Defence Secretary John Healey said morale in the armed forces reached ‘rock bottom’ under the Tories with poor housing at the centre of a recruitment and retention crisis
Armed forces personnel and veterans will get “first dibs” on homes built on Ministry of Defence land, the Government has announced.
Officials say up to 100,000 properties could go up on repurposed defence sites. On Monday Defence Secretary John Healey will unveil a ‘Forces First’ approach in a speech at the Labour Party Conference.
During a visit to a Merseyside shipyard, he told The Mirror that poor housing for miliary personnel and their families was at the root of a retention crisis. He said: “Morale has hit rock bottom for our forces and at the heart of the recruitment and retention crisis after 14 years (the Tories) left in this country is housing.” He went on: “I’m not content to see damp, mouldy, poorly fitted homes for our forces in the future.”
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He said Labour would “extend the aspiration of home ownership” to personnel and veterans and make sure top-of-the-range affordable homes are available to them. The Government has pledged to spend £1.5billion by 2029 to help overhaul the standard of military homes.
During his address to delegates in Liverpool today(MON), Mr Healey is expected to say: “Our Armed Forces housing was left in a shameful state by the Conservatives, hammering morale and driving a recruitment and retention crisis in our Forces.
“In our first year in office, Labour began the hard work to stop the rot and start the renewal of Armed Forces housing. We will turbocharge building on Defence land to deliver new homes for both our service personnel and for civilian families across Britain.”
Damning figures show 4,430 more personnel left than joined the regular forces in the year to March 2024 under the Tories. The number joining fell from 25,500 in 1999/2000 to 13,450 to 2024/25.
Mr Healey made the comments as he visited the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead after signing the biggest ever warship export deal. He said hundreds of skilled shipbuilding jobs in Merseyside will be supported thanks to a £10 billion deal to export five Type 26 frigates to Norway.
New figures show the MOD spent nearly £5billion with businesses in the north west, supporting more than 20,000 jobs. The Defence Secretary said: “We just won the biggest ever warship deal for Britain with Norway. And so this yard will help build another five of those warships for Norweigans.
“It’s £10billion pumped into the British economy. Here at Cammell Laird it’s going to secure at least 150 jobs that currently work on this warship, and there will be substantially more in the future.”
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