under successive Governments, and our service people and their families quite simply deserve better. What I want to know from the Secretary of State, on behalf of my constituents, is when we will begin to see tangible differences. Pinnacle and VIVO are not fit for purpose; when will we see them replaced with an organisation that can do those repairs, and do them properly? I invite him to visit Gosport to see some of that appalling service family accommodation for himself.