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Military Housing and Veterans’ Welfare: Insights from an Ex-Captain Turned Daily Express Journalist

In an exclusive interview for Politics UK, Conor Wilson talks about his difficult transition away from military service, and what the government can do to attract more young people to the Army

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In this exclusive interview for Politics UK, Conor Wilson, who served in the Army for eight years, shares insights on his career transition, veteran mental health, social housing, and the Army’s ongoing retention issues.

“You’ve got to start at the bottom, earn your stripes, prove yourself a little bit,” says Conor Wilson, a former Army captain now turned journalist. He reflects on the challenges of transitioning from military life to the civilian workforce, a process that, for him, was anything but smooth. After leaving the Army, Conor spent nearly a year searching for a job until he found his current job at The Daily Express —an experience that, despite his military background, proved to be just as difficult as his initial adjustment to army life.

From Soldier to Civilian: A Difficult Transition

After completing university, Conor decided to enlist, viewing it as an opportunity to serve while still young, before reaching his mid-40s. But, as he quickly discovered, the reality of military service was different than what he imagined. After eight years of service and achieving the rank of captain, he found himself at a crossroads. The sense of purpose that had initially driven him began to fade. “The change from soldier to sitting behind a desk just didn’t excite me anymore,” he admits. “You get to a point where you stop soldiering and start sitting behind a desk more often. I didn’t want to be a soldier behind a desk, so I decided to find a different desk.”

However, this desk transition wasn’t as smooth as he had hoped. Despite his military leadership experience, he found the job market tough. “It took me about nine months to land a position,” he says. The breakthrough came when he turned to TikTok “out of anger”, sharing his frustrations about the lack of feedback from potential employers. “It was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. I had to do something different, because what I was doing wasn’t working. It snowballed from there.”

Career Transition Support: A Mixed Picture for Veterans

While Conor’s job search was tough, he acknowledges that there are significant resources to assist veterans during their transition. “When you leave the Army, you have a full year to figure out what’s next. You get thousands of pounds for career courses, and there’s a dedicated career organization that helps you every step of the way,” he explains. “They meet with you regularly, monitor your progress, and ensure you’re on track.”

Many veterans have found success in fields like banking, with organizations like Barclays offering specialized military career transition programs. “If I walk around Canary Wharf, I’m always bumping into someone I served with,” Conor says. He also emphasises the availability of mental health support for veterans at risk of homelessness, a helpline is available, and programs like TRiM (Trauma Risk Management) offer additional support.

However, Conor argues that similar levels of support should be available to other public service workers, such as police officers, paramedics, and doctors, who face similar stresses in their roles but often lack the same level of structured support when transitioning out of service.

Military Housing: An Ongoing Crisis

Despite the available support, one issue remains: the condition of military housing. During the first Prime Minister’s Questions of 2025, Alex Baker, Labour MP for Aldershot, raised concerns over the condition of military accommodation in his constituency. Describing housing as “shabby” and “not good enough,” Baker urged the government to take action.

Labour Leader Keir Starmer responded by outlining Labour’s new military housing agreement, reacquiring over 36,000 service family homes, including 1,700 in Aldershot and Farnborough. “This initiative is part of our effort to improve living standards for military families, and it will save taxpayers £230 million annually,” Starmer said. The commitment is part of a broader plan to modernize military welfare, which also includes increased funding for the armed forces and more support for military families. As Labour prepares for the upcoming Strategic Defence Review (SDR) in the spring of 2025, the future of military welfare remains a key concern.

Conor argues that the Labour plan may not be enough. “We’ve got to give soldiers a good quality of life. Housing needs to be better,” he says. He thinks Labour plans to support veterans and the Army are good, but also agrees with the criticisms of “shabby” military housing, noting that some accommodations are in such poor condition that it can take months for repairs to be completed. 

The Decline of Army Tradition: A Loss of Identity?

Conor reflects on how the Army has evolved over the years, noticing a loss of camaraderie and identity within the service. “When I first joined, regiments were much more different—like the Yorkshire Regiment, the Lancashire Regiment. You’d work, eat, and socialize together. It was a very close-knit community,” he recalls. Over the years, many regiments have been merged, this is leading to a dilution of that close-knit culture. “Now, a lot of people live outside of the base, so they turn up for work and then go home. The sense of community and ethos is lost,” he says. This shift, he believes, is a significant factor in the Army’s difficulty in retaining personnel.

Another challenge facing the Army is the impact of VAT on private school fees. Military families often rely on boarding schooling for their children, to avoid the disruptions caused by frequent relocations. “Military people will tolerate a lot—bad housing, short-notice deployments, stress—but they won’t tolerate their children’s education being disrupted. That’s what makes a lot of people leave,” he points out.

Conor believes these are among the issues contributing to a broader retention crisis within the military. “They’re not recruiting enough, and they’re not retaining the people they have”.

Retention Crisis: Is the Army Losing Its Purpose?

Soldiers and military people from different ranks used to be proud of wearing their medals in their uniforms, a reward for serving their country abroad. According to Conor, this is not the case anymore. There are fewer medal-earning operations to deploy, leading to a lack of purpose or motivation to stay in the army. “The operations that they do deploy are not medal-earning for a variety of incidents which means that there are fewer opportunities for junior soldiers to earn medals, other than for events with the monarchy such as jubilees and coronations.”

This lack of motivation due to declining deployments might increase as they progress onto a higher rank. He thinks that while being a captain is an essential role, “you essentially end up doing a corporate job in an army uniform”, but some love these kinds of roles because they can make “real, long-lasting change”. For him, it just wasn’t as exciting as when he was a young soldier on deployment.

Despite the different challenges he mentioned, Conor says that military service does offer several benefits, including free gym memberships and dental care, which are very beneficial and can be attractive to many recruits. But, for Conor and many of his peers, the drawbacks have become too great to overlook, and the Army needs to modernise to attract young people.

Looking Ahead: A Long Road for Veterans

His journey from Army captain to journalist is just an example of the ongoing struggles that many veterans face as they transition into civilian life. While resources and support are available, the journey remains difficult, particularly when it comes to housing and military recruiting and retention. As the government and opposition alike continue to grapple with these issues, the future of military welfare is still uncertain. It remains to be seen whether the government’s current plans are enough to address the challenges facing veterans and military families this year.

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