Thousands of service families receive £650-million accommodation boost

Five new contracts worth £650-million have been awarded to industry to deliver crucial building and maintenance services for more than 39,000 Service families.

Forming the next phase of the Future Defence Infrastructure (FDIS) programme, the four new regional accommodation contracts will cover the maintenance of properties across the UK, including plumbing, electrical works, repair services and the maintenance support helpline.

The contracts will create and sustain thousands of jobs across the UK supply chain and service family accommodation sites including Portsmouth, Marham, Aldershot, Edinburgh and Cumbria which are all set to benefit from it.

The seven-year contracts have been awarded to:

• Amey Community Ltd: £84-million contract for the northern region of the UK including, Scotland, Northern Ireland and North Wales. Amey has also been awarded a £126-million contract for the central region of the UK, covering the Midlands and Mid and South Wales

• Vivo: £148-million contract for the South East of England and an additional £148-million contract for the South West of England

In addition to the facilities work, military families will also profit from a new customer service centre acting as a single point of contact to streamline and resolve accommodation issues quicker. Pinnacle Group Ltd has won a £144-million contract to deliver these services.

Minister for Defence People and Veterans, Leo Docherty said:

Our military families are at the heart of the Armed Forces community and delivering high-quality accommodation services demonstrates how important they are to us.

These new maintenance contracts, accompanied with a brand-new call centre, will deliver essential services to our world-class military and their families.

Announced by the Prime Minister last November, Defence has received an increase in funding of over £24-billion across the next four years. This investment reflects the MOD’s commitment to improving service accommodation and prioritising funding for critical infrastructure and services.

Air Commodore James Savage, DIO Head of Accommodation, said:  

Accommodation is such an important part of family life for Servicemen and women, which is why we collaborated closely with representatives of our Service personnel and their families to develop these contracts and ensure that their needs are fully considered.

These new contracts offer the opportunity to break decisively from the past and to build on the commitments made by all suppliers to innovate and deliver more responsive and flexible services to the Armed Forces and their families.

The new contracts will require suppliers to work differently, such as fixing faults on an initial visit to a property and undertaking simple preventative maintenance while attending properties to reduce disruption to families.

The contracts ensure industry suppliers adopt and adhere to recognised industry standards for the allocation, management and maintenance of military homes, implementing robust mechanisms to address poor performance alongside incentives to exceed contracted standards.

In the last financial year, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation spent £160-million on major improvements and the modernisation of its housing stock. The new FDIS contracts will enhance this even further.

The accommodation services contracts follow the recent announcement of a £1.6-billion to deliver hard facilities management services across the UK Defence estate. The final phase of the FDIS programme will see a contract awarded for the management and maintenance of the UK Defence Training Estate.