Armed Forces: Housing

Mr. Baron
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what targets he has set for upgrading service families’ accommodation to (a) S1fC and (b) S2fC categories under the standard for condition initiative; and when he expects these targets to be met.

Derek Twigg
[holding answer 17 January 2008]: This Department has targets only to upgrade Service Families Accommodation (SFA) properties to Standard 1 for Condition (SlfC). We will upgrade a minimum of 600 SFA properties to SlfC in financial years 2007-08 and 2008-09 with a further 800 upgrades planned for each year thereafter.

This number of upgrades is based on the strategic decision, taken with the support of the armed forces, to focus the programme on upgrading the worst accommodation first which leads to a higher cost per upgrade. Funding in previous years was targeted at delivering a large number of relatively low cost upgrades. In fact the Department has increased the level of funding for upgrading SFA and is making available a further £20 million in 2008-09 and £30 million per annum thereafter.