I am delighted that the Chancellor and Defence Secretary have announced that almost £200M has been allocated to upgrade Service Family Accommodation and Single Living Accommodation.
This additional government funding will enable the MOD to further improve the quality of accommodation for so many Armed Forces personnel and their families.
This financial year, DIO had committed £123M for improvement works. Good progress has been made to deliver these works, with £52M of works already instructed to Amey. The additional improvement works will be further concentrating on installing new kitchens and bathrooms, replacing boilers, upgrading heating systems, replacing doors and windows, and fitting external wall insulation. Over the last four years £530 million has been invested in improvements to Service Family Accommodation.
The fiscal stimulus funding will benefit around 3,500 SFA homes across the UK, including fully refurbishing more than 800 long term void properties to make them available to Service families and increase sustainability across the Defence estate.
We will use the existing National Housing Prime contract to complete the work, which is expected to sustain around 2,000 jobs.
The refurbishment works will focus on improving the lived experience of Service personnel and their families and will include:
Kitchen and bathroom upgrades to increase the number of Decent Homes+ SFA and improve modernity: new kitchens and bathrooms
Replacement windows and doors and insulation to reduce occurrences of damp and mould in SFA.
Installation of solar/thermal panels and electric car charging points to reduce carbon footprint.
Installation of boilers to drive greater efficiency and reduce carbon footprint.
Replacing lifecycle expired assets such as carpets and electric consumer units
Installing Electric Vehicle Charging Points, where feasible, to support government targets
Replacing and upgrading heating systems, radiators, controls and pipework to include magnaflux and include water softeners in hard water areas
Installing fire doors, where required
Replacing current single point C02 detectors and upgrading with interlinked CO2 and heat detectors to meet emerging fire regulations
Re-decorating where required
Structural repairs where required
The funding will also enable DIO to continue to improve the Lived environment by carrying out the following upgrade works:
Improvements to road surfaces and street signs
Replacement to street lights to solar LED to reduce carbon footprint
Upgrades to play areas.
Exact areas for upgrades are still being finalised and I look forward to sharing further details with you as our planning progresses. I am delighted that these additional funds will enable DIO to build on our exciting improvement works programme to further enhance the lived experience for our Serving personnel and their families.
