MoD called on to speed up troops' exit from Germany

UK Political Correspondent

Tuesday 26 June 2012

AN influential group of MPs today urges faster progress on plans to bring thousands of troops back from Germany to Scotland.

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Kate Devlin UK Political Correspondent

Members of the Commons Defence Committee made the call in a report criticising standards of accommodation in the armed forces.

They said they were concerned about the amount of "substitute accommodation" used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), much of it costly to the taxpayer.

The MoD should make decisions about troops returning from Germany "as speedily as possible" to give personnel certainty about where they will be housed, they added.The report also said it was "unacceptable" that more than 60% of the forces' single living accommodation was rated as not satisfactory. It said service personnel regarded decent housing as "fundamental" to the armed forces covenant – setting out the nation's obligations to its fighting men and women – and that delaying upgrade work was a "false economy".Committee chairman James Arbuthnot called for better communication to keep service families in the picture "given the fragility of morale".Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader and defence spokesman, said that the Ministry of Defence "must end the uncertainty" for the UK's defence communities. "This time last year the MoD said that up to 7000 personnel currently based in Germany would return to Scotland," he said. "We were also promised investment in new purpose-built barracks at Kirknewton. We now know defence jobs have been cut by almost 700, and construction of the Kirknewton facility has apparently been abandoned. "Personnel and their families deserve answers."Under last year's defence review the Coalition said the 20,000 UK forces currently in Germany would return to Britain by 2020.

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MoD called on to speed up troops' exit from Germany

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