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Armed Forces: Housing

Volume 472: debated on Wednesday 5 March 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many single living accommodation units for service personnel are of standard (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3 and (d) 4 in each country in which UK forces are deployed. (184382)

[holding answer 4 February 2008]: The standard of single living accommodation (SLA) is assessed by grade for charge (GfC)—a measure of the physical condition of the accommodation and other relevant environmental and scaling factors. SLA bed-spaces in each country in which UK forces are deployed are at the following GfC:

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Germany

2,356

1,494

4,186

8,989

Cyprus

67

14

534

882

Falklands/Ascension Islands

14

6,105

Gibraltar

325

24

41

Rest of World

34

62

87

2,014

The low grade given to SLA in the South Atlantic Islands for example, reflects the remote location and environmental factors rather than the actual condition of the accommodation which is considered reasonable.

It should be noted that a large proportion of overseas SLA is only used during operational deployments. Although much of this accommodation is G4fC, residents are not charged for it.

In Cyprus, some 650 bed-spaces will be upgraded by 2012 for use on a permanent basis. In addition, there are ongoing programmes of improvement work in all the above locations including the Hired Accommodation Revitalisation Programme project, which aims to replace or upgrade the entire hired estate in Germany over the next five years.

Over the next decade the MOD will spend over £8 billion on accommodation, including some £3.1 billion on bringing accommodation up to the top condition. This will include the delivery of some further 30,000 new or improved SLA bed-spaces by 2013.