SFA

[JackRyan]

Having sold the bulk of married quarters to the Japanese for £1.6bn, £139m less than the cost of retaining ownership [http://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/news/08/0822/quarters.shtml], our government kept £1.5bn and was kind enough to let the MOD keep £0.1bn to upgrade housing stock. DHE undertook bringing all housing stock up to "standard 1 for condition" by 2005; a pledge it abandoned in 2002. The MOD's noble aim now is to upgrade as many properties as possible against "other competing priorities". See AFPRB 2006: [http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm67/6740/6740.pdf]. One simple question; Are there any upgraded properties?

[dessert_flyer]

At a secret transport base in oxfordshire, a few years ago it was said that married quaters were being replaced, and those very pictursque flats and houses would be knocked down and new ones erected. In a blaze of glory the demolition comenced in time for the parlimentry visit. Then what, a couple of months later the demolition stopped and it gone quiet since. Not sure who was supposed to be building the new quaters, but seems to me like it was a publicity stunt just to show that something was being done. Anybody else got any info on this, or am i just being cynical??

[ChezTanker]

The SFA at the secret base, somewhere near Carterton, are cr@p but at least they are Grade 3 after a very long fight. It beggars belief that these monstrosities are still standing 30 years after their timex. Bloody expensive to heat and a blot on the local landscape which has affected local house prices. Local landlords probably do not vote for Bliars party though.:sad:

[FJJP]

Here we go again, winge, winge. You guys in the Forces have it easy, not paying tax and getting free houses. I mean, next thing you'll be telling me that you free coal, just like all those associated with mining, not just the miners. [No, just a minute, the rent's just gone up again...]

Just think, our illustrious President turned all that free accomodation into a valuable fund to revolutionise the health and education services. [No, hang on, that's wrong...]

God help me, there must be SOMETHING that you've had that has improved the quality of life. Surely?...

I mean,





someone,





somewhere?..........




I think I'll just go and have a lie down.

[Climebear]

God help me, there must be SOMETHING that you've had that has improved the quality of life. Surely?...

Do the nice array of boy scout badges for CS95 count?


I'll just go and get a shower... ...hold on it's only 2006 and my SFA hasn't had one installed yet.

[ratty1]

What do you mean you want a shower when Britain's MPs are claiming twice as much in expenses for their second homes as most families spend on their only home . Plus the UK now has to give free houses to the rest of the EU who decide to come here to sponge.

[demobcurious]

there must be SOMETHING that you've had that has improved the quality of life. My 38th birthday.

[Lara crofts pants]

My job offer elsewhere

[JackRyan]

I must say in starting this thread, it wasn't my intention to whinge at all aspects of the services. I really do love my job, the only problem is when I get home the SFA is falling to bits, no dentist for my wife...

[FEWNCOP]

Here we go again, winge, winge. You guys in the Forces have it easy, not paying tax and getting free houses. .
Whoops, did I join the wrong one???

[FJJP]

FEWNCOP

Nope. When I joined in the mid 60s, it was a seriously held mis-perception by many members of the general public that the Armed Forces did not pay income tax and got everything free - uniform, accommodation [inc married quarters], food, boarding school education [Eton, Harrow, Oxbridge, etc].

I often got sidelined in the pub [especially in Yorkshire] by hacked off, half drunk civis raring to have a go. The reason is this. The miners, as part of their terms of service at that time, had a 10-ton per year free coal concession. It was under threat of being removed as part of a review. It was originally given to them because there were no pit head shower or bathing facilities and to compensate them for the additional cost of bathing at home. Trouble was, ALL employees got it, even the [for example] storemen, who never got closer to the coal face than the winding gear. With the improved pithead showering facilities available, management thought that it would be a good idea to review this sort of thing and save a bit of money. As you can imagine, in mining areas this went down like a lead balloon, and the average man in the street went on to make this comparison with the Armed Forces and their 'free everything' - historically, the miners were seen as equally important as the Forces; during WW2 miners were in a 'reserved' occupation and exempt from the 'call-up'.

My post was tongue-in-cheek [leaning heavily on the sarcastic], because the SFA sell-off must rate as one of the biggest cons and rip-offs of all time; the onward sell-off to the general public has made a fortune for the companies involved [you've only got to see the selling prices as proof]. Also as an exercise in social engineering it has turned out to be a disaster. RAF airfields tend to be away from town centres and out in the styx. The married patch as a stand-alone area does not generally have any facilities embedded in it - all the social and shopping facilities tend to be amongst the working part of the base. And at Wyton, for example, the wire fence was immediately re-built between the quarters and the base, thus putting the housing outside the perimeter. Therefore anyone living there had to be in the Forces [or civil servants] to gain entry to said facilities. So you had a housing estate, miles from anywhere with no shops, social centres, pubs, etc.

Then you got the mix of social, rented and owned housing. With no facilities in the middle of nowhere, there are inevitably problems with bored youngsters, not-so-youngsters and the downright dishonest. Crime rate goes up, the good get hacked off and leave and you can end up with a dis-affected housing estate [with Servicemen in the middle of it all with a reduced quality of life, and potentially the neighbours from hell].

Add to the mix the handover to a civi company to run the SFA and things like modernisation can become a hit-and-miss business matter affecting profits. However, although me and SFA [or MQs when I were in, lad] go way back, I have little direct experience of DHA and how it is now working.

That someone raises the question of modernisation in 2006 I find shameful. It is the worst example of downright bad man management to have your most valuable asset [ie, the people] p*ssed off with, in some cases, slum accommodation. Our guys should have the best, provided by a grateful Nation...


:mad: [and I don't use that very often]

[monkeybumhead]

At the West Midlands/Shropshire training establishment there is one patch of quaters, which used to have an armed guard at the entrance, that is experiencing the sort of thing never before heard of on patches. To my knowledge there have been numerous cars and wheelie bins torched. The response to this, it's not MoD land so we can't restrict access. I'm just gald I'm well away from it all.

[Dogfish]

Monkeybumhead,
as I live at said training establishment I can confirm that there have been a number of vehicle fires on that patch. Given that the entrance has a guard post complete with un-loading bay there must have been armed guards on there at some point before I arrived. I would not be exaggerating if I said that some wife’s are living in fear but to be fair the last fire was some months ago. As one wifey said at a meeting arranged by the RAF plods ''you would soon put a f:mad:g guard on the gate if any f:mad:g officers lived there''. I feel she had a point. Don't think it is scaley brats causing the trouble but there are a few scumbags in the local village that might be doing it. Just hope that nobody has to get hurt before the problem is taken seriously.:*

[HEDP]

As an aside,

As a result of selling off all the said housing; it isn't widely known that Countrywide Mobility now rent in the order of 2000 homes for MOD personnel as Substitute Service Families Accomodation (SSFA).

What would the estimate of cost to the public purse be of 2000 properties at anywhere between 300 and 1500 pounds per month?

And then tell me that the sale was clever and that the tax payer isn't being fleeced again having sold off the majority of the housing stock to Annington.

IMHO

HEDP

[JessTheDog]

I bought an former quarter for an absolute pittance back in 2001, and recently sold it on at a profit. I dread to think what the MoD sold the FMQs off for in the first place to the company that renovated them and still managed to sell them cheaply.

At High Wycombe, the prices for the quarters on the market were sky high, yet the locals still complained the RAF was undercutting the market. I wonder how much of a ride the taxpayer has been taken for. Shameless asset stripping, jsut like the Qinetiq flotation.