Recommendation 1

HM Government Not Addressed

1: PAC conclusion: The Department has neglected Single Living Accommodation for many years and has not given it anything like the priority that it has deserved, despite the clear link between accommodation and delivery of operational capability. 1: PAC recommendation: The Department should report back to the Committee in six months on the changes it is introducing under its Defence Accommodation Strategy to raise the priority given to Single Living Accommodation, including implementation of the National Audit Office recommendations. 1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2021 1.2 The Defence Accommodation Strategy (DAS) will be published by the end of 2021. The Ministry of Defence (the department) will write to the Committee by December 2021 to outline the changes it will include in relation to Single Living Accommodation (SLA). The department is implementing the National Audit Office (NAO) recommendations, including assigning the Chief of Defence People as the Senior Sponsor for SLA and reviewing SLA governance structures. 12 1.3 The department already plans to invest £1.5 billion into SLA over the next decade and, beyond that, the DAS will provide clearer strategic direction for the defence accommodation estate to a 25-year planning horizon. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and single Services will develop clear delivery plans to sit alongside the DAS with regular monitoring and evaluation points to ensure that improvements and progress can be evidenced. The DIO and single services will be held to account for delivery of these plans through the department’s quarterly holding to account process and the Strategy itself will be reviewed regularly. The DAS will formalise the department’s vision for service personnel accommodation and outline how standards will meet the expectations of service personnel now and in the future. It will identify strategic dependencies across Defence-wide accommodation and infrastructure programmes including the Future Accommodation Model and Defence Estate Optimisation. It will also consider wider initiatives such as Net Zero Carbon and People Transformation, and key dependencies such as the Annington Homes rent renegotiations and DIO void reduction plans.