CATTERICK Garrison is set to see a huge boost in funding as part of a Government programme to modernise service family accommodation over the next two years.

The garrison has so far received £3.5m in a programme being led by the Ministry of Defence which will see £1.5bn spent on improving accommodation for service families over the next ten years, to encourage people stay in the armed forces.

On a visit to Catterick on Wednesday, Minister of Defence for People and Veterans, Leo Docherty said: “I think it’s really awesome, having looked around a newly refurbished service family quarter, and coming from a service family background myself. I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the upgrade.

“For too many years, defence accommodation was underfunded, that’s why we are ramping up that funding, and we have a huge amount of money coming to service family accommodation over the next ten years.

“That’s a recognition that if we want a thriving armed forces, we’ve got to have deep and significant defence structure in service families.

“It’s about the whole offer and historically poor accommodation has meant that too many people leave the armed forces too soon.”

Peter Bush, defence infrastructure organisation accommodation north lead, added: “It’s been an essential boost to the local economy after such a difficult time that many of these contractors have found themselves in, so they have been very grateful that the Chancellor gave this additional boost to funding and into these projects.

“We do continuously make improvements where required, this has just given us the ability to do a much bigger upgrade of properties, so we are continuously investing in the estate, within the limits of our budget.”

The programme will be in place for two years and is currently halfway through its completion.

As well as the improvements to properties, there is also a new play park.

Captain John Craib, who moved into Catterick Garrison about a year ago from Edinburgh, is living in one of the refurbished homes. “Coming from one that is due to be refurbished and one that has already been refurbished is a massive difference, the workmanship is better and it’s just a nicer place to live really,” he said.