Source · Select Committees · Defence Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Acknowledged
Resolve outstanding damp and mould issues and publish annual remediation statistics by June 2025.
Recommendation
The DIO must resolve outstanding problems with damp and mould across the estate. In its response to this report, the Government should detail the ongoing work to eliminate damp and mould in SFA, including a timeline for remediation of the Estate as a whole. Detailed statistics should be published by June 2025 on the number of properties affected by damp and mould across the whole of the Defence Estate, and its severity, and these should be updated and published annually thereafter. (Recommendation, Paragraph 74)
Government Response Summary
The MOD accepts the recommendation, acknowledging ongoing challenges and efforts. It details existing work by the Damp & Mould Taskforce and future plans for housing regeneration via the Annington deal, but does not provide a specific timeline for remediation of the entire estate or explicitly commit to publishing detailed statistics by June 2025 as requested, due to truncated text.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The MOD accepts the conclusion and recommendation at 15 and 16. The MOD acknowledges the serious concerns raised regarding damp and mould in SFA. We recognise that despite efforts to improve conditions, challenges persist, and these challenges will continue to reoccur until the military housing estate is fully regenerated. The DIO policy is that homes should not be allocated where there is a known damp and/or mould issue. This includes homes where a professional survey has recommended works that have not yet been completed, or where the previous family reported damp and mould, but no remedial works have been completed. Since the Damp & Mould Taskforce was established in 2023, over 9,000 families have benefitted from the delivery of damp and mould packages of works. The severity of damp and mould cases being raised is now much reduced from when the taskforce was first established. Cases at severity levels 4 and 5 (5 being the most severe) are now much less common. Detailed statistics will be published as requested by June 2025. Historically there is an 80–85% success rate of the damp and mould packages delivered across the estate completely eradicating damp and mould, leaving a 15–20% chance that damp and mould will re-emerge after it has been treated under a first responder visit. Cases are reopened should damp and mould re-emerge. been under-invested in over many years. Decades of under-investment has resulted in assets not being replaced until the point of failure (including heating systems) Additionally, many properties have poor thermal insulation. It is likely that cases will continue to emerge until the worst housing stock is replaced. However, following the Government’s deal to buy back the military housing estate from Annington Ltd, the MOD now has the opportunity to replace to worst of its housing stock through a regeneration of the estate where thermally inefficient properties will be prioritised for upgrade or replacement. This will form part of the department’s ongoing work to maximise the benefits of the Annington deal, working towards a wider forces housing strategy.