Social Housing To Be Prioritised For Veterans

New measures to ensure access to social housing is improved for members of the Armed Forces, veterans and their families have been announced by Housing Minister Christopher Pincher. The government has set out how councils should ensure members of the Armed Forces and veterans who need support with their mental health are given priority for social housing. New measures also mean former spouses or civil partners of serving personnel will be given extra support when applying for social housing. They will be exempted from rules requiring them to be a local resident before being given social housing in the area to ensure they are not disadvantaged when applying. Read more on the Gov UK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-housing-to-be-prioritised-for-veterans

Hundreds Of New Homes For Armed Forces

Step Forward has stepped up to bring the housing plight of ex-services personnel to attention. Working alongside First Ark, a social enterprise and social investment company based in the North West, Step Forward Housing have agreed to purchase homes in Tytherington, Cheshire. The organisation will then make them available to armed forces/ ex-armed forces personnel, as well as emergency workers such as the fire and ambulance services, members of the police and NHS staff. By working alongside First Ark and drawing on their expertise, Step Forward Housing plan on making 200 homes available for shared ownership and rental this year, a figure set to increase year upon year. Read more on 24housing.

MoD Accused Of Deliberately Providing Soldiers With Shabby Housing

The Ministry of Defence has been accused of deliberately providing poor quality housing for soldiers and their families - so it can save money by moving them out. MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the MoD was letting family accommodation “degrade”, so that a planned new system of housing looks more attractive. She criticised plans to move armed forces personnel and their families into privately-rented homes, or to help them buy their own home. It would mean that the MoD provided funding to pay their housing costs, rather than directly providing housing at a highly subsidised rent as it does now. Read more on the Newcastle Chronicle website.

Government Extends Forces Help To Buy

The government will extend an ownership scheme for the Armed Forces for a further two years. The Forces Help to Buy scheme, which offers an interest-free loan to military personnel of up to half their salary, will run until 2018. Michael Fallon, defence secretary, announced the extension yesterday as he revealed 10,000 service members had applications approved through the scheme which has run since 2014. He said 81% of the payments were made to ranks below officer. Read more on Inside Housing.

MOD Has Loaned £75.7 Million Through The Forces Help To Buy Scheme

Thousands of troops and their families have bought their own home through the Forces Help to Buy scheme, which launched in April 2014, according to latest government figures. The £200 million scheme, which allows military personnel to borrow a deposit of up to half of their annual salary towards buying a home, is now half-way through its three-year trial. The MOD has loaned £75.7 million to around 5,000 applicants within the last 18 months. And a further 1,900 personnel have had their applications approved and are awaiting completion of property purchases. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Deal Will Lead to Thousands of New Housebuilding Jobs

Tens of thousands of new housebuilding jobs and apprenticeships will be up for grabs for years to come under a deal struck between ministers and the industry. Government-led efforts have got Britain building – in the last year alone planning permission has been granted on 230,000 new homes and private housebuilding starts are at their highest for 7 years. But leading housebuilders have made clear that a lack of skilled labour is one of the key problems facing their industry, and that they need a range of building skills as well as site managers, surveyors, planners and designers. The plan will ensure young Brits leaving school or our Armed Forces benefit from this turn-around but it will also help former builders to consider a return to the industry. Read more on the CLG website.

Former Forces to Get Help With Housing

Ex-armed forces personnel in need of housing will be able to benefit from funding for life-changing accommodation initiatives across the country. Thousands of veterans are expected to benefit from an additional £40 million, which will help charities build new homes, buy new accommodation or spruce up old facilities. Projects are expected to include hostels and half-way houses for veterans who have fallen on hard times, supported housing for the wounded, injured and sick, and long-term care homes. Read more on the Govuk website.

Housing: Armed Forces – Parliamentary Written Answer

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what advice has been given to local authorities on accepting service families who have received a notice to vacate from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation; and whether information for divorcing families is included in any such advice.

Kris Hopkins: The Government takes its responsibilities to service personnel and their families very seriously. DCLG wrote to local authorities reminding them that statutory homelessness guidance says they should not insist upon a court order for possession to establish that entitlement to occupy Services Accommodation has ended but instead should ensure that service personnel receive timely and comprehensive advice on the housing options available as soon as they receive a “Certificate of Cessation of Entitlement to Occupy Service Living Accommodation”.

