British troops are living in “appalling” conditions in sub-standard accommodation which is contributing to a manpower crisis, said a report from MPs yesterday.

The Commons Defence Select Committee has attacked the Ministry of Defence for presiding over a system where repairs take years to carry out and problems are ignored. In a highly critical report it suggests that the MoD has taken money from the estates budget to meet shortfalls elsewhere.

The stark assessment follows growing discontent among Forces personnel over their treatment, with claims that the military covenant is being undermined. Record numbers in the Army and RAF are choosing to leave early and the military is nearly 6,000 below strength, with forces overstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The MPs said it was unacceptable that the MoD had not put a clear strategy in place for tackling the issues, despite significant investment in recent years. “Quite apart from this being poor management of property, accommodation is an important factor in retention and the MoD must do more to address the condition of accommodation if it is not to lose experienced personnel who are very difficult to replace,” the committee says.

It admits that several programmes are in place to upgrade and modernise the Armed Forces’ single living accommodation, and there had been considerable progress “but the scale of the challenge remains enormous”.

In 1996 the department sold the majority of its accommodation for service personnel to a private company on a lease-back deal. But the MPs claim that the incentives offered within the deal had failed to ensure acceptable standards of repair. It argued that the MoD should consider increasing the amount of loans offered to service personnel to buy their own homes.

It condemned as “disgraceful” the facilities at Cavalry Barracks, in Hounslow, West London – housing the 1st Battalion, Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment – and Elizabeth Barracks in Pirbright, Surrey – housing the 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment.

At Hounslow some blocks had overflowing drains and repairs that had been left unattended while noncommissioned officers at Pirbright slept eight to a room, with minimum privacy and negligible storage.

“We were told that soldiers from the Royal Anglians on deployment in Afghanistan had more comfortable accommodation than their comrades left behind in Pirbright,” the committee said in its report.

James Arbuthnot, the committee chairman, said that the MoD had to give higher priority to improving housing. “Service personnel and their families should not have to put up with run-down buildings and a poor service for repairs,” Mr Arbuthnot said. “Especially at a time when we are asking the Armed Forces to put their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan, they deserve to be decently housed at home.”

Bob Ainsworth, the Armed Forces Minister, acknowledged that there were problem areas which needed significant work but said that the Government planned to invest “a huge amount” to turn things around. “Over the next ten years we will spend £5 billion on housing and other living accommodation,” Mr Ainsworth said.

Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said: “It’s a national scandal. The fact that troops in the Afghan desert are in better accommodation than soldiers in the UK should bring home how low a priority the Armed Forces are for Labour. Ministers need to realise the effect this is having on retention rates as the military covenant continues to be broken.”

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