Soldiers braced to save Christmas from strikes living in freezing homes due to ‘failures’ by contractors
SOLDIERS braced to save Christmas from a barrage of winter strikes are living in freezing and leaking homes due to a string of “failures” by Fat Cat contractors.
Troops who earn less than nurses – and are legally banned from going on strike – are stranded in squalid Ministry of Defence housing, furious Top Brass confirmed.
The commander of Britain’s biggest garrison blasted maintenance firms pocketing hundreds of millions of pounds while failing to fix soldiers' broken homes.
Lt Col Nick Burley, who oversees Aldershot’s barracks, said: “Our people deserve better than this.”
It comes as some 1,350 troops are set to drive ambulances and staff border posts if workers follow through on planned strikes.
Lt Col Burley summoned staff from Vivo Defence and Pinnacle SF – with combined MoD deals worth £450 million – after a slew of complaints from troops and their families.
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One mum fumed: “Army accommodation is a joke.
“It’s -5°C, there’s snow, you have a 1 month old baby and a 3-year-old and when your heating breaks Pinnacle SF don’t consider it an emergency.”
Lt Col Burley, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, accused the two firms of a “litany of failures” and said staff who attended the meeting were unable to make improvements.
In a now-deleted post on Twitter, he wrote: “Sat in a garrison housing meeting with representatives from Vivo Defence and Pinnacle SF and it’s a litany of failure.
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“Lots of good people in the room but none if us have access to the levers of improvements.”
He also lashed out at the MoD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation which signed five contracts worth £650 million last year to improve family quarters.
He said their work was "disappointing".
He is the latest officer to speak out after furious Major John Buckley said the Army was "failing our people".
The long-serving Royal Engineer lashed out on social media after a comrade posted a video showing water pouring through his ceiling.
Major Buckley fumed: “Yet again, another example that we are failing our people.”
A soldier said he had been waiting four weeks for housing contractors Pinnacle SF to repair his family quarters.
Major Buckley added: “Why do we let substandard companies get away with this?"
Figures showed more than a quarter of all Armed Forces live in substandard MoD homes.
The MoD said the contractors’ service was “unacceptable”.
An MoD spokesperson said: “It is unacceptable that some of our personnel and their families are not receiving the level of accommodation services that they deserve.
“Issues with loss of heating and hot water should be responded to as soon as possible.
The MoD said it had invested £170 million and upgraded 14,000 homes in the last financial year.
Jerry Moloney, VIVO boss, said: “We are working hard to improve.
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“The extremely cold weather we're currently experiencing has caused a very high number of issues with heating and hot water systems, but we're deploying additional resources to tackle this, working closely with the Ministry of Defence."
A company source said Pinnacle SF ran a call centre to connect service families with repair teams.