HC Deb 20 July 1993 vol 229 cc184-5
7. Mr. Moss

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he is making to improve the quality of housing for the armed forces; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Hanley

The three services have continuing programmes for the repair and modernisation of their housing stock.

Mr. Moss

Does my hon. Friend share my concern at the recent reports of unsatisfactory handovers and takeovers of service married quarters, which causes anxiety to the wives and families involved and has a serious effect on service morale generally? Does my hon. Friend agree that there are no insurmountable difficulties in transferring MOD housing stock to the private sector? If that were to happen, would not tenants get a much better deal?

Mr. Hanley

Naturally, this is a matter which should cause serious concern because of the social implications for those who work in the forces. In recent years, great progress has been made in developing imaginative schemes to help serving personnel and their families to inhabit their homes and to take over their homes when they leave the forces.

The Ministry of Defence is working out on the concept of the new housing trust that was announced last year. That will offer exciting opportunities to improve the quality of life of our service men and women and their families. It would help the House if I put an explanatory note in the Library of the House to show the progress of the new housing trust in the private sector.

Mr. Frank Cook

As the Government are so keen to support the principles of market testing, will the Minister undertake to consult service families in Cyprus, who are suffering a colossal level of condensation for three quarters of the year? Will he also consult families at Tidworth, who are currently accommodated in hovels—I used the word advisedly—and can hear the weather forecast being broadcast on small pocket transistor radios four doors away?

The Minister says that he is putting 2,050 married quarters on the market this year. Will they be at the top or the bottom end of the market? Will our service men and women be compelled to go on living in dog kennels?

Mr. Hanley

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise the problem of sub-standard housing for service personnel wherever it exists. It is because of that problem that a continuing programme is in operation in all three services.

I am aware of the housing problem in Cyprus to which the hon. Gentleman specifically referred. Some 50 per cent. of those properties belong to the Ministry; 50 per cent. are tenanted outside. I know that dissatisfaction exists, and my noble Friend Lord Cranborne, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, is examining the position. I will ask him to examine the Tidworth case as well. I also take on board the hon. Gentleman's final point.

Mr. Clifton-Brown

Will my hon. Friend give urgent consideration to Ministry of Defence housing stock? While bearing in mind the need to maintain available housing stock to which to repatriate our troops, and to improve its quality, will he also consider whether surplus stock could be sold off—particularly the surplus stock at RAF Rissington in my constituency?

Mr. Hanley

My hon. Friend is right: any surplus stock should be sold off. He should remember, however, that in March 1993 9,166 quarters were vacant, out of a total stock of some 71,000. Felexibility is needed, because of the movement of troops and other parts of the services—for instance, back from Germany and around the United Kingdom. We cannot sell every empty house; that simply is not possible.