Labour has quietly postponed £800m worth of military housing renovations as it grapples with competing defence spending priorities, leaving dilapidated properties in a state of disrepair until at least 2029.
The revelation means service personnel and their loved ones face years more of living with mould, damp, faulty boilers and leaking roofs in homes that campaigners say are unfit conditions.
The deferral comes despite the Government’s headline commitment of £9.2bn to repair roughly 40,000 military residences that have deteriorated in their defence investment plan (DIP).
However, concealed within the document’s fine print was an acknowledgement that incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham would need to secure an additional £5bn in defence spending through his first budget, expected later this month.
Ministers subsequently admitted that a “small amount of the money in the defence housing budget” would be pushed back to at least 2029 in favour of “military readiness for our forces now,” though they declined to specify the figure involved.
The true scale of the postponement – £800m – was communicated by Jeremy Pocklington, the MoD’s permanent under-secretary, in a letter to the public accounts committee chair in August, The Times have now revealed.
He wrote: “Global uncertainties have meant that we have had to balance the investment in housing over the next four years with other urgent defence priorities; consequently, approximately £0.8bn of investment originally planned for this parliament will be deferred into the second period of the DIP.”
Armed forces advocates have branded the living conditions endured by military families a “national disgrace,” warning that even prison inmates enjoy better accommodation.
Labour has quietly postponed £800m worth of military housing renovations as it grapples with competing defence spending priorities, leaving dilapidated properties in a state of disrepair until at least 2029
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Antony Cotton, an armed forces activist who had previously assisted the Government in promoting its housing renovation programme, cautioned that the delays would inflict real harm on thousands of families.
He said: “A soldier, an aviator, a sailor or a marine should only be having to think about how they’re serving. They should not be thinking about whether their child’s bedroom has mould crawling up the walls.
“That is a national disgrace, and I am ashamed of it. More people should be up in arms about it.”
The Coronation Street star went as far as declaring: “Prisoners would not be housed as badly.”
The true scale of the postponement – £800m – was communicated by Jeremy Pocklington, the MoD’s permanent under-secretary, in a letter to the public accounts committee chair in August
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Mr Cotton expressed deep frustration at the broken assurances he had made, after assurances he was given: “Two years ago, I was able to say to families: ‘Listen, you’re on the list, it’s on the horizon; your house will get sorted’. And now it’s like there are thousands of houses that aren’t going to be on the list.”
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge launched a blistering attack on the government over the revelation.
“After months of Labour ministers assuring us that no money would be taken from the budget for armed forces accommodation, we now get the truth — £800m is actually being cut,” he said.
“In reality, this is a huge chunk of the cash meant for forces’ housing, diverted from supporting military families just when we should be giving them our all.”
The Labour government spent an estimated £4.18billion on migrant accommodation and support costs in 2025/26. In contrast, they will spend around £900m per year on military housing (£9billion committed over 10-year period).
Chancellor John Healey, who is the former Defence Secretary, faces tough decisions ahead of the Budget later this month
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A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: “This government is investing record amounts in forces housing, after decades of neglect, through £9.2bn of investment.
“This will see 90 per cent of military homes upgraded, renewed or rebuilt and 1,250 of the worst homes have already been upgraded. Overall satisfaction with military homes has increased by 12 per cent in the past year alone, now reaching 75 per cent.”
Mr Pocklington maintained in his letter that despite the postponement, the housing budget over the coming four years still “represents a step change from the historic position.”