Army housing gets £80m boost

DEFENCE Secretary Des Browne today announced an extra £80million funding to improve Army housing.

The money will pay for a further 1,350 new en-suite bed spaces to be built under phase two of a project to improve Armed Forces housing across the country.

The Ministry of Defence is investing £1.4billion in total in the housing project, known as Slam (Single Living Accommodation Modernisation).

By 2013, around 50,000 single living bed places will be built or improved. The scheme has already delivered more than 9,000 new bed spaces.

Mr Browne took time out from the Labour Conference in Bournemouth to visit the Bovington Armour Centre in Dorset and look at 300 bed spaces created since 2005 under the scheme.

A further 300 bed spaces are expected to be built at the camp by 2009.

Mr Browne said: “The nation owes our servicemen and women a huge debt of gratitude for the hard work they do on our behalf.