Essex soldiers and their families get new homes
Soldiers and their families in Colchester are enjoying an improved lifestyle thanks to new military housing delivered by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).
Working with its industry partner Modern Housing Solutions (MHS), DIO recently completed 18 new Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties in the town.
The six three-bedroom and 12 four-bedroom properties are built to a high standard with en-suite facilities to the master bedrooms and a handy utility room.
DIO has now taken possession of the properties with nine already occupied by Service families and five allocated. The rest are available for DIO to allocate to entitled personnel.
Sergeant James Radcliffe from 156 Pro Coy RMP and his family are benefiting from the new accommodation. He said:
“We moved in to our newly-built SFA in Colchester in December. The house is of an exceptionally high standard and finish throughout – and extremely large. Having the opportunity to occupy a new house has seen an improvement in our family life.”
All of the properties have modern features and meet the requirements of Standard 1 For Condition (S1FC). They benefit from under-floor heating on the ground floor, solar panels and air source heating systems.
Construction work started January 2013 and the £2.8 million project was completed this month. This latest investment means that 99% of the 962 Service homes in the Garrison area now meet the MOD’s top two standards for condition.
Brigadier Martin Boswell, Head of DIO SD Accn, said:
"The provision of good quality living accommodation for service personnel and their families remains a top priority for the MOD. These modern, sustainable new houses further demonstrate DIO’s investment in the Colchester estate over recent years – providing good quality homes for Service families.
“We continue to invest in houses for Service families to meet the needs of Defence through our improvement programme, planning the building of new properties and buying new properties directly from developers in areas of high demand."
Ends
Further information:
Press enquiries to Tony Moran, Senior Communications Officer 0121 311 3879 or email tony.moran572@mod.uk
DIO website: www.gov.uk/dio
Twitter: @mod_dio
Read DIO’s blog: https://insidedio.blog.gov.uk/
Notes to Editors
1) The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) plays a vital role in supporting our Armed Forces by building, maintaining and servicing what the men and women who serve our country need to live, work, train and deploy on operations.
2) DIO is part of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). It is responsible for managing and maintaining land and properties, as well as providing related support services, to meet the current and future needs of the MOD and personnel at home and abroad, and to support current operations.
3) Our work includes supporting operational units by providing and improving single living and service family accommodation; training areas and historic military sites. DIO actively manages these to ensure the needs of Defence are met, value for money is achieved, and its heritage is protected, and to achieve its environmental goals.
4) Picture caption – please credit ‘Crown copyright/MOD 2014’: New Service Families Accommodation at Colchester Garrison.
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