§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr.Ivor Caplin)I announced in July 2003 that the Ministry of Defence was conducting a business process review of the management and delivery of Defence housing, 2 July 2003,Official Report, column 2OWS. The Review has been completed and I have placed a copy of the final report in the Library of the House.
This work has been part of a coordinated approach to the future direction of defence housing. It supports detailed work to improve accommodation through the defence housing strategy that, as set out in the Defence White Paper: "Supporting Essays", will direct the future provision of housing for service personnel and their families worldwide. It also takes forward work from earlier internal and cross-departmental studies. The Review has focused primarily on delivery and management of Defence housing in mainland UK, but it includes recommendations on our living accommodation overseas that might be considered in the future.
The main conclusions were that some improvement could be made to the processes involved with the management and delivery of Defence housing. It was also recognised that we could benefit from the synergies within Defence Estates (DE) and the Defence Housing Executive (DHE). A number of recommendations have been made to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes and organisations involved in delivery of Defence housing, the most significant of which are:
DHE and DE will merge from 1 April 2004. Initially DHE will be absorbed into DE as a self-contained business unit but over time Head Office processes will be merged.88WSThe Chief Executive of DE will become responsible for the delivery of Defence housing in mainland UK.To protect the interests of Service personnel and their families a dedicated housing customer care function will be maintained within DE with suitable governance arrangements.Initiatives to improve customer care, particularly the housing prime contract for England and Wales, will continue.