Recommendation 27

The condition of living accommodation is vitally important for the Armed Forces’ ‘lived experience’, yet the latest annual survey on personnel’s views and experiences shows continuing dissatisfaction with accommodation and its maintenance. In May 2021, satisfaction by service personnel on the quality and maintenance of the estate was 34%, down from 40% a few years ago.40 However, the Department has not tackled problems with the poor quality of its estate, with 30% still being in an unacceptable condition. For more than a decade it has operated a ‘fix on fail’ approach to maintenance in large parts of the estate, meaning that it has been unable to conduct all the preventive maintenance that was needed.41