British soldiers and their families are living in disgraceful accommodation which could take decades to repair, MPs warn today in a hard-hitting report aimed at the Ministry of Defence.
The blunt Defence Committee document places the blame for "unacceptable problems" squarely at the feet of successive government ministers and their failure to find a coherent strategy for housing forces' personnel.
The report also cautions against the temptation in an MoD starved of funds for waging two simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to loot the accommodation budget for immediate operational needs.
In a military already 6000 short of its established manpower, the MPs say poor housing is a major factor in the continuing haemorrhage of some of the best-trained and most experienced men and women.
While the committee says its inspections have found some "excellent" new accommodation for single soldiers, it has also uncovered disgraceful barracks where corporals and sergeants had to sleep eight to a room and endure "overflowing drains and repairs left unattended".
In Scotland, £1.3m-worth of planned but unspecified improvement work had been deferred last year because of budgetary pressures.
In the south-west of England, another major UK garrison area, 231 projects had been delayed, along with 83 property upgrades and 75 re-decoration schemes.
Two sites picked out as particularly "disgraceful" are the Cavalry Barracks at Hounslow in West London and Elizabeth Barracks at Pirbright, Surrey.
Soldiers told MPs that the Royal Anglians fighting the Taliban in the wilds of Helmand province "had more comfortable accommodation than their comrades left behind in Pirbright".
The committee expresses its concern that forces' housing would become an ever more pressing issue as the 20,000 troops currently stationed in Germany were gradually transferred back to the UK.
More than 3600 are to return over the next few months and the last of the Rhine garrison by 2014.
The report says: "It is unacceptable that the MoD has not put a clear strategy in place despite significant investment over recent years."
The Public Accounts Committee said in May that 40% of forces' accommodation was sub-standard and that it would take 25 years to upgrade 19,000 sub-standard houses.
While service family accommodation in Scotland remains in Defence Estate hands, the MoD sold most of its housing stock in England and Wales to Annington Homes in 1996 for £1.67bn and leased back what it needed for £140m a year.
It also contracted Modern Housing Solutions, a private joint-venture consortium, to carry out essential maintenance. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the helpline set up to deal with repairs received 400,000 complaints last year. A further 36,000 callers gave up after failing to connect with anyone on the help desk.
James Arbuthnot, the Defence Committee chairman, said service families should not have to put up with run-down buildings and a poor repairs' service. Bob Ainsworth, the Armed Forces Minister, said: "Providing our personnel with decent accommodation is one of our top priorities. We have committed to spend £5bn over 10 years to put it right."
MPs have meanwhile asked the MoD to consider increasing the £8500 loans available to military personnel to help them buy their own homes.
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