UK HoC Report on Single Accommodation
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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UK HoC Report on Single Accommodation
H/T Politico London Playbook...
NOT FIT FOR TROOPS: The MoD has failed to look after housing built for the armed forces, which could prompt troops to quit, a new public accounts committee report argues.
Improving single living accommodation for service personnel
Fifty-Fourth Report of Session 2019–21
NOT FIT FOR TROOPS: The MoD has failed to look after housing built for the armed forces, which could prompt troops to quit, a new public accounts committee report argues.
Improving single living accommodation for service personnel
Fifty-Fourth Report of Session 2019–21
Regretfully accommodation in the UK armed forces for anyone has been bottom of the list (you can't use the word "priority" anywhere near this issue) for as long as I've been on the planet
Oh and it was ess aitch one tee ee then!
Last edited by ExAscoteer2; 23rd Apr 2021 at 16:31.
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Single Living Accommodation is a key part of the overall employment ‘offer’ made to regular service personnel by the Ministry of Defence (the Department). Around 80,000 personnel, more than half of the Armed Forces, live in Single Living Accommodation. However, for many years it has not been given the attention it deserves, suffering neglect at times of wider pressures on the defence budget. A ‘fix on fail’ policy has led to a Ł1.5 billion maintenance and repairs backlog across all accommodation, including Single Living Accommodation. Although there is variation in the type and quality of accommodation provided, much of the estate is old, and as of 31 October 2020, 36% of personnel in Single Living Accommodation lived in the lowest-grade accommodation. Of these, 3% were not required to pay a rental charge because their accommodation was so poor. Amongst service personnel living in Single Living Accommodation, satisfaction with the overall standard of their accommodation has declined from 58% in 2015 to 49% in 2020, with some personnel experiencing problems with basic amenities such as hot water. Despite this, the Department is only spending a third of what the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors suggest is needed to maintain the estate. As we have previously reported, low levels of satisfaction with military accommodation risks reducing retention levels among service personnel.
Nutty I fear your military clarity is decaying faster than mine. In such a system our idiotic RAFP / MP / RNP will be turning every plumbing failure into a crime scene, just in case the individual reporting the failure is trying to fleece the system. I can see it now, every leaky roof being covered with fingerprint dust, whole blocks held on suspicion of providing the final blocking 'deposit' in the antiquated soil pipe...
Many moons ago, one of my Sqn secondary duties was as flt cdr and OIC of a barrack block at a well known Buckinghamshire Technical Training School. The lads did their best to keep the block up to standard but one of the issues was stones being pinged through the windows by the mowers. Like a good junior officer, I naively asked the powers that be to repair the damage only to be told that until there were enough broken windows to make it worth their while, a glazier could not be retained to effect the repairs. I did ask if I should get the lads to break a few more windows but the idea was not well received. That was in the good old days. My son has since passed through the system and my daughter is still in quarters with her husband. I understand things have not improved, to put it mildly.
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My window was broken at Odi for over a year, the excuse was it needed a specialist to fit, the top frame and bottom being bonded to the glass with no sides, it was only fixed after I put a genapp in for reduced accommodation. I went through a winter with the curtains closed and a pair of electric heaters running 24/7 so it must have cost them a fortune.
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Tsk ! Tsk ! may I venture to suggest you are possibly being just a shade churlish here.
Shurely you must be aware of the ( several decades overdue, but, they got there in the end ) addition of that useful structure known as an external fire escape. ! .
Being incarcerated on the top floor, when not diligently studying, in our reflective moments we did consider as to how we could leave in a hurry as it were. The consensus was to head for the ablution block and thereafter...first available drain pipe.
One of our entry did put this proof of concept to the test one day.....albeit ascending rather than descending which didn't entirely meet with the managements approval at the time.
I recall one, and only one, fire drill....where everybody happily trotted down the stairs
Shurely you must be aware of the ( several decades overdue, but, they got there in the end ) addition of that useful structure known as an external fire escape. ! .
Being incarcerated on the top floor, when not diligently studying, in our reflective moments we did consider as to how we could leave in a hurry as it were. The consensus was to head for the ablution block and thereafter...first available drain pipe.
One of our entry did put this proof of concept to the test one day.....albeit ascending rather than descending which didn't entirely meet with the managements approval at the time.
I recall one, and only one, fire drill....where everybody happily trotted down the stairs
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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I am reminded of the fire escape in the west wing of Bawdsey Manor back in 1975. It was one of those cable winch and harness systems with a rotor in top to slow your descent and was regularly tested during Friday happy hours.
The bar was in the lower east wing and the game was to see how quickly someone could race out if the bar, up the main stairs and across the building, out the window and down to the ground using the winch and then along the front and back through the front door into the bar.
Needless to say speed meant that care was not taken to fasten the harness, rather drunken officers hurled themselves out the window at high speed grabbing the harness as they passed.....
