Oral Answers to Questions

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

10. What recent steps his Department has taken to develop the future accommodation model.

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

18. Whether his Department plans to replace service family accommodation with a rental allowance.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Tobias Ellwood)]

The MOD is committed to giving personnel flexibility and choice in where, how and with whom they live. The future accommodation model programme is advancing a new way to offer choice to our armed forces, whether they wish to live on the garrison or rent or buy a house.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Ellwood]

Let us turn this around: this is not about saving money; it is about offering choice to those whom we want to keep in our armed forces. One of the reasons why individuals choose to leave is that there is no choice; they look over their shoulders and see people in civilian streets able to invest in a house, or to rent or to buy and so forth, and that is exactly what we want to offer those in the armed forces.

[Carolyn Harris]

The Army Families Federation found that if service family accommodation was replaced with the rental model, only 22% of personnel surveyed would definitely remain in the Army. Does the Minister not agree that the future accommodation model risks having a devastating impact on already shaky retention rates?

[Mr Ellwood]

I do not quite recognise those figures. We have worked with the families federations to establish exactly what the armed forces want, and they want choice, particularly the youngsters who come in. Some will want to continue living on the garrison, but others will want to get on the housing ladder, and we need to help them; that is what we need to do for our armed forces.