Armed forces housing: Maintenance issues

The armed forces provide subsidised accommodation to personnel and their families. This is considered to be one of the benefits of service and the provision of accommodation reflects the unique nature of service life: the need to move frequently, the lack of choice in location, and the remoteness of some bases.

However, the condition, maintenance and repair of service accommodation has long been an issue for armed forces personnel.

This briefing explores some of these issues, explaining how the Ministry of Defence assesses the condition of living spaces and properties, the views of personnel and their families, and the arrangements with external contractors to maintain and repair family accommodation.

This briefing does not discuss housing options for veterans, which is discussed Commons Library briefing Veterans: Access to housing, nor rental or home ownership options for armed forces personnel.

What is service accommodation?

There are two types of service accommodation:

• Service family accommodation (SFA): The MOD provides about 47,700 houses across the UK for personnel and their families.
• Single living accommodation (SLA): The MOD provides approximately 100,000 single living bedspaces in the UK. This usually takes the form of accommodation blocks inside military bases and is used by single or unaccompanied personnel (those who may have family located elsewhere).

Why is accommodation provided to armed forces personnel?

The armed forces has historically offered subsidised accommodation to service personnel. This is because of the demands of service life, with personnel often lacking choice over where they are posted, required to be on or near a base, and to move frequently.

Over three-quarters (78%) of all personnel live in service accommodation during the working week. Less than a fifth (18%) live in their own home.

A survey by the Army Families Federation (PDF) found living close to other service families and being part of a community is highly valued.

How is the condition of accommodation assessed?

Since 2016 the Ministry of Defence (MOD) assesses the condition of service family accommodation against the government’s Decent Homes standard. This is a non-statutory minimum quality standard for social housing in England and is used by the government to set out the minimum quality from social housing.

There are three categories: decent homes plus, decent homes and decent homes minus.

The minimum standard for service family accommodation (SFA) is decent homes. The MOD has said no properties below that standard should be allocated to personnel. 94.7% of SFA properties, for which information is available, were rated as decent homes or decent homes+ in 2024.

However, a Labour party commissioned review of housing, known as the Kerslake review, published in April 2024, cast doubt on the MOD’s ratings, saying they are “hard to square with the lived experience of service personnel”.

In October 2024, the Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard, said that the government is “committed to setting new minimum standards for military housing”, with an expert group looking at defence minimum standard measures to improve the quality of SLA. He said the department is looking at the recommendations of the Kerslake review.

Who is responsible for maintenance and repairs?

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is responsible for the defence estate for the Ministry of Defence. It outsources the maintenance and repair of service-provided accommodation.

Under new contracts awarded in 2021 that came into effect in April 2022 (known as the future defence infrastructure services contracts), Pinnacle Group manages the overarching national accommodation management services contract. It acts as a single point of contact for accommodation issues for personnel. Two other companies, Amey and VIVO, are responsible for carrying out repairs and maintaining properties.

Issues with maintenance and repairs 2022-23

In the Defence Accommodation Strategy, published in October 2022, the Ministry of Defence committed to ensuring personnel can access accommodation that is “of good quality and in line with modern living standards.”

However, complaints about the service provided by the new contractors began to emerge in the latter half of 2022. Service families reported issues with response times, missed appointments, and lengthy delays to resolve loss of heating and hot water. In November 2022, the average response time for urgent requests by VIVO and Amey was four days, rather than the 48 hours required in their key performance indicators. On one day in mid-December 2022, 163 homes had been without heating for over 5 days.

The contractors, and the MOD, were heavily criticised by MPs in December 2022. Ministers acknowledged that the performance of the new contractors was “unacceptable”. The MOD subsequently said that it had withheld payments to suppliers because of poor performance and that contractors had paid £1.14 million in compensation (up to June 2023).

In the 2023 refresh to the Defence command paper, the government described the provision of service accommodation as “essential for the operational effectiveness of the Armed Forces” and pledged £400 million investment over the next two years.

The Defence Committee began an inquiry into service accommodation in July 2023. It had not reported before the dissolution of Parliament in May 2024. In November 2024 the re-established committee agreed to complete the inquiry.

Views of personnel

Annual surveys of armed forces personnel reflect dissatisfaction with the overall standard of accommodation and responses to, and quality of, maintenance and repair requests.

According to the Armed Forces Continuous Attitudes Survey (AFCAS) 2024, just over a quarter of respondents were satisfied with responses to, and the quality of, maintenance and repair requests. This is an increase from 2023, when only 19% expressed satisfaction with the responses to, and quality of maintenance/ repair work of service family accommodation.

Poor accommodation may also be affecting retention. Just under a third of respondents (31%) identified accommodation provision as a factor influencing intentions to leave (for comparison, the top factor, cited by 62%, was the impact of Service life on family/personal life). 39% said accommodation provision was a reason to stay.

Labour government

The Labour government has said improving service accommodation is a priority and committed in the King’s Speech 2024 to establish an Armed Forces Commissioner. The Commissioner would provide an independent voice for service personnel on issues such as housing. The government introduced the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill on 6 November 2024.

The new government has also commissioned an independent strategic defence review which will consider people as one of its themes; the review is expected to report in the first half of 2025. Ministers have also said options on accommodation will be considered as part of departmental work to address low morale and recruitment and retention challenges.