Worker's military housing plea

A civilian worker at a Cornish airbase has said he should be allowed to move into Ministry of Defence (MoD) housing with his wife and two children.

Steve Stround, from Newquay, works at nearby RAF St Mawgan, where there are 80 empty properties.

For the past three years he, his wife Emma and their children have shared a small bedroom at her parents' house.

But the MoD said the family cannot have an empty home as it needs to keep properties free for unexpected demands.

Emma Stroud said: "My husband and I are sharing the same room as our two young daughters, and my mum is disabled. It's all a bit too close for comfort.

It's very sad that a country like ours allows these people to live like that Willie Rennie MP, Lib Dem defence spokesman

"It seems silly that there are empty homes just five minutes around the corner."

Willie Rennie MP, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, visited the Stroud family in September.

He said: "I feel that I wouldn't like to live like the Strouds do.

"It's very sad that a country like ours allows these people to live like that and I feel very angry about it.

"I'm determined to try and get it sorted."

Base closure

The MoD told the BBC that in Cornwall there were 571 family quarters split between RNAS Culdrose and RAF St Mawgan.

One hundred and thirteen of them are empty, of which 80 are at RAF St Mawgan and have not been released for use because of uncertainty over the base's future.

It is due to close as a military base at the end of this year.

An MoD spokesman said: "We work actively and closely with the services to identify housing that is genuinely surplus to requirement.

"In order to cope with the 15,000 'move-in, move-outs' each year, there will always be a need to hold a 'management margin' of properties vacant in order to meet demand with properties in the right condition.

"We also hold homes empty to await forthcoming unit relocations and major basing decisions."