Outrage at £60k cost of general’s luxury f lat
MILITARY top brass are spending millions on luxury homes and servants while troops live in ratinfested accommodation.
Defence chiefs increased their expenditure on grace-and-favour properties by 16 per cent last year, when soldiers’ housing was described as ‘only fit for animals’.
Providing lavish homes for Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force chiefs has cost £2.5million since 2014. In that time, the Ministry of Defence has also spent £1.8 million on domestic staff for senior officers.
The Mail on Sunday has also learned that last year the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, turned down a £42,000-a-year flat in London’s upmarket Knightsbridge in favour of a £60,000-a-year apartment in neighbouring Chelsea.
Last night, Labour former Defence Minister Kevan Jones said: ‘It is clear from these figures that austerity has ended for senior officers in the Armed Forces; alas, not for the ranks who are forced to live in appalling conditions.’
The spending rise comes as accommodation for unmarried troops lacks basic amenities such as hot water and heating.
The state of properties for military families has led to 36,000 complaints in three years.
Soldiers said mould in bedrooms was making children ill, while ‘poisonous’ water leaked from taps. They said it was ‘worse than on the front line in Afghanistan’. Meanwhile, the highest-ranking Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force officers hand-pick their accommodation from a shortlist of lavish London properties drawn up by MoD officials.
Last year, General Carter turned down the Knightsbridge flat which had been occupied by his predecessor, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach. The property is now used by another Army general, while General Carter and his wife moved into the apartment in Chelsea.
A spokesman for the MoD said: ‘Our accommodation costs are closely monitored to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.’
Deskbound officials at the MoD’s Whitehall headquarters ate £8,000 worth of biscuits last year – the equivalent of six months’ salary for an Army recruit in basic training.
Civil servants munched their way through tens of thousands of Viennese whirls, shortbread and chocolate biscuits, a Freedom of Information request shows.
An MoD spokesman said of the biscuit bill: ‘We offer teams the chance to order refreshments for meetings.’
‘Austerity has ended for senior officers’