Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the progress made over the last 18 months in improving the maintenance of the accommodation of military personnel.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) manages c47,000 Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties in the UK. The Government inherited an SFA estate which is ageing and requires sustained investment to arrest decline and maintain accommodation and delivery standards.

The Secretary of State for Defence has committed to reviewing its target standard for accommodation with the aim of improving the standard of SFA across the estate, and to better delineate between the current, varied standards of condition.

Planning for winter 2024-25 has included delivering a full day Rehearsal of Concept (RoC) Drill on 5 September 2024, to test MOD’s contractors’ plans for winter preparedness against extreme weather scenarios. Preparedness has included ensuring appropriate resource is in place, conducting pre-winter maintenance work, issuing Winter Preparedness communications to Service families, and preparing contingency plans should extreme weather events emerge.