The Future of Accommodation for Service Families

Naval_Families_Federation

The Future of Accommodation for Service Families

As part of a wider study, the MOD is looking into the future of accommodation for Service personnel and families. The NFF is the representative body for Royal Naval and Royall Marines families and we will be actively involved to make sure that the opinions of families are considered.

What housing options would you like the MOD to consider in the future?

We are running a short survey on our website: www.nff.org.uk – please take 5 minutes to complete it. This is your chance to make your views count. Survey completion date: 31 July 2011.

trooperdog

I think the MOD should pay more attention to helping Its soldiers with purchasing their own property, thus reducing the amount it spends on pointless temparary repairs and sub standard accomodation. I am away that they can claim LSAP but more discount, affordability (direct contact with lenders), interest free loans and a good network of house builders would encourage and enable more service people to take responsiblity and have something to own for when they leave the services!... Just a thought.

Naval_Families_Federation

Many thanks for your comments Trooperdog - very helpful. All feedback will be collated and passed onto the MOD's Future Accommodation Project team for consideration in their report. Don't forget to fill out the survey as well.


Kind regards,
NFF

trooperdog wrote: »

I think the MOD should pay more attention to helping Its soldiers with purchasing their own property, thus reducing the amount it spends on pointless temparary repairs and sub standard accomodation. I am away that they can claim LSAP but more discount, affordability (direct contact with lenders), interest free loans and a good network of house builders would encourage and enable more service people to take responsiblity and have something to own for when they leave the services!... Just a thought.

DozyPosy

Hi there,
I'm a long time lurker on MSE and this post has made me come out of the woodwork, so to speak.

I am also a service wife - albeit not Navy - and have completed the questionnaire, however I felt the need to make a couple of points that I feel weren't touched upon.

SFA for most serving spouses isn't really about bricks and mortar - for the most part, we put up with sub-standard accommodation (in fairness, for which I appreciate we pay a relatively low sum) in order for us to remain as a family unit. In this climate, we could not possibly buy and sell houses to fit in with the unpredictable nature of our spouses career path.

Certainly, in the eight years I have been married (and a relatively few five house moves) we have never received the required notice of posting (91 days?) - in fact my shortest record to date is ten days. Whether buying or renting privately, this is an impossible situation.

However, the main benefit of SFA in my view is the irreplaceable community support that it lends to spouses and children of service personnel on deployment. I have been in this situation numerous times at different stations and can't stress enough how this valuable this community support has been to me.
Our children have greatly benefited at local schools because of the empathy afforded to them by other service children and sympathetic teachers, who have seen it all before.

As a wife and a mother, I know without SFA my Husband would have to leave the forces - stable civilian jobs in his trade in are getting easier to come by. He stays because he wants to serve, but without his family around during the unpredictable times he is available, we both know he could not.

As a final plea - please, please rethink the question that asks which allowance cut we'd 'rather' see implemented if the MOD were to increase help available to personnel buying their own homes. CEA and SFA are intrinsically linked - and both potentially devastating if removed from the community. Forces families have been squeezed financially, and morale is at an all-time low. Maybe a 'none of the above' option when responding to this question?

Naval_Families_Federation

Hello DozyPosy,

Many thanks for your feedback - some very good points which we will certainly include in our evidence to the MOD's Future Accommodation Project team.

I appreciate your comment on the 'allowance cut' question although it should be noted that the questions have not been compiled by the NFF. All three Families Federations are promoting the same survey to ensure as much feedback as possible can be fed into the MOD.

To this end it would be very helpful if you could also complete the survey run by the Families Federation for which Service your husband belongs:

Army Families Federation (http://www.aff.org.uk) (survey live 1 July)
RAF Families Federation (http://www.raf-ff.org.uk)

Once again thank you for completing the survey and for your very thoughtful comments.
All the best.
NFF

Trying_to_be_good

DozyPosy wrote: »

As a final plea - please, please rethink the question that asks which allowance cut we'd 'rather' see implemented if the MOD were to increase help available to personnel buying their own homes. CEA and SFA are intrinsically linked - and both potentially devastating if removed from the community. Forces families have been squeezed financially, and morale is at an all-time low. Maybe a 'none of the above' option when responding to this question?

I'm a Navy wife, and we've bought our own home now and decided the family will try to stay here. Family stability for the medium to long term is so important, being art of the wider community.

With the financial pressures on MOD, as many government departments, cuts are the reality, so it's time to prioritise where we, as families, think the money should be spent - what areas should get more, and where less - there simply isn't the money to give more without the money being taken from somewhere else. So I don't think 'none of the above' is a realistic choice. I'd opt for more stability, less moving about and so less need for the allowances for frequent moves. Only works if we get more stability, though!

Naval_Families_Federation

Good morning Trying to be good,

Thank you for your comments. It is great to receive such feedback and will make the data we collate for the MOD's Future Accommodation Project team even more meaningful, with some additional 'meat on the bones' as it were.

The survey has received a very good response rate so far and numerous additional comments - which indicates it is a very emotive subject for families.

Your comments have been noted and will be passed on to the MOD (without any of your personal details).

Please do encourage your friends to complete the survey to increase the responses rate.

Many thanks again Trying to be good.

Kind regards,
NFF Team