MILITARY families will enjoy Christmas in homes fit for heroes after 1,000 refurbs finished early.
Urgent work to fix the worst housing across the UK has upgraded almost 700 properties in England, more than 150 in Northern Ireland, over 100 in Wales and 50 in Scotland.
The Ministry of Defence yesterday confirmed it will extend its home improvement programme by 25 per cent, enabling 250 more properties to receive priority upgrades over the coming months.
Dilapidated military homes across the country have had full makeovers, with new flooring, unreliable boilers replaced and hundreds of leaky roofs fixed.
New bathrooms, kitchens, windows and doors have also gone in.
The refurbishments are backed by £9bn of investment allocated for a new generation of defence housing over the next decade.
More than 40,000 decrepit service family homes need fixing or rebuilding.
Defence Secretary John Healey said: “Our Armed Forces and their families sacrifice so much for our country, the least they deserve are safe and decent homes.
“The work we’ve done to upgrade the 1,000 worst homes means that more families can now enjoy Christmas together in homes that are fit for heroes.
“We are ending the decades of neglect and giving our dedicated Armed Forces families the homes they deserve.”
Cpl Jack Crean, who has just moved with his wife and one-year-old son into a newly refurbished home at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire, added: “We are really pleased to be in our new home for Christmas.
“Everyone is a lot happier here, especially Charlie.
“It’s nice to live in an up-to-date house, it works so much better for the whole family and if I was to go away, I know that my family is in a clean, modern house.”
