Senior figures in the British Army have warned they could quit over new accommodation rules which would see them get smaller properties.
Some Army wives have accused the Ministry of Defence of an “utter betrayal” over changes to the way accommodation is provided.
Currently, the size of subsidised housing allocated to officers is dependent on their rank.
However, new rules set to be introduced next month will see the focus change to be on families’ needs – meaning many senior officers will lose their entitlement to larger housing.
Rosie Bucknall, the wife of an Army captain, told the defence select committee in written evidence: “For officers and their family members, who have made personal and financial sacrifices for ten or twenty years, this is utter betrayal.”
She said the “social contract” which exists between the military and its personnel will be “eroded” if the plans go ahead, adding: “The offer, as those serving call it, has been persistently degraded over recent decades, and now they are dismantling our access to decent housing.”
A petition set up by the Army wives urging for the policy to be reviewed has received 16,000 signatures, warning: “If the policy is implemented as it currently stands, we believe that armed forces retention rates are likely to fall to even lower levels than those at present.”
The number of people leaving the Armed Forces has leapt up by nearly a fifth at the end of last year. Quarterly personnel statistics show a record 792 Army officers left the service early in the last quarter, compared with roughly 450-550 per quarter over the past decade.
The most frequently cited reason for leaving the military was the “impact on family and personal life” in a 2023 survey.
One source told Sky News: “Reducing the quality of life/conditions that officers and their families live in is bound to result in many leaving the services at exactly the time that we really need people.
“The people hit hardest by the reduction in housing entitlement…are the families of majors and above – and the equivalent in the other services.
“These collectively are the most experienced people we have. They take decades of experience and vast amounts of money to ‘grow’ and so are the people who are most difficult to replace.”
Under the new offer, a married major with no children would be entitled to a two-bedroom property instead of a three- or four-bedroom house. This would leave them with around 38 percent less space, while a married private with two children would gain around 27 percent more.
One army captain told the BBC: “I could conceive of no single policy better placed to drive quality officers out of the service and tear the heart out of the organisation.”
The Ministry of Defence said there will be a three-year transition period and during that period no-one will be left worse off.
An MoD spokesman said: “Our Armed Forces personnel make extraordinary sacrifices to protect our nation, which is why our Modern Accommodation Offer puts fairness first.
“We’re now allocating housing based on need, rather than rank, and modernising accommodation by recognising for the first time those in established long-term relationships and parents with non-resident children.
“We will of course look into any individual case raised with us to ensure we are meeting our aim to provide the best possible accommodation to our personnel.”
They also said they will “improve the standard of Single Living Accommodation, help military personnel get on the housing ladder and give our people more choice in how they live.”
