With reference to the comparisons with the Premier Inn above, it's hardly like with like is it? I stay in Premier Inns a lot on my travels (good VFM), and they rarely cost me less than fifty-sixty quid a night. I don't recall the accommodation component of my living in charges costing me £1800 a month? More like a tenth of that figure.
Don't get me wrong...I'm no fan of officers mess accommodation. I've stayed in rooms that would compare badly with Battersea Dogs Home, let alone a one star motel, but I guess you get what you pay for.
The two things that always got right up my nose when I lived in (and got me in hot water several times for my "unacceptable" comments in the suggestions book) were...
The willingness to splurge huge wads of dosh on the public rooms, whilst spending the square root of **** all on liver's-in rooms and facilities.
And, the mindless, jobsworth, you-can't-do-that obstruction anytime any liver in came up with good idea for making our life better (even when we were willing to pay for it).
I bet it has not changed either. With glorious hindsight I now realise I wasted wwwaaaaaayyyyy too much of my life, living in.
Live out in the community single chaps and chapesses. B*gger the cost.