Baroness Smith of Newnham (LD)

My Lords, my two amendments, which have been signed by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich, seek to fill a gap that arose in the Renters’ Rights Act in 2025. There was much discussion, and an amendment, to ensure that service family accommodation would be raised to the equivalent of decent homes. The same was not done for single living accommodation, and that may well reflect the fact that there is not exactly an equivalent of single living accommodation in civilian life. Nevertheless, it is vital that individuals living in single living accommodation should have decent homes and decent accommodation. It might be tempting to assume that those living in single living accommodation will be new recruits, young service personnel. But, as my honourable friend Ian Roome, a member of the Defence Select Committee and a member of the Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill in the other place, pointed out, many service personnel spend much of their working life in the forces in single accommodation. It is not simply a question of living there until you get married and have a family; it may be that you live there because your partner and family are living in family accommodation somewhere else. This is something that does not just affect individuals; it may still affect service families.