Veterans Minister Alistair Carns says military morale is at its lowest in 14 years, with poor housing a major factor. Labour has pledged to upgrade 1,000 homes and introduce a consumer charter aimed at improving living standards and support for Armed Forces families.
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00:00The morale has been the lowest in the military for 14 years, retention is quite low.
00:05One of the biggest things people look at is the right to a family life.
00:07And actually the house behind me provides that.
00:09It's up to the standards, up to the required, but too many aren't.
00:11But we're absolutely committed within Labour to delivering a better standard.
00:14That's what the new consumer charter is all about.
00:16It's about raising the standard, creating a better complaint system,
00:19creating better communication channels for those families,
00:21and importantly, creating a housing officer for each estate.
00:23So if you have an issue, you've got someone to talk to to solve it in the first place.
00:26Today we're announcing that 1,000 houses are going to be brought up to standard.
00:30The reality is the defence housing, we've got to be careful and consider about how we're doing this
00:34so we don't end up in a position that we ended up 14 years ago with a terrible deal
00:37of where we don't even own the houses.
00:39So the defence housing strategy that will come out at the back end of summer
00:42will give us a clear pathway to delivering a refurbishment of the whole estate,
00:46not just pockets, but primarily the whole estate,
00:48to ensure armed forces personnel get the deal they deserve
00:51when it comes to the right to family life and a house that is up to standard.