[SAC0011]
Anonymous Written Evidence Submission
My name is […] and I have lived in Service Family Accommodation (SFA) for […] years as a ‘wife of’, and for […] years as a child of a serving officer; I can say without doubt that the standard of SFA provision is the worst it has been in 30 years. […]
All four SFA’s I have lived in since […] were substandard. I will briefly outline some of the bigger issues I have faced in previous SFA’s and then I will focus on the issues we have faced since Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) came into place.
[…]
We arrived to find the upstairs toilet blocked with bathroom cement. The newly fitted bathroom and kitchen had been so badly wired, that none of the switches in the whole house worked properly and the whole circuit would frequently blow. It took 2 electricians over 12 hours to re-wire everything over the period of a few weeks. This severely impacted my mental and physical wellbeing having just moved with a 12-week-old baby and my husband away for weeks. This house also had black mould, compounded by an inadequate heating system. Radiators would frequently not work and in February […], the heating failed completely. At that point, there were freezing temperatures, I had a one-year-old baby and I was on my own again as my husband was away on exercise for […] weeks; my closest family lived 4 hours away. Despite this, I was told it was not urgent and I would have to wait 10 days. I had happened to see a plumber was on camp that day and through tears I pleaded with the helpline to ask him to attend, but they declined. We took shelter in a neighbour's house. I was only able to resolve the issue by contacting the company subcontracted to carry out the work directly myself. They were very understanding and asked their plumber to attend and he resolved the issue in 10 minutes.
[…]
In December 2[…], a leak developed in our kitchen ceiling from the bathroom above. It took several weeks for an engineer to attend and fix what was a very simple problem. In the meantime, we had to go without using the bath/shower (we did have another so this wasn't a significant issue) however, we also couldn't use the lights in the kitchen. At the time we had a newborn baby and a 2-year-old which made it incredibly stressful to look after them with no lights in the kitchen in the middle of winter. It then took several further weeks for the huge hole in the ceiling to be repaired. Neighbours reported our house wasn’t the first on our close to experience this issue.
[…]
We had a garage that leaked horrendously, ruining everything we had stored. It took over a year for a proper repair to take place. It was only actioned at the request of the Families Federation (FF), and we eventually had our rent reduced during the period it was broken, but only after we requested this. This house had upgrades on the shower whilst we lived there however, we had no warning; the tradespeople just turned up one morning. We only agreed to the work being carried out as my husband happened to be on leave that day. The work carried out was substandard and left a hole in the tile/brickwork that went straight through to the adjoining room. The tradespeople were also totally disrespectful towards our home and our belongings. My husband's mess kit was thrown into a pile with rubble all over it, the airing cupboard was ripped to pieces and not put back and none of the mess was cleaned up. We also had multiple failures of the oven in this house, black mould in nearly every room, blocked drains, no radiator TRV’s and broken windows.
[…]
1. On moving to our […] address in […] (FDIS was implemented) the garden had rubbish left in it (including chemicals hazardous to our children/wildlife) and grass that was a foot tall. Our shower only ran scalding hot, the carpet on the stairs was coming loose and our kitchen floor was so badly laid, even my 5-year-old commented on it. The shed door was rotted, allowing water to ingress. There was loose brickwork at height in the garage, no filter paper in the extractor fan, external lights were faulty and there was an iron burn on the carpet from the previous occupants (who we know were billed to rectify this). There were 4 radiators without thermostatic valves, no lock on one of our toilet doors (we were subsequently told by the help desk we were ‘not entitled to one’), a broken electrical socket, black mould in one of the bedroom cupboards and curtains literally falling off the rails. We were told it was the only house available to us, so we had no choice but to accept it and try to resolve the issues. I would like to point out that this house had been upgraded in the last 2 or 3 years.
2. Our 14 day visit with a housing officer was 2 hours late, with no communication about the delay or an apology. We highlighted our concerns and she promised to resolve them; we have not heard from her since. We have had numerous face-to-face or email contacts with various managers, all of whom have failed to resolve issues.
