---

Armed Forces Personnel

I am about to come on to that point, but let me say for now that I agree that we have to come up with imaginative solutions to such questions. The work/life balance must figure highly in our considerations on what we do for our armed forces. On accommodation, in the past six years we have raised the proportion of service families housing at the top standard from 40 per cent. to 59 per cent. Only 138 of some 49,000 family properties are now at the lowest of the four standards, although that is 138 too many. Of them, 60 will be upgraded as part of this year’s programme, 25 are planned for future upgrading, and 14 are due for disposal. The remainder will be addressed as part of wider plans to be determined in consultation with the services. More than 20,000 new single living-bed spaces have been delivered in the past six years. Another 20,000 will follow in the next three years. Much of that provides single rooms with en-suite facilities. We are helping people who want to buy their property to do so. We have secured key worker status for service personnel in London, the east and the south-east. The first soldier moved into her new accommodation under the key worker scheme at the end of May. I also wish to refer Members to the statement made earlier today by the Minister for Housing and Planning and the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for Halton (Derek Twigg), announcing that the Government have decided to change the legislation on the use of the ““local connection”” at the earliest opportunity. We recognise that current legislation can disadvantage personnel in terms of access to social housing by preventing them from building up ““local connection”” points. Many Members have expressed concern about this issue, and today’s announcement underlines our determination to ensure that our personnel are treated fairly. Our reservists are an important and valued part of our armed forces. They are playing a distinguished role in current operations. About 300 reservists are serving in Afghanistan, and 400 are serving in Iraq. I am most grateful to them and their employers for their support. Having reservists serving alongside our regular forces provides some of the best leadership training on the market. Reservists from the NHS play an important role in providing the first-class medical care that our personnel receive in operational theatres. The budget assigned to our Territorial Army has slightly decreased—I did say that I would not deny that. That was not an easy decision to take, but it must be put in context. Last year, we spent about £350 million on the TA. We plan to reduce that by £2.5 million this financial year and by the same amount in the next financial year. I am advised that that will in no way adversely impact on the operational ability of the TA or its support to current operations. The savings are against areas such as recruiting of some specialist units and the running of annual conferences, and savings will also be made by reducing the number and frequency of TA competitions.