Squaddies Say They've Had Enough Of Squalid Housing

 
An investigation has been ordered into allegations that Army families have been living in squalid and unsafe homes.
 
CarillionAmey has a lucrative Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract to maintain 45,000 service family homes in the UK.
 
But The Sun newspaper has put together a dossier of homes where the maintenance service has been appalling.
 
Service families are reportedly making 1,000 complaints a week over poor service, in the meantime living for months without cookers, no running water and holes in the ceiling.
 
Squaddies Say They've Had Enough Of Squalid Housing
 
They include Liz Phoenix, married to a Royal Marine, who claims their home is rat-infested, despite numerous calls to CarillionAmey.
 
She also says when they moved into the house in December 2014, the boiler was broken and it was so cold they had to move into a hotel. CarillionAmey took weeks to fix it.
 
She says CarillionAmey have carried out only 15 repairs despite 110 visits in a year.
 
 
A Royal Fusilier says he's leaving the Army after a health visitor warned his mouldy home is a health hazard for his newborn son.
 
The family says CarillionAmey has done nothing to fix the problem, despite 18 months of complaints.
 
Squaddies Say They've Had Enough Of Squalid Housing
 
Another soldier claims his house was so infested with black mould that he became ill and was medically downgraded at work.
 
According to The Sun, 7,500 people have now signed a petition asking the MoD to strip CarillionAmey of its multi-billion pound maintenance contract.
 
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said he's deeply concerned by these reports and wants them looked into as a matter of urgency, saying:
 
“It is simply unacceptable that our brave service personnel and their families, who offer this country so much, have to put up with such poor service. That's why I'm going to call in the chief executives of Carillion and Amey to identify what can be done to improve this situation as soon as possible.”
 
Meanwhile, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said it's not acceptable that CarillionAmey's performance has fallen short of expectations.
 
The Managing Director of CarillionAmey, Daniel Easthope has responded to the criticism, saying:
 
“We do not underestimate the challenges of this work and where there have been problems we are working hard to address them. We appreciate the patience shown by service personnel and their families while we fix problems on their behalf.”
http://www.forces.tv/15617261