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Written Question
Strategic Defence Review
Monday 1st June 2026

Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to implement the Strategic Defence Review.

Answered by Al Carns

Implementation of all 62 recommendations is moving forward at pace, and in the last year, we have made significant progress.

To support warfighting readiness, we launched the Military Intelligence Services, Defence Counter-Intelligence Unit and the Defence Cyber and Electromagnetic Force.

To support UK growth and innovation, we established the Defence Industrial Joint Council and UK Defence Innovation, and reformed acquisition processes.

The UK’s groundbreaking Atlantic Bastion programme makes Britain more secure from Russian undersea threats in the North Atlantic through a transformation of the Royal Navy into an advanced hybrid force.

2025 was also the highest year for UK Defence exports in 40 years including landmark deals with Norway, worth £10 billion (Type 26 frigates) and Türkiye, worth £8 billion (Typhoons).

Written Question
Armed Forces: Housing
Thursday 26th March 2026

Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on delivering the Defence Housing Strategy; what the total planned investment is for upgrading military accommodation; and how many service homes are expected to benefit in Rochester and Strood constituency.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

We have begun the biggest transformation of Armed Forces housing in a generation. The Department is in the early stages of delivering the recommendations of the Defence Housing Strategy and we will publish our implementation plan in due course. The plan is funded by a £9 billion investment plan and will be delivered via a decade of renewal, driven by the new Defence Housing Service.

We have already made rapid improvements by delivering our Consumer Charter commitments which we announced in April 2025 to drive immediate, tangible improvements to accommodation for Service families:

  • We transformed 1,000 of the worst home in time for Christmas 2025, with more to be upgraded by Spring 2026.
  • We modernised outdated policies, to give families greater freedoms to make home improvements, streamlined the processes for those wishing to run business from home, and removed the need to seek permission to have a pet.

Until the recommendations in the Strategy have final implementation plans for every area of the country, some c47,000 homes, I regret we cannot confirm the future intent for military housing in each constituency.