UK Army faces shortfall of 4,000 troops due to poor living conditions, low wages

British armed forces are witnessing a shortfall of 4,000 troops due to mass layoffs in the year 2022 with the smallest army since the Napoleonic era, according to the British newspaper The Mirror. As many as 2,000 were recruited in 2022, 5,000 fewer than in 2021 amid the highest troop decrease in six years.

Spending cuts, poor conditions and low salary

The British army faced devastating government spending cuts and low salary payments. The military complained about the poor living conditions that include ceiling leaks, dampness, and mould at the accommodation facilities which led to mass resignations last year, according to the paper.

British MPs have been slammed as ‘arrogant and unwilling to learn lessons’ as they introduced more defense cuts rolled out by the Treasury. The number of troops in the British Army has been in freefall since 2010 when the strength of the UK forces was 100,000, with South West and the East of England witnessing the worst attrition rate. 

"The [UK] military is wasting millions recruiting while failing to fix the basic things putting potential recruits off," Colonel Philip Ingram, a former UK intelligence officer, reportedly said. 

Amid the heightened threat due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, British Defence Secretary also unveiled the plan to shrink the army to 73,000 troops from 77,000 by 2025. During his speech at the International Relations and Defence Committee, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced that the UK will downsize the Army. 

"We’ve pushed it back up to 73,000, to up an extra 500, which is approximately the size as an infantry battalion or a light role infantry battalion," he said at the forum. "I think I’d use the phrase, at about 76-77,000 in strength, it was 79,000, about two months ago. So we haven’t got down there. I’ve always said as the threat changes, so must the size of everything, and I still stick to that," he furthermore stressed.

While an estimated 3,720 Brits joined the British armed forces in 2022, nearly 6,000 resigned from the service, exposing the stark reality that the conditions in the UK Army have been substandard. The reserves also face depleting figures with just 25,000 troops currently in deployment, short of an estimated 5000. The new recruitment has also slumped by more than a fifth over the last year.