Call for review of defence funding

Defence spending should be put at the top of the political agenda to ensure that the UK's Armed Forces are "where they need to be", a former head of the Army has said.

General Sir Mike Jackson called for a "real public debate" on the amount of money that should be spent on defence, based on long-term thinking.

Criticising some soldiers' accommodation as "outrageous", the former Chief of the General Staff said tough decisions would have to made on how the armed forces should be funded.

In an interview with The Monitor magazine, Sir Mike said: "What needs to happen is a real debate on what proportion of the national wealth we should be spending on defence. We should urgently be asking - what capabilities do we really need to be sure that we're well insured in to the future?

"Defence wasn't on the radar screen at the last election, nor the one before that. It seems to me that it would be very healthy to have a proper public debate, not couched on yesterday's improvised explosive device attack in Afghanistan or whatever, but couched in proper, long-term views."

He added: "It is 10 years since the last defence review and we need a new, hard look at our arrangements for the future. We won't get a review between now and the next election, so whoever forms the next government should make a study of where Britain's defences are and where they need to be."

And Sir Mike said improving soldiers' housing could be done without much difficulty providing there was strong leadership. "It is outrageous that some soldiers are living in grotty accommodation and that could be solved quite easily," he said.

"That money can either come from raised taxes, which creates shock and horror; it could come off another government spending department like health or education, causing equal shock and horror; or it must come from elsewhere in the existing defence budget. Those are the three stark choices - that nettle has never really been properly grasped and I would like to see it grasped."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are in the longest period of sustained real growth in the defence budget for over 20 years. However, it should be remembered that the Treasury provides significant amounts of new money, over and above the core defence budget, to pay for current operations - around £9.5 billion since 2001 for Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We acknowledge that there are serious problems with some of our accommodation, because of decades of under-funding and the scale of the estate. We are making real progress to put this right and we are investing more than £8 billion in military accommodation over the next 10 years."