Originally Posted by
MPN11
I recall the tale of the Airmen's Quarters at RAF West Drayton back in the 80s as the Station was starting to run down. Offered free to the local council, who declined to take them on as they were declared uninhabitable. The site was demolished instead.
There have been other local authorities who have declared sites as uninhabitable - absolutely nothing to do with the money to be made from redevelopment with a much higher density. The same happened at Bracknell, the whole site flattened despite the FQs being in good nick. A developer once admitted that when you have road access and utilities on site, every 3rd house you build is straight profit.
Much of the problem with the estate goes back to the sell-off under the Portillo regime, which was designed to save 1p on income tax; MOD received £100M at the time, compared with the £1.5Bn that went to the Treasury. The consortium that bought the stock has done rather well out of it. And the funding of maintenance was left with the single services for 10 years or more, during which time one service in particular treated accommodation as a savings pot.
As for throwing stones at the people trying to manage this, one of the biggest handicaps for them has been the contract, let some years ago by another part of MOD, which had a key performance target of 95% completion of works in the required timescale. If you are one of the occupants who fall into the 5%, you will not be happy, but try getting a tradesman to come out to your private home on Xmas Eve because your heating has failed. That is no excuse for trying to move people into properties that are clearly not fit for use. I was told at a media briefing some months ago that the new contract goes live in March, so hopefully that will fix some of the issues.