3. In […] I was told by a call handler at the helpdesk that our scalding hot shower was no more of a risk to my children than them putting their fingers in an electrical plug socket. As a former […], it infuriated and alarmed me that the people who are meant to keep our homes safe would be quite happy letting a child electrocute or scald themselves. Pinnacle would only respond within 10 working days, despite highlighting the serious safety risk, and simply told me that if my children sustained a burn to log it as an ‘incident’. The appointment to resolve this was missed, as were several others. It was only resolved though FF being involved and even then took a month to fix.
4. In […] my husband was wrongly enrolled by Pinnacle on the Heating and Lighting scheme which resulted in over £700 being taken from his pay without warning. We have received no apology from Pinnacle, and we have paper trails evidencing that they were instructed not to enrol us. It was only returned due to the diligence of staff at my husband's workplace. It resulted in us needing to request an advance of his next month's pay.
5. In […], given the soaring cost of living, I wanted to set up a […] business at home. It took Pinnacle 6 months to issue a letter with permission for me to run a business from home. They only produced one with hours to spare because FF and Welfare teams were involved. This is not acceptable in a climate where many military spouses are choosing/need to work from home, to provide a second income with flexibility around caring/service needs.
6. In […] we had a missed appointment for a gas safety inspection. The appointment was arranged by letter, stating it was overdue. It took Welfare and FF to clarify that in fact, the inspection had taken place prior to our move in […]. However, I remain very concerned that Pinnacle cannot administrate basic safety checks in a timely manner.
7. We have had 9 missed appointments/wrong tradespeople sent to the house since […], resulting in 30+ hours waiting for no one to show or not having the works completed. We have submitted compensation claims multiple times and have only just this month received the last of the compensation owed to us, over £[…] in total.
8. We had a window that developed a large crack and damp/black mould in the bathroom and bedrooms. It took over 6 months for the window to be fixed despite numerous contacts with Pinnacle chasing them up. It has now been 15 months since we moved in and we are still living with a badly laid kitchen floor, no TRV’s on radiators (essential in a cost-of-living crisis), a rotting shed door, mould in the bedrooms and bathroom and a burn-marked carpet. We have raised all of these issues multiple times to no avail. I feel increasingly distressed about the lack of response regarding mould and the impact this could have on the health of my two children, particularly following the tragic and preventable death of Awaab Ishak.
9. Pinnacle promised a Home Hub app for easier communication/booking for repairs; this has failed to materialise. When contacting Pinnacle via phone you can be left on hold for hours; this is not only unacceptable in urgent situations but can also cause severe stress for the families. Emails are rarely answered, and Facebook/Twitter interactions are fruitless. When speaking to advisors they are often rude/uncaring. It has taken hundreds of contacts via email, phone, and face-to-face welfare meetings to get repairs booked or compensation processed.
Conclusion
FDIS and in particular Pinnacle are not fit for purpose and I believe pose a threat to the safety, emotional and physical wellbeing of military families. This has a hugely negative impact on the morale of serving personnel and will cause people to leave the Armed Forces. The 2020 report ‘Living in our Shoes’ highlighted the 3 main concerns for military families; accommodation, accommodation, accommodation.
I hope this gives a flavour of the things we have had to contend with, the overarching issue being one of safety. Throughout there are consistent themes of poor customer service (from call centre staff and sometimes tradespeople), missed appointments, poor standard of repairs/maintenance, lack of timely compensation and tradespeople turning up unannounced. This latter issue is one of particular concern to me. Military families are often alone for long periods of time, sometimes with young children. They should not be subjected to tradespeople expecting them to let them into their home unannounced. The horrifying crimes of Wayne Cousins, Lucy Letby and David Fuller in the last few years demonstrate that even those in a position of responsibility can cause harm. Most tradespeople have been very understanding when I have denied them access when the visit was not pre-arranged however, I have also had some extremely rude responses. We should not be subjected to this. If Pinnacle cannot administrate simple appointments, I remain extremely concerned by their ability to manage the Defence Accommodation Strategy.
Military families across the UK deserve better. We are dislocated, often isolated from family and friends, and often running a household/parenting alone, with the added stress of a loved one often in dangerous situations with little contact. It is truly a family call to serve, and families face the challenges that service life brings with incredible adaptability, strength and commitment. But when issues arise, and you receive an uncaring response, poor repairs, no communication, unannounced visits or poor compensation, it is the straw that is breaking the camel's back. There are enough stressors on military families, housing should be a benefit of service, not the burden it currently is.
31 August 2023
3