Strangely I can’t remember anyone every missing and getting hurt or killed.
The first and most salubrious mess in which I ever resided.
The bar was in the lower east wing and the game was to see how quickly someone could race out if the bar, up the main stairs and across the building, out the window and down to the ground using the winch and then along the front and back through the front door into the bar.
Needless to say speed meant that care was not taken to fasten the harness, rather drunken officers hurled themselves out the window at high speed grabbing the harness as they passed.....
Strangely I can’t remember anyone every missing and getting hurt or killed.
The first and most salubrious mess in which I ever resided.
Tsk ! Tsk ! may I venture to suggest you are possibly being just a shade churlish here.
Shurely you must be aware of the ( several decades overdue, but, they got there in the end ) addition of that useful structure known as an external fire escape. ! .
Being incarcerated on the top floor, when not diligently studying, in our reflective moments we did consider as to how we could leave in a hurry as it were. The consensus was to head for the ablution block and thereafter...first available drain pipe.
One of our entry did put this proof of concept to the test one day.....albeit ascending rather than descending which didn't entirely meet with the managements approval at the time.
I recall one, and only one, fire drill....where everybody happily trotted down the stairs
Shurely you must be aware of the ( several decades overdue, but, they got there in the end ) addition of that useful structure known as an external fire escape. ! .
Being incarcerated on the top floor, when not diligently studying, in our reflective moments we did consider as to how we could leave in a hurry as it were. The consensus was to head for the ablution block and thereafter...first available drain pipe.
One of our entry did put this proof of concept to the test one day.....albeit ascending rather than descending which didn't entirely meet with the managements approval at the time.
I recall one, and only one, fire drill....where everybody happily trotted down the stairs
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One feels obliged to mention the happily-demolished Officers Mess at West Drayton, where the fitted wardrobes and sink unit were propped up a foot or so above the floor ... thus bringing the "floor area" within habitable specification.
Last edited by MPN11; 24th Apr 2021 at 09:46.
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The OMQs at Odiham were dreadful. I was posted there three times and lived in three different houses.
The worst of them had rotten skirting boards and was infested with wood lice. My toddler son used to eat the damned things! He used to completely deny it, even when he had wriggling remains in his mouth!
There was no felt under the roof tiles so from inside the loft you could see daylight all over the place. I was concerned about the safety of the water pipes up there when cold weather was forecast. Station routine orders were issued stating that occupants were responsible for ensuring that frost precautions were taken. I went up in the loft and saw that the mains riser to the header tank for the central heating had only old hessian wrapped around it. I went out and bought some really thick tubular foam insulation. I took off the old hessian, insulated all the pipes with the thick foam and then used the old hessian on top, so it was double insulated to a depth of an inch; all good for a severe winter. I then placed fibreglass insulation roll over the pipe run so rising heat from the house would keep the temperature above freezing.
A short time later I went away on a few weeks detachment. When I came back, just before Christmas, my wife mentioned that an MOD contractor had been in to check the insulation. I thought no more of it, knowing that it was all good. We then went away to relatives for Christmas Day and stayed overnight, having left the heating on. On our return, to our horror, the house was flooding from top to bottom, with water squirting out of the downstairs light switches, bathroom ceiling breached, kitchen ceiling bowing down, water coming downstairs like a waterfall.
I turned off the water, turned off the electrics, put wife and kids back in the car and went to the guardroom to report the problem. I was told a plumber was already on the station but I was about number twelve on the waiting list!
I got a torch and went up into the loft, at a loss to understand why a pipe had burst and which one had gone. I soon saw the reason. The MOD contractor had removed every scrap of the excellent insulation work I’d done about three weeks before and fitted the cheapest, nastiest foam cladding that money could buy. All the expensive stuff I’d bought was in an untidy heap. The fibreglass mat was thrown to one side. The mains riser had burst right where I’d taken great care to ensure it didn’t. I was bloody annoyed!
The plumber never turned up! I eventually had to repair the burst myself, using an olive type pipe connector, the day after Boxing day (our wedding anniversary), when I could get to a DIY store.
I had spent most of Boxing Day removing sodden loft insulation and putting it in bin bags. Three dozen or so were needed to clear it all out. I then had to wipe out the top of the ceilings from above......disgusting!
To rub even more salt in the wound, despite over a dozen MQs having suffered the same problem on the same day,on the same pipe, OC Admin decreed that the bursts were caused by the occupants themselves failing to take the correct frost precautions and that we were going to have to pay for the damage! To say there was an outcry was an understatement and that was thankfully rescinded. The barrack warden came around after the Christmas stand down to check the damage and we were told that the fitted carpets were going to be removed, taken away, dried then refitted. However, ours were so old they disintegrated as they were lifted; they were rotten. We were then told that they would replaced forthwith. The bad news was that there was a three month waiting list! We lived for weeks in a cold, damp house with newspaper on the floors. Using the stairs was dangerous because of the exposed “gripper rods” that had held the carpet. We were paying for the extra heating needed to dry the place out!
