Defence Command Paper Refresh

Tonia Antoniazzi Excerpts

Tuesday 18th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Wallace]

Yes, we are committed to that, but we have also been honest about the time needed to get to being able to do that.

[Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) (Lab)]

Our forces families are made to live in damp, mouldy service accommodation, with broken boilers. In his statement, the Secretary of State spoke about rent freezes, but well over 4,300 troops already do not pay rent because their accommodation is so bad. He said that there would be no unfunded gimmicks, so is the £400 million in two years for service accommodation new money or is it from existing budgets and commitments?

[Mr Wallace]

Having listened to the hon. Lady, for example, we have taken money that was allocated elsewhere and decided that making sure those houses are in a better state is more of a priority. We have housing stock that goes back many years and is a challenge. One of the challenges I have is that I unfortunately have to pay almost £20,000 a house to a private finance initiative that Gordon Brown signed us up to, even when those houses are empty.