Summary
'Service Families Accommodation (HC 531)' reports that The Ministry of Defence (the Department) has around 50,000 properties in the UK, providing accommodation for 42,000 Service personnel and their families. It manages 20,000 Service family moves each year. Around half of Service families surveyed by the National Audit Office considered the condition of their property was good, but a third said it was poor. Around 90 per cent of the Department's housing stock is within the top two of its four condition standards, which meet or exceed the Government's Decent Homes Standard.
The Department intends to upgrade all properties to Condition 1 well within a 20 year timescale, and all of its 2,300 Condition 3 and 4 properties to the top standard by 2012. The Department has not analysed in sufficient detail the condition of its properties so that it can demonstrate which meet the Decent Homes Standard, and determine the investment needed to upgrade properties.
The Department has many properties sitting empty and is still some way off its target of having only 10 per cent of properties vacant. Each percentage point reduction in the number of empty properties could reduce costs and free resources by over £2 million.
The Department's system for allocating property is complex, and results in limited choice for families. Families receive minimal information about the properties to which they are allocated, and many are moving into properties which are not properly cleaned. Nearly a quarter of families consider their properties to be poorly maintained.
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