LABOUR TO DELIVER HOMES FIT FOR HEROES IN THE WEST MIDLANDS WITH RAPID ACTION TO IMPROVE MILITARY FAMILY HOMES

• New Consumer Charter for families in military homes across the West Midlands, delivering on Labour’s Plan for Change.

• Comes after 36,000 military homes were brought back into public ownership by the Labour Government – with full Defence Housing Strategy later this year.

• Preet Kaur Gill MP welcomes new measures for forces families, including higher move-in standards, more reliable repairs, renovation of the worst homes, and a named housing officer for every family.

Living conditions for 2528 families in military housing across the West Midlands will begin to be transformed by Labour under a new Consumer Charter, with Defence Secretary John Healey promising to “stop the rot” in military housing.

The Charter will form part of Labour’s Defence Housing Strategy, to be published later this year, which will set out further plans to improve the standard of service family homes across the country.

Preet Kaur Gill MP has welcomed the new Charter, which will introduce basic consumer rights for forces families – from essential property information and predictable property standards, to access to a new robust complaints system. These are all changes that the Tories could have put in place but failed to, and will be underpinned by new, published satisfaction figures, putting forces families front and centre.

Labour will use the Defence Housing Strategy – overseen by Defence Secretary John Healey and Minister for Veterans and People Al Carns – to overhaul the standard of military accommodation across the country, after 14 years of Tory underinvestment left forces accommodation in a shameful state. Under the Tories, satisfaction with the standard of Service Family Accommodation (SFA) fell to record lows in 2023, while the Defence Select Committee reported that two thirds of SFA was ‘essentially no longer fit for purpose’.

The Committee found that quality of housing was having a significant impact on Armed Forces recruitment, retention and morale.

Today’s announcement follows the Labour Government’s landmark deal, completed in January, to bring back 36,000 military homes into public ownership, reversing a 1996 sale described by the Public Accounts Committee as “disastrous”, and saving the taxpayer £600,000 per day by eliminating rental payments to a private company. This included 1587 military family homes in the West Midlands.

In February, the Prime Minister announced a historic defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, and the Labour government has already delivered the largest pay rise for Armed Forces personnel in over 20 years.

Labour’s new Consumer Charter will include the following commitments:

1. A strengthened move-in standard so families can have confidence that the home they are moving into will be ready on time and will be clean and functional.  

2. Improved, clearer information for families ahead of a move, including photographs and floor plans of all homes when a family applies for housing.  

3. More reliable repairs, including an undertaking to complete urgent repairs within a set timeline consistent with Awaab’s Law, and a new online portal for service personnel to manage repairs.  

4. Raising the minimum standard of forces family housing with a new programme of works targeted at the worst homes, with up to 1,000 refurbished as a downpayment on the broader programme of renewal to be set out in the Defence Housing Strategy  

5. Better and clearer communication for families, including a named housing officer for every service family who they can contact for specific housing related queries.  

6. A new, simpler complaints process that will shorten the process to two stages in line with industry best practice, so that service personnel and families have a quicker resolution, backed up by the new Armed Forces Commissioner.  

7. Modernising policies to allow more freedom for families to make improvements, giving them a greater sense of pride in their homes.  

Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Birmingham, Edgbaston said: 

“Our Armed Forces serve with extraordinary dedication and courage to keep us safe. It is only right that they and their families live in the homes they deserve. 

“Between 2018 and 2023, military families lodged almost 53,000 complaints about their housing. This ends with Labour. 

“Our Labour government is providing 5 military families in my constituency, and 2528 families in the West Midlands, with homes fit for heroes.”

Defence Secretary, John Healey MP, said:  

"For too long, military families have endured substandard housing without the basic consumer rights that any of us should expect in our homes. That must end and our new Consumer Charter will begin to stop the rot and put families at the heart of that transformation.  

"We cannot turn around years of failure on forces housing overnight, but by bringing 36,000 military homes back into public ownership, we've already taken greater control and are working at pace to drive up standards. This is about providing homes fit for the heroes who serve our nation, and I'm determined to deliver the decent, affordable housing that our forces families have every right to expect."  

These improvements will be in place by the one-year anniversary of the announcement to buy back military homes last December, with final detail to be set out in the Defence Housing Strategy following consultation with military personnel and their families. 

Many of the commitments in the Charter will be achieved by driving better performance – and better value for the taxpayer – from existing suppliers of maintenance and support for service family housing.  

The new standards will be underpinned by new published customer satisfaction measures and enhanced accountability so families can have confidence in the improvements being made. This will sit alongside an independently conducted stock survey, as recommended by the Kerslake review of military housing which was published last year.  

The Defence Housing Strategy will be driven by an independent review team, and which will be chaired by former Member of Parliament and housing expert Natalie Elphicke Ross OBE, drawing on expertise from industry and forces families.  

The Strategy will also turbocharge the development of surplus military land, creating opportunities for Armed Forces homeownership and supporting the delivery of affordable homes for families across Britain as part of the government’s Plan for Change.  

In the meantime, the Defence Secretary and the Minister for Veterans and People have instructed the MOD to immediately plan improvements for the new Consumer Charter, as part of a short-term action plan to enhance the family homes after years of neglect.  

ENDS