Defence written question – answered at on 25 March 2009.
Robert Walter
Conservative, North Dorset
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many properties at Blandford Camp were surveyed as part of the Service Family Accommodation Review commissioned by his Department; and into which housing category such properties fall.
Kevan Jones
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Veterans)
The Service Family Accommodation (SFA) at Blandford was not included in the condition survey at this stage because there is a continuing project to upgrade all SFA at Blandford Garrison to Standard 1 for Condition. In 2007 the site was confirmed as a future tri-service base and work began to upgrade 138 family homes; the programme also includes the demolition and rebuilding of some 247 homes. The project will cost around £8.5 million. The aspiration is for all properties at Blandford to be at Standard 1 for Condition by 2015.
In addition to this 120 new en-suite single living accommodation bed spaces were finished in 2005.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
