Armed Forces Home Ownship Scheme

bobbieboy69er

Its really just a retention scheme. The MOD have been looking into how to keep the younger ones in for a while..... point is.... Someone who has completed only 4-6 years has passed there 2 1/2 + SITP so can put there notice in, but prob have not been in long enough to have reached LH/CPL yet. therefore they are hovering around the 20K mark and getting a bit fed up, but now this scheme is in, its a big finiancial incentive to stay in.

Heres the catch...... Altho they will lend you up to 50%... when you get promoted/a pay rise and you next come to re-mortgage your house, you have to take out the biggest mortgage you can afford therefore paying most of the loan back in the first 3-5 years! It just helps you get that fist step on the ladder! pretty good idea if you ask me. Then the money will get re-used and passed onto the next young sailor/soldier.

As for people who have been in for 15-20 years, to be honest they aint going anywhere, they are alreay tied in and nearing there full pension. Only a very small number of people who have been in over 15 years put there notice in, so theres no problem there! Remember the MOD are'nt going to invest money into you unless they really have to.

plymouthscubagirl

Yes I agree. That would have been a fantastic opportunity for my chap, but he is due out 2012 so no good. And unfortunately he is about to lose his house and 60% of his pension in divorce so it doesn't help those that need to start again :mad:

bobbieboy69er

Scubagirl,

Yeah you’re right in saying that your chap isn't going to benefit but then again its not designed to. As for him loosing his house and 60% of his pension then shame on 'her'! However there are a vast range of Charities out there to help people that are going outside and are in difficulty. But to be honest the same sort of thing could happen to a civvy anyway so its really nothing to do with being in the forces.

BLT_2

bobbieboy69er wrote: »

Its really just a retention scheme. The MOD have been looking into how to keep the younger ones in for a while..... point is.... Someone who has completed only 4-6 years has passed there 2 1/2 + SITP so can put there notice in, but prob have not been in long enough to have reached LH/CPL yet. therefore they are hovering around the 20K mark and getting a bit fed up, but now this scheme is in, its a big finiancial incentive to stay in.

Heres the catch...... Altho they will lend you up to 50%... when you get promoted/a pay rise and you next come to re-mortgage your house, you have to take out the biggest mortgage you can afford therefore paying most of the loan back in the first 3-5 years! It just helps you get that fist step on the ladder! pretty good idea if you ask me. Then the money will get re-used and passed onto the next young sailor/soldier.

As for people who have been in for 15-20 years, to be honest they aint going anywhere, they are alreay tied in and nearing there full pension. Only a very small number of people who have been in over 15 years put there notice in, so theres no problem there! Remember the MOD are'nt going to invest money into you unless they really have to.

This is, I believe the commencement of hostilities on the concept of Married quarter housing. Rumours abound of a scheme for a 3 tier career where individuals would be entitled to housing only on the first tier. The Army is increasingly steering towards long tours, static areas and super garrisons. In the future look to seeing Battalions located in one area (in much the way TA Battalions are) and deployed from that base to operations.

The benefits of this to the government are endless. They would be able to sell off substantial housing stock, reduce their maintenance costs and it would also remove the justification for boarding school allowance, as this would normally commence around the second tier.

The writing is on the wall for the military to many extents, SDR is expected to make substantial cuts, disposal of Tornado Aircraft has been put forward, the Services are now expected to meet the cost of Trident out of their budget (not hitherto the case) and the only reason for the continuation of the supercarrier build can be the penalty clauses and impact on the local employment situation of cancellation.

The raison d'etre for bases in Germany can be examined, why do we have all these troops based in foreign climes with the associated costs apart from training areas (and much training is cancelled due to cost). Other options are making sunshine tours 'roulement based' - instead of having to transport a whole family to Cyprus and provide accommodation it is much easier to send individuals on 6 month tours. Lets be honest, Cyprus is hardly cutting edge and can be treated the same way as the Falklands.

The buzzword at the moment is smaller, static and more deployable forces, thereby removing all the costs involved in rotating Battalion locations every few years.

Savvy_Spender_South

BLT wrote: »

The raison d'etre for bases in Germany can be examined, why do we have all these troops based in foreign climes with the associated costs apart from training areas (and much training is cancelled due to cost).

The buzzword at the moment is smaller, static and more deployable forces, thereby removing all the costs involved in rotating Battalion locations every few years.

I wonder where you feel the 30 000 troops in Germany may go if those sites are closed?
The SOFA and associated contract mean there will be sites in Germany for another 30 years. Central westfalia regions will continue to provide cheap troop living areas with road access to the Poland training locations.

OBUA training areas provide for excellent PDT for the COE, Germany stays, though cuts of 20% will be felt accross MOD, i agree with ou on that for sure.

BLT_2

Savvy_Spender_South wrote: »

I wonder where you feel the 30 000 troops in Germany may go if those sites are closed?
The SOFA and associated contract mean there will be sites in Germany for another 30 years. Central westfalia regions will continue to provide cheap troop living areas with road access to the Poland training locations.

OBUA training areas provide for excellent PDT for the COE, Germany stays, though cuts of 20% will be felt accross MOD, i agree with ou on that for sure.

There are nowhere near 30,000 troops in Germany these days, I take your point however on the SOFA's and cheap troop living areas. However, there has been a drawdown over the past decade regardless of SOFA's and I expect to see this continue.

Yes the OBUA training areas are excellent value for money, however it is a sad fact that much of the training is cut due to lack of funding. Perhaps my comment regarding moves from Germany was too overarching, however I stand by my view that cuts of some magnitude are due