Military Housing: Your stories

A third of armed forces families in Ministry of Defence housing are unhappy with the standard of their home, a National Audit Office report suggests.

Servicemen's wives have become so frustrated that several are now speaking out in public, though they are still reluctant to give their names in case their husbands' careers suffer as a result.

Here are some of the comments you have been sending in to the BBC news website.

Over the years being a military wife has got harder and harder. As the growing burden on the military to meet the commitments made by the UK government mean that their men are away more often they are left to cope as a single parent. In addition the benefits of being a military wife have been reduced to nothing. Prescriptions and dental care which used to be FOC are no longer provided by the military. In times when the MOD are having to spend thousands if not millions on advertising to get people to join and finding it more difficult to retain good people you have to look at the whole package being offered, not just to the service personnel but to their immediate family.
J, Shillingford

We had Co2 from an old boiler in the kitchen, we had asbestos crumbling in the garage and outbuildings, we had unsecure doors and windows, the list goes on. We just walked away in the end as we couldn't get anything done. The repair company used to arrange an appointment by phone for a repair to be done then the repair person would come at a different time and put a note through the door to say you would have to re-book, it was miserable and unnecessary and this was in an Officers Quarter too, so trust me a higher rank does not mean better treatment. It's disgraceful to think that my husband was battling the Taliban and I was battling a war on asbestos.
M, Windsor

After twenty years in quarters I have experienced all kinds of difficulties. When they took away Estate Wardens with whom you got to know and could speak to on a regular basis. Replacing them with this centralised system phone-in your complaint and it will be given a work number which can take up to twenty one days before anyone comes. Then the tradesmen would often bring the wrong part not their fault just bring what they had been told to bring over the phone. I had to phone up for curtain hooks waited three weeks with drooping curtains then the guy turned up with the wrong ones. Money is wasted on centralising and message taking.
G, Plymouth

I have recently moved out of married quarters to live in my own home as I had become so fed-up of being treated like a second-class citizen. Whenever problems occurred with the quarters we were in, we had to ring a call centre in Liverpool where the customer service operators had little or no understanding of military life or family life. It is a national disgrace and the MOD should be ashamed that they allow this to go on.
L, Salisbury

My husband serves in the British army and we are currently based in Germany. We have a little girl. We live in this tiny little, very old and mouldy house. I find it really hard at times to live in these conditions, especially with my husband being away most of the time (Iraq, course and training - it never ends). We still have to pay rent though, so it's not like it's free accommodation, and even if it was, I still don't think it would be good enough to have a family with young children live in.
C, Germany

I live in a married quarter, this one has a kitchen that is older than I am, I am 30. The bathroom is so small that I could not manouvre in there when I was pregnant. It took them over two years to replace a broken doubleglazing unit. In my last house we had no heating from October to February; they gave us one electric space heater instead that cost a fortune to run and had to be moved between kid's bedrooms to heat them up before they went to bed. Our soldiers do an amazing job but we are consistently treated like second class citizens.
N, Cornwall

My brother-in-law was sent to Iraq for six months last year. During this time my sister had to deal with the electrics fusing, the gas not working and severe damp in the bathroom. It took two weeks for the gas and electrics to be fixed which meant she could not cook food, have lights on downstairs or have the heating on (this was in February). The army housing repairs also do not seem to cater for those army wives who go out to work as they would keep turning up when she specifically told them she was not there. The way the army treats its members and families is disgusting and we should all be ashamed.
Julie, Peterborough

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