UK defence at risk due to poor condition of its military bases
UK military bases are badly out of date, warns the National Audit Office (NAO), with two new aircraft carriers rendered useless as the power cables needed to supply them are 80 years old and need replacing, but there is no money to upgrade them. The Ministry of Defence has a £8.5bn black hole in funding over the next 30 years as it has not invested enough funds in the estate and vast repair works are urgently needed. Some training sites are in such disrepair they may have to be shut down completely. A contract with a private sector consortium led by Capita has failed to manage this, despite the group receiving £90m in funding from the taxpayer. Also, poor family accommodation is having a damaging effect on morale and troop retention.

The operational readiness of the UK’s armed forces is at risk because the country’s military bases and infrastructure have become too dilapidated to use effectively, Whitehall’s independent auditor has found. The National Audit Office has examined properties and land controlled by the Ministry of Defence, which cover nearly 2% of the UK’s landmass, and found that they need £8.5bn of investment so that they can be used efficiently to react to any military threats.

“There is a significant risk that the poor condition of the estate will affect the department’s ability to provide the defence capability needed,” the NAO report, published on Tuesday, said. “As the estate’s condition deteriorates, some parts may wholly or partially close. This will exacerbate other risks and could reduce operational readiness.”

Financial pressures have meant that since 2009, the MoD has been forced to abandon its programme of improvement works, auditors explained. This has reduced service levels to those needed to keep the estate “safe and legal”, resulting in a “general deterioration” in the overall condition. Auditors said the extent of the deterioration could now jeopardise the delivery of new and existing military capabilities.



Problems include a lack of funding at Portsmouth naval base, which could threaten the ability of the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers to operate. Cables that are supposed to provide energy to the Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales – the largest ships to be built for the Royal Navy – have not been replaced, the report disclosed.

“This may jeopardise the carriers’ ability to operate. For example, the cables that supply power to the base and carriers are more than 80 years old. They need replacing, but there is no funding available to do this,” it said.

The report also found that the army’s main vehicle support and storage site at Ashworth in Gloucestershire lacked the capability to keep vehicles at high levels of readiness for deployments.



Fuelling facilities at RAF Brize Norton also had to be shut down for safety reasons and a temporary facility installed because of lack of maintenance, auditors said. Meanwhile, a failure to fix a leaking roof at the medical centre at RAF Valley in Anglesey caused the building to deteriorate so badly that it had to be demolished, they added.

Auditors concluded that the overall model for managing the estate had failed, and indicated that the Capita, the outsourcing firm contracted to manage the estate, was in part to blame for its failures. They criticised Capita for failing to manage the estate after being given a £90m contract by the then defence secretary Philip Hammond.

Hammond signed a 10-year contract with Capita in 2014 to run the defence infrastructure programme (DIO), despite widespread criticism of a contract with thefirm to deliver the IT systems some months earlier. However, auditors said there had been “fundamental weaknesses” in the contracting process and that Capita had not “performed adequately against agreed key performance indicators”.



“Although there have been some improvements, the strategic business partner’s performance has not met all expectations and has not made a notable difference in transforming DIO to better meet the needs of the commands,” the report said.

The government spends £4.8bn on the estate, which – at 424,000 hectares – accounts for 1.8% of the total UK land mass.

Nia Griffith MP, the shadow defence secretary, said the report paints a “shocking picture” of mismanagement and underinvestment. “Amongst the most alarming findings is that a failure to invest in the estate may jeopardise the ability of the UK’s two new aircraft carriers to operate.

“This represents an outrageous failure to plan for the future, and the government must urgently ensure that it makes funds available so that these carriers can enter service without delay,” she said.



Responding to the report, an MoD spokesperson said it was aiming to deliver a better defence estate. “That’s why we’ve outlined a long-term, military-led strategy, to invest £4bn in training facilities fit for our strong and modern armed forces and better accommodation to deliver more stability for military families,” he said.

A Royal Navy spokesman said of fears about the operational capabilities of aircraft carriers: “Portsmouth naval base will be ready for the arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2017. The power delivery infrastructure required to support the arrival of the aircraft carrier has been fully assessed and, where necessary, upgraded.”