Improve Army homes says Colchester MP

12.00.00am GMT Thu 29th Nov 2007

A plea for an improvement in the housing provided for Army families - particularly those at the Colchester Garrison - has been made by Town MP Bob Russell.

Mr Russell, who has long advocated the need to improve the condition of Army housing in Colchester, made his request directly to top Army boss General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, at the House of Commons.

Sir Richard and other senior colleagues were at the Commons to give a presentation on "The Army for Today". During questions, Mr Russell said that retention of experienced soldiers was undermined when they and their families had to live in poor housing.

His concerns were recognised by Sir Richard who agreed that there was a need to speed up the modernisation programme.

Mr Russell said afterwards that he blamed the privatisation in 1995 by the last Conservative Government of the nation's entire Ministry of Defence housing stock, in excess of 55,000 dwellings, to property company Annington Homes for the situation.

He added that the present Government had had ten years in which to tackle the problems but had done too little too late. He promised to continue to highlight the situation at the Colchester Garrison in particular as well as across the country.

Mr Russell is a member of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Defence Team.