10
Conclusion
Fifty-Fourth Report - Improving single …
Rejected
We enquired as to what the Department is doing in response to the decline in levels of satisfaction reported in the 2020 Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS). This showed that 49% of service personnel living in Single Living Accommodation were satisfied with the overall standard of their accommodation, compared …
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We enquired as to what the Department is doing in response to the decline in levels of satisfaction reported in the 2020 Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS). This showed that 49% of service personnel living in Single Living Accommodation were satisfied with the overall standard of their accommodation, compared with 58% in 2015.25 The Department agreed that Single Living Accommodation is an important part of the lives of personnel, particularly those for whom it is their home, and suggested that satisfaction levels have been broadly the same or rising since delegation to the Commands in 2018.26 We highlighted that satisfaction rates had moved around in the Royal Navy, continued to decline in the RAF, and although there may be a slight increase from the Royal Marines, this was from an appallingly low level in 2018 of 38%.27 The Department 19 Qq 39, 53; C&AG’s Report, para 3.3 20 Qq 72–73; C&AG’s Report, para 3.11 21 Q 74; C&AG’s Report, para 3.5 22 Q 74 23 Qq 16, 56–57 24 Qq 20, 21 25 Q 30; C&AG’s Report, paras 12, 3.7, Figure 11 26 Qq 30, 36 27 Qq 36–37; C&AG’s Report, Figure 11 12 Improving single living accommodation for service personnel provided anecdotal evidence of accommodation being seen in a positive light, but this did not convince us that it was getting to grips with the problems that personnel can experience with Single Living Accommodation.28 The Department suggested that its benchmark for satisfaction should be to deliver accommodation that is seen as a positive to more people than as a negative in terms of reasons to join, stay or leave.29 It apologised if it had given the impression that tackling the problems with Single Living Accommodation was not a very far up its list of priorities.30
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects the implicit recommendation to set a target for satisfaction levels in Single Living Accommodation. It states that while understanding personnel views is important, more work is needed to understand needs before a satisfaction target can be set, and the Defence Accommodation Strategy …
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HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Fifty-Fourth Report - Improving single …
Rejected
The funds for improving Single Living Accommodation are not ring-fenced. While the Department stressed that Single Living Accommodation was a very high priority in Defence, it also stated there are other priorities.66 It faces wider affordability challenges, and the equipment portfolio, which is 41% of the entire defence budget, is …
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The funds for improving Single Living Accommodation are not ring-fenced. While the Department stressed that Single Living Accommodation was a very high priority in Defence, it also stated there are other priorities.66 It faces wider affordability challenges, and the equipment portfolio, which is 41% of the entire defence budget, is unaffordable. In addition, the Department’s Infrastructure Plan 2020–2030 faces a £1.4 billion shortfall. Historically, the Department has struggled to maintain its accommodation against wider affordability pressures and it has re-directed funding allocated to the estate to meet other financial pressures. This led to a ‘fix on fail’ maintenance regime being adopted in 2010, which has contributed to a £1.5 billion deferred maintenance backlog across all accommodation.67 The Department stated that its figures show it currently spends about a third of what the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) suggests is needed to maintain the estate.68 We questioned whether the funds available for Single Living Accommodation were anything like enough, given the backlog. The Department could only state that the funds would allow it to deal with the poorest accommodation.69
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees that funding Single Living Accommodation (SLA) improvements is important but explicitly states it will not ring-fence funds centrally, as investment remains a delegated matter for single Services.
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HM Treasury