One of the reasons I took my option to leave at 38. I didn’t mind living in field conditions when required (and as a support helicopter pilot only to be expected on occasions), but I objected very strongly to my family being put in this situation and treated with total disdain.
The worst of them had rotten skirting boards and was infested with wood lice. My toddler son used to eat the damned things! He used to completely deny it, even when he had wriggling remains in his mouth!
There was no felt under the roof tiles so from inside the loft you could see daylight all over the place. I was concerned about the safety of the water pipes up there when cold weather was forecast. Station routine orders were issued stating that occupants were responsible for ensuring that frost precautions were taken. I went up in the loft and saw that the mains riser to the header tank for the central heating had only old hessian wrapped around it. I went out and bought some really thick tubular foam insulation. I took off the old hessian, insulated all the pipes with the thick foam and then used the old hessian on top, so it was double insulated to a depth of an inch; all good for a severe winter. I then placed fibreglass insulation roll over the pipe run so rising heat from the house would keep the temperature above freezing.
A short time later I went away on a few weeks detachment. When I came back, just before Christmas, my wife mentioned that an MOD contractor had been in to check the insulation. I thought no more of it, knowing that it was all good. We then went away to relatives for Christmas Day and stayed overnight, having left the heating on. On our return, to our horror, the house was flooding from top to bottom, with water squirting out of the downstairs light switches, bathroom ceiling breached, kitchen ceiling bowing down, water coming downstairs like a waterfall.
I turned off the water, turned off the electrics, put wife and kids back in the car and went to the guardroom to report the problem. I was told a plumber was already on the station but I was about number twelve on the waiting list!
I got a torch and went up into the loft, at a loss to understand why a pipe had burst and which one had gone. I soon saw the reason. The MOD contractor had removed every scrap of the excellent insulation work I’d done about three weeks before and fitted the cheapest, nastiest foam cladding that money could buy. All the expensive stuff I’d bought was in an untidy heap. The fibreglass mat was thrown to one side. The mains riser had burst right where I’d taken great care to ensure it didn’t. I was bloody annoyed!
The plumber never turned up! I eventually had to repair the burst myself, using an olive type pipe connector, the day after Boxing day (our wedding anniversary), when I could get to a DIY store.
I had spent most of Boxing Day removing sodden loft insulation and putting it in bin bags. Three dozen or so were needed to clear it all out. I then had to wipe out the top of the ceilings from above......disgusting!
To rub even more salt in the wound, despite over a dozen MQs having suffered the same problem on the same day,on the same pipe, OC Admin decreed that the bursts were caused by the occupants themselves failing to take the correct frost precautions and that we were going to have to pay for the damage! To say there was an outcry was an understatement and that was thankfully rescinded. The barrack warden came around after the Christmas stand down to check the damage and we were told that the fitted carpets were going to be removed, taken away, dried then refitted. However, ours were so old they disintegrated as they were lifted; they were rotten. We were then told that they would replaced forthwith. The bad news was that there was a three month waiting list! We lived for weeks in a cold, damp house with newspaper on the floors. Using the stairs was dangerous because of the exposed “gripper rods” that had held the carpet. We were paying for the extra heating needed to dry the place out!
One of the reasons I took my option to leave at 38. I didn’t mind living in field conditions when required (and as a support helicopter pilot only to be expected on occasions), but I objected very strongly to my family being put in this situation and treated with total disdain.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
As this is turning into an historical when I was 😀
The Seco Huts at Waddington were much more modern that the Wooden Huts a Cottesmore as Seco was introduced as there was a shortage of wood.
Both used the modern shower blocks, smooth concrete and pull and hold the chain for the shower.
I once had the pleasure of a 5-bed room in the Halton mess. Fortunately I had it to myself and was able to strip the counter panes from the other beds to supplement the single blanket as the windows were painted open.
Oh what stories we had.
The Seco Huts at Waddington were much more modern that the Wooden Huts a Cottesmore as Seco was introduced as there was a shortage of wood.
Both used the modern shower blocks, smooth concrete and pull and hold the chain for the shower.
I once had the pleasure of a 5-bed room in the Halton mess. Fortunately I had it to myself and was able to strip the counter panes from the other beds to supplement the single blanket as the windows were painted open.
Oh what stories we had.
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Do a search for a book by Micheal Davies called Tales from the Headquarters. It's centered on RAF Cranwell a couple of years ago. Read it, then despair.
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Who cares?
Focus on personnel. I cannot remember what idiot pushed that ou continuously, seems like they’ve quietly failed, but then so have all the bottom feeders that nodded.