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Prince William to raise soldiers' housing concerns

PA Media The Prince of Wales looks away from the camera as he talks to a group outside. He has his hands slightly raised as he speaks. He wears a camouflage army uniform and pale blue beret.PA Media
The Prince of Wales served bacon and sausage baps during a visit to Wattisham airfield

The Prince of Wales has pledged to raise the concerns of soldiers about their accommodation.

Prince William visited Wattisham flying station near Needham Market, Suffolk, to meet with men and women from the Army Air Corps (AAC) in his role as their Colonel-in-Chief.

He discussed concerns about the quality of accommodation while serving bacon and sausage baps to the families of the military personnel .

"I'm going to have a chat about accommodation, make sure they look at that," he told them.

PA Media Prince William, stood outside, smiles and squints slightly. He wears his army uniform with a pale blue beret. PA Media
The Army Air Corps is the combat aviation arm of the British Army

The prince is a former RAF helicopter search and rescue pilot who later spent two years flying air ambulances.

Wearing camouflage military uniform and the AAC's blue beret, he flew into Wattisham on a Wildcat Helicopter, a reconnaissance aircraft in the AAC's fleet.

When he first arrived he entered a camouflaged covered tent, a mock-up of a mobile planning headquarters used when AAC regiments are on deployment, and got to grips with a laptop used to plan missions under the watchful eye of L/Cpl Sulabh Ale.

'Smiles'

When talking about the accommodation, he added: "If they listen to me, that's another matter", and said the issue would be landing on a desk.

When he asked another group about the issue and only received smiles in response, the prince said: "I'll take that away, a lot of smiles going on, that's all you need to say."

He ended his visit by presenting a King's Commendation for Valuable Service and awarded a group of soldiers their promotion from corporal to sergeant.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said: "For too long, many military families have lived in sub-standard homes, but we are taking decisive action to fix the dire state of military accommodation and ensure that our heroes and their loved ones live in the homes they deserve.

"Through the Strategic Defence Review we are investing more than £1.5bn of new funding to tackle the poor state of forces housing, helping to support recruitment, retention and morale."

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