The homelessness legislation also affords a person who is vulnerable as a result of having been a member of Her Majesty's services priority need for accommodation.

Last year we changed the law by regulation so that former personnel with urgent housing needs are always given 'additional preference' (high priority) for social housing; and councils are prevented from applying local connection requirements to disqualify members of the armed forces and those within five years of leaving the Services from their housing waiting list.

We have issued new statutory allocations guidance which makes clear that, when adopting a residency test for social housing, we expect local authorities to consider the wider needs of the armed forces community, and to be sympathetic to changing family circumstances, recognising, for example, that the spouses and partners of Service personnel can also be disadvantaged by the need to move from base to base.

Council Prioritise Locals And Armed Forces But Punish Bad Behaviour

Southwark Council has decided to prioritise its social housing to people with a local connection and members of the armed forces, but misbehaving tenants can expect penalties.  Subject to cabinet approval, Southwark’s new housing policy will see anti-social tenants given penalties but those who make an active contribution to their local community through voluntary work or similar activity bumped up the waiting list. And under-occupiers who are genuinely in need of extra space that are affected by the bedroom tax will be awarded the highest priority on the register. As well as giving armed forces personnel priority, those applying for housing will now require a five-year local residency qualification before joining the housing register. Read more on 24dash.

Local People First In Line for Council Homes

New measures will ensure local people are prioritised for homes and introduce greater transparency on who is getting a council house, Eric Pickles has announced. New proposed statutory guidance for councils makes clear that only people with a well-established local residency or connection to an area can go on that council’s waiting list for social housing. It will help avoid confusion in local government about equality laws that could lead to some councils sidelining local residents. Along with giving priority to local people, the guidance makes clear that councils are required to make an exception to members of the Armed Forces who apply for housing. Due to the nature of their work, travelling from base to base, they do not build up a local connection. Read more on the Govuk website.

Armed Forces Offered Interest-Free Home Loans

The government is to offer armed forces personnel buying their first homes interest free loans towards a deposit. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond announced that service men and women will be able to borrow an interest free amount of up to 50% of their salary to a limit of £25,000. The loan is repayable over 10 years and is designed to address the low rate of home ownership among the forces. The scheme will start on 1 April 2014 and covers a three-year period. Read more on the Conservative Party website.

Bedroom Tax: Government Breaks Promise To Exempt Military Families

Ministers have quietly broken their promise to exempt military families from the Bedroom Tax. Soldiers’ homes stop being their main residence once they have moved into barracks, meaning their families are being hit with the hated charge as they are deemed to have “spare” rooms.  The damning revelation – in what is seen as the “ultimate betrayal” – comes despite ministers promising to spare “adult children in the Armed Forces” from the tax if they lived at home when they signed up.  Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop has branded the rules as “grossly unfair”.  Mr Blenkinsop said soldiers have been advised to ask commanding officers to sign letters confirming their main home was at their parents’, not in a barracks.  Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Tough New Housing Rules to Control Immigration

New measures to ensure fair play in taxpayer-funded social housing and stop rogue landlords cashing in from renting homes to illegal migrants have been set out by the Prime Minister.  Ministers want to tackle the widespread perception that the way social housing is allocated is unfair and favours foreign migrants over local people and the armed forces.  Almost 1 in 10 of all new social housing tenancies across England are given to foreign nationals.

So new rules will ensure that councils give priority to local people when allocating their social housing. Ministers will introduce new statutory guidance for councils, requiring them to amend their allocation policies to ensure only those with a well-established local residency and local connections will go on the waiting lists and qualify for a taxpayer-funded social home.  Read more on the GovUK website.

Ten Reasons to Axe the Bedroom Tax

1. It snatches from the poorest - The bedroom tax hits people in council or social housing who claim housing benefit—more than 650,000 households.

2. The rooms aren’t ‘spare’ - If their parents are separated, children will have to sleep on the couch when staying with one parent.

3. There’s nowhere to move to - Some 4,700 tenants will be hit by the bedroom tax in Hull. But there are only 73 smaller council homes in the town.

