Carterton military housing called 'dangerous' by ex-RAF wife

Much of the military housing in Carterton was built in the 1950s

The wife of an ex-RAF engineer has said homes that UK military personnel are living in are "dangerous".

Crystal lived in military accommodation in Carterton, Oxfordshire, while her husband served at RAF Brize Norton for five years.

She said they had to cope with issues like rotten flooring, long waits for maintenance and bodged repairs.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it is investing an additional £400m to improve military housing.

Much of the military housing in Carterton was built in the 1950s and was designed to be temporary.

Some have been extensively refurbished but others have been left awaiting renovation.

But Crystal said: "You can restore paint work, you can restore stuff on the outside, make the brick work and the concrete look nicer, but it will just be a dangerous house looking pretty."

Crystal described the conditions in their Carterton home as "appalling"

Although military families pay a fraction of market rents, Crystal believes no-one should be living in these homes.

"You've got people serving the country, fighting wars, defending us," she said, adding: "They shouldn't be living in squalor, it's just wrong."

She described the conditions in their Carterton home as "appalling" and said they had to deal with asbestos in their baby's room, mould and an outdated heating system that leaked carbon monoxide.

During their tenancy, she said the toilet cistern fell through rotten flooring into their kitchen.

Crystal explained that they spent the rest of her time being scared to even fill the bath, in case it also fell through the rotten floor.

"But they wouldn't fix the floor because they'd already had to fully rebuild the ceiling from when we had the cistern incident, so we were quite fearful," she added.

Witney Conservative MP Robert Courts says dealing with the homes' maintenance issues was "the next immediate step"

Robert Courts, Conservative MP for Witney, has been involved in a long-term campaign for improvements, but said with "finite budgets" it was not affordable to knock all of the military homes down and start from scratch.

He added that dealing with the homes' maintenance issues was "the next immediate step" and it was a case of making "the best use of the resources that we have".

The MoD said the defence secretary had made improving the standard of military accommodation "a personal priority".

"We continue to upgrade military housing and are investing an additional £400m over the next two years, which will include the robust managing of asbestos," it added.

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