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Armed Forces

My Lords, I congratulate the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, on securing this debate. I shall focus on an area that can have a significant impact on recruitment and retention: Army housing. In every family, there is often a power behind the throne. If the family is unhappy, the solider will be unhappy and obviously concerned for their welfare. An individual with worries often becomes distracted, and this might affect his operational efficiency on active service in Iraq or Afghanistan. At the recent conference of the Army Families Federation, which I attended with some 200 wives of soldiers, one of the speakers from the federation highlighted the growing problem regarding Army accommodation:"““Most families feel passionately about their homes, Army families perhaps more than most, since they can sometimes be the only stable thing in their lives. Their husbands or partners might be on operations abroad but their home is their base, the one concrete thing in an otherwise turbulent existence””." Yet, throughout the world, British Army families are still faced with housing problems and increasing pressures. I am informed that Army family housing in Cyprus has lacked proper capital investment for a modernisation programme since 1955. However, I understand that new quarters are now proposed for the spring of next year. Can the Minister confirm that they will be built then? In the United Kingdom, a shortage of funding has meant that the 10-year upgrade programme promised post-Annington, in 1996, is looking less and less likely to be delivered. Meanwhile, last winter was one of the worst on record for Army housing repairs. There were six-month delays, or often a simple failure to address the problem. While I understand that the management restructuring of the Defence Estates Housing Directorate is ongoing, those trying to access the directorate report nothing but confusion, frustration and a sense of helplessness. That is not how we should treat the families of those who may be called on to make the ultimate sacrifice in the service of the nation. I am sure that I do not need to look far in this House to come across families who have had problems in the past with Army housing. Members of the AFF can provide personal anecdotes of moving into quarters with no heating, water or even cookers, or into some quarters that had not even been thoroughly cleaned. Repair appointments have not been met and there seems to be a chronic underestimate of the number of houses in poor condition. This can have only a negative impact on morale. Will the Minister undertake to improve the provision of professional advice on housing in information centres? It is not all doom and gloom on this issue, but there are significant concerns, which are clearly already starting to have an impact on our current retention, let alone new recruitment. The overall plea from the AFF at the conference was to ask the Government to take this opportunity to stop what it sees as an inexorable slide of the provision and maintenance of housing to becoming third or fourth rate. Members of the AFF are not asking for exceptional treatment; they are asking only that their unique circumstances be taken into consideration. They need a standard of housing that caters for the needs of the modern Army family and provides the cornerstone of their lives. As I have indicated, the conference thoroughly highlighted the great concern and, indeed, anger among many Army families. It was a pity that the Minister, having made his speech, dashed out without hearing any of the conference. I hope that the Minister in this House will take some time in his reply to inform the House what assessment his department has made of the standard of current housing for service families, what the estimated costs are to address the problems and whether Her Majesty’s Government have any plans to do just that. In the current climate and circumstances, one cannot expect young Army families to be able to afford to buy their own home, even though they can expect to be less constantly moving than in the past. We should surely expect the Armed Forces to be able to provide decent housing, if only as an investment in their most important asset—the service men and women and their families.