Call for Awaab's Law to cover housing for Armed Forces personnel
Over the last few months Michael Gove and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) have acted decisively in the interests of social housing tenants. The PCA is calling for those in homes owned by the Government to have the same rights.
New rules which require housing managers to be properly trained is being introduced in the Social Housing Bill as are further powers for the Housing Ombudsman to act where delays or disputes occur. This follows Awaab’s Law and sees the imposition of strict new time limits for actions where defects are reported to social landlords.
Current housing situation
The “Unacceptable” campaign launched by Michael Gove in March was further evidence of this Government’s determination to deliver improvement.
Unacceptable campaign >>
On 1st April 2022, Pinnacle Housing took over National Accommodation Management Services for 49,000 Service Family Accommodation homes across the UK, on behalf of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation. But in an article published by LBC (13th March 2023), Tobias Elwood, Chairman of the Defence Select Committee said, “the current housing situation for armed forces personnel is sad and the MOD and armed forces are not meeting its responsibilities”.
LBC article >>
Back in December 2022, the MailOnline reported that “According to the Ministry of Defence's own data, 4,360 personnel live in accommodation in such a state of disrepair that it can't be graded”, and “More than 4,000 members of Armed Forces live in accommodation so poor that no rent is charged”. During the same month, the BBC ran the story “Military housing: Families say they're living in damp, mouldy conditions”. It seems then, that just the simplest of enquiry indicates that there is a problem!
Rights to action and redress for armed forces
After a very pleasant Easter Sunday spent with good friends who have first-hand experience of family life in camps around the UK and abroad, I was left wondering why the very welcome moves by Government to improve the lives of those living in accommodation provided by social landlords, aren’t being extended to homes that are now being managed under the Government’s contract with Pinnacle?
Other than articles we can all see in the media, the PCA has no evidence to suggest that the state of homes owned by the MOD and managed by Pinnacle and maintained by Amey and Vivo are not improving or are any worse than those in the social sector, but it seems right that the men and women serving with our forces should have the same rights to action and redress as those living in homes owned and managed by Local Authorities and Housing Associations.
The Armed Forces Covenant states that “Those who serve in the Armed Forces… should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services”. Is it not reasonable then that both the spirit of the new legislation and the obligations within it should be extended to the homes of service personnel?
Call for action - Letters to Ministers
Rather than sit on our hands and simply ponder the point, the PCA wrote to ministers this week. Michael Gove, Tobias Ellwood and the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey, who recently commented on the poor state of some of the accommodation endured by service personnel in his home region, were sent letters.
Article from Shadow Secretary of State for Defence >>
The use of specialists in moisture to diagnose and repair faults, as well as the expectation that actions to correct problems should be mandated in a timely way by professionally qualified housing managers, seems to us to be things that should be extended to service personnel as well as those who occupy social housing.
We would encourage DLUHC and the MOD to look at this matter and see if the good work being achieved in one part of Government, can’t be used to help fix a very long-standing problem in another.