4. It hits disabled people hard - Disabled people are more likely to need their own room and to need benefits. They could lose homes that are specially adapted to suit their conditions.

5. They are already retreating - Iain Duncan Smith has been forced to make two embarrassing concessions. Some foster carers will be exempted along with some of those serving in the armed forces—if they meet strict conditions.

Read the other five reasons on the Socialist Worker website.

Families Still Face Bedroom Tax Misery Despite Late Concessions

The UK's biggest union has dismissed the government's decision to exempt foster carers and members of the armed forces from its bedroom tax policy as a "cynical ploy".  Unite says that the exemptions will not help the majority of the 660,000 people set to be hit by the policy, which comes into force on April 1.  The union claims that separated parents who share the care of their children and families with disabled children will continue to lose out by an average of £14 per week under the new under-occupancy rules, whilst two thirds of those affected will be people with disabilities.  Read more on the Unite website.

Foster Carers and Armed Forces Exempt from 'Bedroom Tax'

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has announced that foster carers and army personnel who receive housing benefit will be exempt from the so-called "bedroom tax".  In a Written Ministerial Statement, he said: "People who are approved foster carers will be allowed an additional room, whether or not a child has been placed with them or they are between placements, so long as they have fostered a child, or become an approved foster carer in the last 12 months.  Adult children who are in the Armed Forces but who continue to live with parents will be treated as continuing to live at home, even when deployed on operations."  

Major Shake-Up of Council's Housing Allocation Policy

A council has changed its policy concerning who gets priority for housing.

Changes in government legislation along with a housing shortage led Harlow Council to review its housing register and allocation policy.  The new policy, which comes into force this September, features the following changes:

    *Applicants must have continually lived in Harlow for five years.

    *Members of the armed forces will receive greater priority than previously.

    *Increased priority will be given to council tenants wishing to move to a smaller property.

    *Adopters and foster carers will be given higher priority.

    *The Housing Register will be relaunched as the “Housing Needs Register” to reflect the fact that council housing is allocated based on need not the length of time applicants have been waiting. Read more on 24dash.

People Who Help Others Move Up The Waiting List

People who help their community are to have a better chance of getting a council house in Derby.  The change will apply to the lettings policy for 13,500 houses belonging to Derby Homes, the city council's social housing arm, from March. Whether or not someone helps their community would be considered once a person has been accepted onto the housing and details such as disability and risk of homelessness have been looked at.  The move will be introduced at the same time as plans to make it easier for former services personnel to get social housing in the city. A council report on the matter says "additional priority" will be given to people who contribute to their community through things like "employment, volunteering or providing unpaid care and support to a person in their area".  Read more on the Derby Evening Telegraph website.

Rough Sleepers – Parliamentary Oral Answer

Lord Rogan: My Lords, statistics show that a higher proportion of ex-service personnel are sleeping rough compared with the population as a whole. Will the Government take urgent steps to address that problem?

Baroness Hanham: My Lords, the statistics are that 4% of those people sleeping rough are from the Armed Forces. My right honourable friend Grant Shapps, when he was Minister for Housing in the previous Parliament, had already made it clear that those from the Armed Forces absolutely received top priority. We are very aware of that problem. However, as I say, the figure is as low as four in one hundred.

Prisk Praises Council for 'Ripping Up Social Housing Rulebook'

Housing minister Mark Prisk has praised a London borough's plans to "rip up the social housing rule book" as it bids to introduce two-year fixed-term tenancies for under 25s and ban households earning more than £40,200 from accessing the housing register, instead, directing them towards low-cost homeownership.  Conservative-run Hammersmith and Fulham Council is aiming to introduce the policies in April 2013 - alongside plans to prioritise workers and those making a contribution to the community (e.g. ex-service personnel and foster carers) in its allocations and preventing the children of tenants inheriting their council property.  Under its tenancy reform, it wants to introduce five-year fixed-term tenancies as the norm, with two years for those aged 18-25 or with a history of anti-social behaviour. Secure tenancies, it said, will still be available for the most vulnerable residents. It will also only consider granting tenancies for those with a five-year local connection to the borough who are in clear housing need.  Mr Prisk said the council was "taking firm action to ensure that their homes are reserved for those who genuinely need and deserve them the most". Read more on 24dash.