“Scandal” as 400 military families forced to face emergency housing repairs over VE day anniversary

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

New research obtained by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that 442 military families had to call for urgent repairs on their state-provided housing over the week of VE-day commemorations – with a massive 64,000 requests for urgent repairs clocking up since January 2024.

Parliamentary questions submitted by the Liberal Democrats have revealed that over 440 urgent repair requests were filed by service families in state-provided military homes over the VE-day week.

The party has condemned the Government’s “hypocrisy” as the statistics have come to light. They’ve said it's “a scandal” that so many serving families had to deal with the fallout of poor accommodation, particularly during a week of celebration for the service of the UK’s Armed Forces personnel and veterans.

The investigation, led by Helen Maguire – the party’s defence spokesperson – also revealed that a massive 64,258 urgent repair requests had been filed by military families since January 2024.

The harsh winter months saw the highest number of callouts by families in military homes, with 5,921 urgent requests submitted in January 2024 and 5,546 in January 2025.

The research comes as the MOD published its annual report on armed forces attitudes, which showed that almost two-thirds of forces personnel in service family accommodation are still dissatisfied with the quality of maintenance to their homes.

Helen Maguire MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Defence, said:

“For so many military families to be struggling over the eightieth anniversary of VE day – a week when they should have been able to celebrate and feel recognised by the nation for their service – is a scandal.

“This Government is more than happy to publicly celebrate our service personnel and veterans with a Downing Street party, but won’t take concrete action to fix their homes. That’s the ultimate hypocrisy.

“It’s shocking that almost two-thirds of service personnel are still dissatisfied with the standard of maintenance for their housing. We desperately need to bring military housing up to the decent homes standard. Labour had the opportunity to support a Lib Dem motion to do just this, but chose to vote against it.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

This story was first reported by PA - see a syndicated version here.

See details of the Lib Dem amendment to the Renters Rights Bill, which would bring military housing under the Decent Homes Standard, here. Labour voted against this measure.

See the UK Regular Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey Results 2025 here.

See PQ on VE day week service callouts here.

See PQ on year-round service callouts here.