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A report in The Sunday Times highlights continuing concerns about the condition of some Service Family Accommodation (SFA), linking the experiences of military families to the Government's decision to defer part of its planned investment in defence housing.

The report by Dominic Hauschild, Defence Correspondent, and Lottie Hayton, centres its investigation on the experience of Army wife Leah Emmett, whose young daughter became seriously ill after the family moved into accommodation affected by damp and black mould.

Emmett believes the condition of the property contributed to her daughter's respiratory illness and told the newspaper that simply painting over the affected walls failed to solve the problem.

Her family's experience is presented alongside those of other military families reporting problems including mould, damp, heating failures and delays in repairs.

The timing of the article is significant. As BAFF noted following publication of the Defence Investment Plan, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to invest £9 billion in renewing defence housing. However, ministers have since confirmed that part of that programme will be deferred until at least the next Parliament in order to prioritise current military capability.

According to The Sunday Times, defence sources suggest this could delay refurbishment work on thousands of homes.

Defence Minister Luke Pollard defended the decision, saying that "a small amount of the money in the defence housing budget has been moved into the next parliament" in order to prioritise military readiness.

The wider significance goes well beyond individual maintenance complaints.

Mark

A report just released by the National Audit Office says that the Ministry of Defence lost the taxpayer around £14.5 billion over the life of the Annington Homes deal, compared to where we would be if the 1996 deal had never happened.

But there is also praise for the action finally taken by MoD to repurchase more than 36,000 service family homes in England and Wales for £6 billion.

The deal involved the transfer to the private sector of the bulk of the MOD's service family accommodation (SFA) in England. It was widely criiticised, increasingly so as the maintenance standard of SFA under a separate contract was seen as deteriorating, and when surplus accommodation was being released for the market, the MOD had to pay to refurbish the properties before being sold for private sector profit.

The NAO had reported that the MoD’s main aims had been "to secure funds for upgrade work; improve management of the estate; and secure value for money through a competitive sale." [Comment: There were 19 bidders.] They had found that "the sale and leaseback appeared to satisfy the MoD’s immediate objectives. However, the sale price was lower than the value of retaining the estate, and the MoD retained important responsibilities for managing it."

So although there were rational objectives for the deal at the time, there were criticisms at the time which only increased in the new century.

Although as ever there were financial pressures

Today, 22nd May 2026, is the fifteenth anniversary of the official end of Operation Telic, the formal name for UK operations in Iraq that began with the 2003 invasion and subsequent removal of the dictator.

A recent BAFF blog post mentioned that the first phase of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is due to come into force in May 2026.

There was nothing specifically about service accommodation in the Renters' Rights Bill as first introduced by the Labour Government - or in its predecessor Bill introduced under the Conservative Government but never completed its stages before the General Election in 2024.

Sarah Gibson MP (Lib Dem, Chippenham) found cross-party support for a clause to be added to the Bill to require an annual assessment of

(a) the extent to which service family accommodation in England meets the relevant standards during that year, and 

(b)the work to maintain and improve the standard of service family accommodation in England that is undertaken during that year and planned for subsequent years.

The first report will cover the year 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.

This provision only covers England, but the Act also includes powers for Scottish and Welsh Ministers to make complementary provisions for their jurisdictions.

While elections are imminent in both Scotland and Wales, we trust that the necessary regulations will be adopted as soon as possible, so that assessment of service accommodation in both nations can proceed on a similar timetable to England's.

• Part 3 Renters' Rights Act 2025 - Decent Homes Standard
• The Renters' Rights Bill - Sarah Gibson MP

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 is intended to implement Labour Party manifesto commitments to 'overhaul the regulation of our country’s insecure and unjust private rented sector'. The Act only applies to England, and will be brought into force in three phases, with the first phase expected to come into force on 1 May 2026.

While the Act is intended to 'provide tangible benefits for responsible landlords' by providing simpler regulation, as its title implies the primary intention is to protect tenants.

The excellent 'Landlords' Toolkit' page on the Army Families Federation website lists the major changes under the Act, and also explains that

The Government proposes, in the Armed Forces Bill currently before Parliament, to establish a new standalone corporate body to be called the Defence Housing Service.