New MOD Accommodation Policy

[ORAC]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/d...rces-personnel

Defence announces New Accommodation Offer for Armed Forces personnel

New accommodation offer announced to modernise accommodation entitlements to Armed Forces personnel.

A new accommodation offer to revolutionise housing for service personnel and their families was announced by the Ministry of Defence today.

The offer, which will be the biggest change to Armed Forces housing for a generation and available from March 2024, will modernise accommodation entitlements, improve the standard of Single Living Accommodation and provide a framework to update overseas accommodation.

The development and design of this new offer, which delivers on recommendations in the Haythornthwaite Review and the Defence Command Paper refresh has been informed by research and engagement with service personnel and their families, including learnings from a three-year pilot.

Minister for Defence, People, Veterans and Service Families, Andrew Murrison MP said:

“As the Defence Command Paper Refresh made clear, our serving personnel are critical to the effectiveness of our Armed Forces.

“Today’s announcement will ensure that our Defence Accommodation policy continues to meet the needs of today’s armed forces community offering greater flexibility for those that serve.”

Following the successful pilot, the New Accommodation Offer will include:

• Needs-based allocation of family accommodation, which will allocate housing based on the size of the immediate family instead of rank.
• Service personnel registered as being in an established long-term relationship will be entitled to accommodation on the same basis as those who are married or in a civil partnership.
• Parents who have children with a main home elsewhere can access service family accommodation, providing the children visit for more than 80 nights a year.
• More flexibility for service personnel to request the type of home that works for their family, allowing them to access homes above or below their entitlement.
• Improved standards in Single Living Accommodation with a minimum standard for Single Living Accommodation agreed across the estate.
• In addition to the Forces Help to Buy which offers support to first time buyers to buy a home, a permanent part of our accommodation policy, the New Accommodation Offer will provide further support for Service personnel becoming first time buyers, refunding up to £1,500 of their legal expenses.
• Providing financial support for weekly commuters who are maintaining a primary home elsewhere irrespective of age or marital status.

The Ministry of Defence is also committed to learning from the New Accommodation Offer to improve the overseas accommodation offer for service personnel.

The department is already looking at how we can implement the New Accommodation Offer overseas, including pilots of needs-based accommodation at selected locations.

As part of these improvements, overseas accommodation policy will be separated from UK policy to make it easier to understand and consider the different realities of living in other countries (such as where air conditioning is more important than loft insulation).

[Melchett01]

• Providing financial support for weekly commuters who are maintaining a primary home elsewhere irrespective of age or marital status.

Errr what does that mean? Having seen suggestions on the level of financial support offered as part of the new model at Wittering (via the Benefits Calculator), where you can get support to live in the community, the level of support on offer didn’t even cover the rent on a non-policy compliant bedsit in the crappy end of Peterborough let alone anywhere you didn’t have to share with cockroaches.

If you can prove you are weekly commuting from a permanent family home to a place of duty, irrespective of how you define family, then you shouldn’t been paying SLA charges. It’s that simple, and that’s the only thing they need to do here. If they can wheel out support for just about every other demographic going then they should be able to support one of their other main demographics. Especially if they are also wanting to encourage home ownership.

[trim it out]

Originally Posted by Melchett01

Errr what does that mean? Having seen suggestions on the level of financial support offered as part of the new model at Wittering (via the Benefits Calculator), where you can get support to live in the community, the level of support on offer didn’t even cover the rent on a non-policy compliant bedsit in the crappy end of Peterborough let alone anywhere you didn’t have to share with cockroaches.

If you can prove you are weekly commuting from a permanent family home to a place of duty, irrespective of how you define family, then you shouldn’t been paying SLA charges. It’s that simple, and that’s the only thing they need to do here. If they can wheel out support for just about every other demographic going then they should be able to support one of their other main demographics. Especially if they are also wanting to encourage home ownership.

It's referring to the over 37 package for the Army, where an arbitrary eligibility (over 37 and married) was placed on the entitlement to the SLA deduction waiver.

[NutLoose]

n addition to the Forces Help to Buy which offers support to first time buyers to buy a home, a permanent part of our accommodation policy, the New Accommodation Offer will provide further support for Service personnel becoming first time buyers, refunding up to £1,500 of their legal expenses.

Quickly followed by a posting to the other end of the country once the house purchase is completed..... Ohhhh the cynic in me.

Note it is refunding, so you still need to put it out there, then claim it back?

[trim it out]

Originally Posted by NutLoose

Quickly followed by a posting to the other end of the country once the house purchase is completed..... Ohhhh the cynic in me.

As happened to me, buying somewhere 5 miles from new place of work, to then be sent somewhere else beyond commutable distance while I was on relocation leave.

Originally Posted by NutLoose

Note it is refunding, so you still need to put it out there, then claim it back?

As per uniform grants etc, which require receipts for actual cost rather than the one off disturbance expense which may or may not cover the costs actually incurred.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

Originally Posted by trim it out

rather than the one off disturbance expense which may or may not cover the costs actually incurred.

which you may, or may not be eligible for depending on how long it takes you to sell the house after being posted anyway! 3 months extendable to 6 is a joke in a market downturn.

It appears that they've done away with the more innovative (if poorly funded) aspects of seeing if people wanted to live in the community. Is that because people a) didn't want to live off base or b) during the trial the MOD poorly funded off base living so people thought it was a rubbish deal?