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Defence Policy

It is Battlesbury barracks in Warminster. The hon. Gentleman may wish to pay it a visit. Half the MOD’s bed spaces are classed as poor, and the National Audit Office reckons that it will take years to put the position right. These are hardly homes fit for heroes. Yet, as the NAO has revealed, £13.5 million in planned maintenance and repairs scheduled for 2006-07 had to be deferred because of budgetary complaints—a point that appears to have been lost on the right hon. Member for Islwyn (Mr. Touhig). Students in college halls of residence and their parents would be appalled at the conditions that barracks dwellers must routinely endure, but barracks, unlike halls of residence, are closed institutions. What the public do not see, Ministers apparently do not worry about. Given the job of work that our troops do, I have to ask whether we have our priorities right. It is surely right for our military to be able to rely on married quarters of at least the standard that they might expect if their landlord were a housing association or a local authority.