There are early signs that the new Consumer Standard for families living in Service Families Accommodation (SFA) is helping to improve lives.
When launched, it included a series of commitments and set a deadline for them to be met by the first anniversary of the date in January when the Ministry of Defence bought back 36,347 military homes from Annington.
Since then the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), Pinnacle, VIVO and Amey have been working to ensure they become a reality.
AFF is very hopeful that this is the starting point for a big change in the way SFA is managed and that you will see improvements in your standard of living. Here’s a quick look at what has changed since the buy back and what it means for you…
Move-in standards
A more robust standard was brought in to give families confidence the home they are moving into will be ready on time and will be clean and functional.
Hard flooring is being installed in downstairs areas instead of carpet when replacement is required, while vinyl flooring will be used in all bathrooms, toilets, kitchens and utility rooms if floor tiles or hard flooring are not already installed.
Internal walls are being painted white and families can leave up to four picture hooks per room without incurring charges.
Work continues to get up-to-date photos and floorplans in place for all SFA. This has started to filter through, but not everyone will see the benefit when they make their applications this summer. By next year’s churn, however, all properties should at least have floor plans which will enable you to plot where your furniture will go.
All families now have a named housing officer to help them during the move-in move-out process.
Repairs and refurbishment
When it comes to repairs, DIO has committed to following the regulations set out in Awaab’s Law, which came into force in October. It requires social landlords to fix emergency repairs, damp and mould inside strict timeframes. To meet the requirements changes have been made to recategorise which repairs class as emergency, urgent and routine, and to the repair timelines so they mirror those set out in the new regulations. Families can also sign up to the new Home Hub online portal, which allows them to log repairs.
A rapid upgrade of the 1,000 homes in the SFA estate most in need of refurbishment was undertaken in 2025, raising the minimum standard of forces family housing and the complaints process was shortened to two stages, in line with industry best practice, to ensure a quicker resolution.
Policies have been modernised to give families more freedom to make improvements, run businesses from home and have pets. A paint colour palette has been introduced that doesn’t require walls to be repainted white or magnolia at move-out. And there is a new ‘traffic light’ policy on what enhancements can be made to personalise homes. The latest move-in/move-out standards are available at pinnacleservicefamilies.co.uk