Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 December 2022, Official Report, column 143, how many armed forces personnel are housed in accommodation which does not meet the Government’s Decent Homes Standard.
Answered by Alex Chalk
96% of Ministry of Defence Service Family Accommodation (SFA) meet or exceed the Government’s Decent Homes Standard. That amounts to almost 46,000 homes.
It is Defence Infrastucture Organisation accommodation policy that no family should be moved into a home that is below the Decent Homes standard. In addition, such accommodation is required to meet statutory and mandatory housing safety requirements.
As of 1 March 2023, 585 occupied SFA which met the standard at the point of allocation have since fallen below the Decent Homes standard. All are structurally safe and sound.
Works are being planned at pace to return this housing to the appropriate standard.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 December 2022, Official Report, column 143, how many urgent calls to armed forces accommodation contractors have not been responded to and the issue made safe within forty-eight hours in each of the past twelve months.
Answered by Alex Chalk
It is taking time to collate the information needed to answer the hon. Member's questions. I will write to her, and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House shortly.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 December 2022, Official Report, column 143, how many emergency calls to armed forces accommodation contractors have not been responded to and the issue made safe within two hours in each of the last twelve months.
Answered by Alex Chalk
It is taking time to collate the information needed to answer the hon. Member's questions. I will write to her, and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House shortly.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 December 2022, Official Report, column 143, how many properties housing armed forces accommodation have not had hot heating or hot water for a period of more than 24 hours in each of the last twelve months.
Answered by Alex Chalk
It remains the Department’s position that no home should be left without any form of heating or hot water for more than 24 hours. Where a fault with the heating or hot water cannot be rectified within this timeframe, alternative forms of heating and sources of hot water, or alternative accommodation, should be provided.
Since early December 2022, the Ministry of Defence is receiving daily dashboards which detail response rates to heating and hot water loss in Service Family Accommodation. This is being used to measure performance improvements and hold contractors to account to deliver against their Acceptable Level of Performance target of resolving heating and hot water loss within 48 hours. A copy of the latest dashboard will be placed in the library of the House.
Information prior to December 2022 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.