Armed forces offered homes discount
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Members of the armed forces are to be offered a 50 per cent discount on homes, in a £20 million pilot administered by the Homes and Communities Agency.
Under the scheme, the government will give members of the armed forces up to 50 per cent of the value of a home, to buy properties anywhere in England. Participants will be able to sub let their homes while they are serving abroad.
The Ministry of Defence is funding the pilot, which will run until 2013. The funding will be administered by the Homes and Communities Agency, which has appointed housing association Swaythling Housing Society to manage the scheme.
Junior housing minister Ian Austin said: ‘We want to help our servicemen and women buy a home of their own that meets the needs of their unique situation.’
Defence minister Kevan Jones added: ‘Getting a first foot on the property ladder is an important step in any young person’s life. By providing the flexibility to live anywhere in England and giving applicants the opportunity to sub let when they are working away from home, we have delivered a scheme that is tailor-made to meet the unique needs of the armed forces.’
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Readers' comments (7)
willie19 | 27/01/2010 10:30 am
I believe this is a good scheme, however once again the ex service men from
other conflicts have been forgotten, if this was, to be rolled out to ex-service
personnel as well, it would be a great scheme.
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King55 | 27/01/2010 1:05 pm
I agree with willie19, I am pleased that serving service personnel are getting benefits now, but for those of us who served before it feels like, thanks for your efforts now go away.
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No Shoes | 27/01/2010 2:59 pm
I really am more than supportive of our forces but, taking sentiment out of the equation, I am not sure that I want my tax’s to fund their personal homes or, as the can let the properties, personal enterprises. That is what their wages are for! Also 50% appears to me to be an excessive amount. It basically equates to a bonus of £100,000+ per soldier if they were all to buy a house at the average UK house price. Should they find the pilot scheme successful, and why wouldn’t they, With 197,900 regular forces (that’s excluding reserve/TA/etc which may serve) that could equate to the tax payer paying £20bn for peoples personal investments.
Also, what happens to the short term tenants when the serving soldier returns from duty? It doesn’t make for “sustainable communities” does it.
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RAFStacker | 27/01/2010 7:48 pm
Can I just point out that having just read the full document, it is only being aimed at, serving members at the 4 - 6 year mark, and not the full compliment of the Armed Forces. Also as most long term serving members have already got a private home, your dig is abit way of the mark. Also for what we do in the majority of our wages are not that fantastic, if you work out our hourly rate, we are paid under the min wage.
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ex-raf fairy | 28/01/2010 8:35 am
This is a hugely welcome aid to our forces personnel. Some people like No Shoes will take offence that our defenders should be given a bonus, however, with the size of the service reducing year by year and the commitment to support full combat operations increasing, the services need something to make the forces an attractive career option. If a serviceman completes a full 22 year pensionable engagement then the effective size of this £100k bonus (as calculated by No Shoes) would be less than £5k per year, a drop in the ocean when you look at the bonuses offered to civil servants, bankers and all other areas of the employment market who are rewarded with annual bonuses on top of indecent wages.
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curent civil servant | 28/01/2010 9:25 am
to ex-raf fairy as a civil servant I would love an obscene bonus of 5K it would be lovely each year. Everyday civil servants get nowhere near the bonuses the media keep telling us we get I WISH! I agree also what about ex servicemen/women, what will they get?
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Sancho | 28/01/2010 11:03 am
As with all of these initiatives (like key worker housing for public sector workers), I don't understand why they don't just pay people more. It would be far more efficient as it wouldn't need hundreds of people to administer it and would give the employee the choice of how to spend the money.
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