The military accommodation in Britain has been condemned as "worse than Afghanistan", and is believed to be a contributing factor in the forces' manpower crisis.

It takes years to repair barracks, and problems have been ignored. It has been claimed that the MOD is taking money from the estates budget to make up shortfalls elsewhere.

There are record numbers of army and airmen leaving early, and the forces are around 6000 under strength.

The majority of military accommodation was sold to a private company, Annington Homes in 1996 on a PFI leaseback deal. Annington, part of the investment company Terra Firma leases the majority of its houses back to the Ministry of Defence for use by its military personnel, but those that are no longer required by the MoD are sold off by Annington.

At one barracks, drains were overflowing and repairs were unattended, at one barracks NCOs were sleeping eight to a room with the minimum of privacy and little storage space. Soldiers from one regiment were said to have better accommodation in Afghanistan than the soldiers at home in the UK.

Liam Fox, Shadow Defence Secretary, said that it was a "national scandal" that should "bring home how low a priority the Armed Forces are for Labour."

The home of Terra Firma boss, Guy Hands, a former bond trading spiv working for Goldman Sachs, is a million miles away from the appalling living accommodation of military personnel and their families which has helped earn his company millions on the back of the PFI deal. The £10M mansion in Sevenoaks was once gifted by a grateful nation to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill and boasts a £3m gym over two levels, a limestone wine cellar with a storage capacity of 10,000 bottles and a 10-seater English oak breakfasting table.

Where not going to have a military left going at these rates!!

Source