[QUOTE=adminblunty;11606195]Someone may want to draw Rosie’s attention to this from the AFPRB report 2023:
‘MOD assessed that Service accommodation offered excellent value for money for personnel of all ranks as a result of the subsidy. The monetary value of the Service Family Accommodation (SFA) subsidy was between 43% and 73% depending on type of accommodation occupied. The Single Living Accommodation (SLA) subsidy for a ‘Grade 1 for Charge’ en-suite room compared with the median private rental for a room stood at between 45% and 80%’[QUOTE]
'Grade 1 for Charge' aside (as there don't seem to be too many of those out there), the issue with the new system is not the subsidy and never has been. It is about entitlement to accommodation, how that accommodation is allocated, and the cost to the public purse. The new policy - which is likely to stay on hold for a while because Ministers don't like being criticised in the right-wing press - has been in devleopment since 2016, possibly earlier. There was a shortage of accommodation in the right places and at the right standard, and the 1993 contract muppetry meant it was becoming increasingly expensive.
A cynic might argue that one way to deal with shortages and increasing costs would be reduce demand, which can be done by a combination of encouraging people to buy/rent on the economy or hacking them off to the point where they vote with their feet. The people who designed the scheme probably had a poor understanding of why, for example, living next door to someone you have just sent to Colchester for 28 days is not a good idea. They may not have thought about the impact on a WO who has accepted a commission, been posted, and now has to explain to their spouse that they will be moving back into the 2-bed they occupied 20 years ago because their kids have left home, the only perk being that it's further to walk to the Mess. And they won't have thought about the impact on the Rosie's of this world, who see things getting worse for them, not better.
The answer for people at lower ranks who genuinely need larger houses is to build larger houses. But that all costs money and the accommodation programme has been under-funded since any of us can remember.