The scandalous state of military housing reflects poorly on the Conservatives

SIR – You report (January 15) on the scandal of poor accommodation standards for our Armed Forces personnel.

That they are deteriorating under a Conservative Government no longer surprises me. The Prime Minister and Cabinet members queue up for photo opportunities, but what we get in reality are apathy and broken promises.

The Armed Forces Covenant might as well not exist for all the good that it is doing. Recruitment is falling and retention will follow; veterans continue to be plagued by vexatious prosecutions; our service personnel are used to plug gaps in essential services caused by strikers who earn considerably higher wages, and procurement in all services is shambolic.

Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has the reputation of being an extremely able minister. How, then, is all this happening on his watch?

Alec Richardson

St Martin’s, Shropshire

SIR – My daughter and son-in-law have lived in two Ministry of Defence properties and are about to be moved to a third.

In both houses they have had to endure a plethora of unacceptable problems including rat infestation, broken cookers and showers, boilers that don’t work, ill-fitting windows, leaking pipes, electrical failures, collapsed fencing and failed taps.

Pinnacle and Amey, the two companies contracted by the MoD to look after their properties, appear to be hopeless. Appointments, if they can be made in the first place, are often missed, or engineers leave missed-appointment notes for meetings that were never confirmed. Repairs take weeks, sometimes months.

Is this an appropriate and honourable way to treat our military personnel?

Caroline Plaisted

Appledore, Kent