MoD publishes strategy to improve or replace 40,000 military homes – but won’t deliver plan itself
The government plans to invest £9bn into military housing through a new arm’s length public body, the defence secretary has announced.
This morning, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) published its Defence Housing Strategy, which outlined its plans to modernise, rebuild or refurbish more than 40,000 military homes.
Alongside the publication of the strategy, the defence secretary revealed that it would be delivered through a new quango, the Defence Housing Service.
Traditionally, the MoD has been responsible for military housing but John Healey said a new service would “deliver better value for the taxpayer”.
The planned investment of £9bn over the next decade comes on top of the £1.5bn in this Parliament set out at the Strategic Defence Review.
Healey described the strategy as a “a decisive break from decades of underinvestment, with a building programme to back Britain’s military families and drive economic growth across the country”.
He added: “We are a government that is on the side of our forces and their families,” he said. With this historic £9bn investment, we will deliver the modern, quality homes that our Forces and their loved ones deserve.”
The strategy also sets out plans to use surplus defence land to deliver more than 100,000 new homes for civilians and military families.
To enable this, the strategy puts forward plans for a dedicated defence development fund, which it said would create a self-sustaining cycle of investment by releasing surplus land for development, with proceeds reinvested into future projects.
The strategy was developed by an independent review team chaired by former MP and housing expert Natalie Elphicke Ross
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