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Written evidence submitted by the RAF Families Federation
Dear Robert
Thank you for the opportunity to submit further evidence on a range of areas impacting Service Accommodation. We have responded to your points below where we have relevant evidence, and added some further questions on Single Living Accommodation that the Committee may wish to consider:
Future Accommodation Model (FAM)
1. How will the Future Accommodation Model differ from what is currently offered to personnel, and will it provide better accommodation choices?
The differences between the current housing offer and the New Accommodation Offer are:
Is the private rental sector a viable option for service families?
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The private sector is already used by service families. This
now is a formal agreement between the MOD and the service person to offer them more choices. There are regional differences with the
availability of private rental and we foresee challenges in accessing stock in some areas. We are aware that the New Accommodation Offer team have been engaged with Local Authorities and devolved Governments to outline the changes. There is a key challenge in communicating the proposed changes to military families and managing their expectations.
2. What challenges do you see with the rollout of the Future Accommodation Model?
As per our comment above, we foresee a significant challenge will be the availability of private rental property as the New Accommodation Offer is extended across the Units, however SFA will be offered first so the level of private rentals needed across the country is unclear. There may also be challenges with allowances as the alignment of the JSP 464 (updated version to include the New Accommodation Offer) and the Allowances JSP 752 have been updated from the 1 Oct. As with anything new, until the model is in use there could be unforeseen scenarios that may become known as the New Accommodation Model is implemented.
The MOD has put in place transitional protection as this is the biggest change. Even with this in place, it is likely that some personnel and their partners/families will see themselves as having been disadvantaged. Our view is that the RAF community have often been used to mixed rank accommodation arrangements for SFA, so that element will not produce too much disquiet.
The recent Govt research has the key findings on the satisfaction of the FAM Pilot here however we would note that it is based on a small cohort. The FAM Pilot ran at 3 sites (HMS Clyde, Aldershot Garrison, and RAF Wittering) from 2019 to 2023. The pilot confirmed the popularity of SFA, therefore the need to retain SFA as well as the importance of offering accommodation to those in LTR, and parents whose children stay with them for over 80 nights or more a year.
Some officers were less positive about FAM as they were impacted on the size of their property due to the change to needs based rather than rank based entitlement. Also, some officers were concerned about mixed rank living areas and the impact on the hierarchical and socio-cultural systems in the Services. However, most officers who reported this had not experienced living in mixed rank areas during the pilot. Pinnacle Home Services through DIO will potentially identify elements SFA patches to reflect rank – for example, streets will (best effort) be rank ranged (SNCO, Junior Ranks, Officer) – clearly a pragmatic approach is currently being expected.
Forces Help to Buy (FHTB)
3. How effective is the Forces Help to Buy Scheme?
The MOD carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of the scheme late last year, with a small number of SP being interviewed. The results were overall positive, although it should be noted both that FHTB was regarded as a benefit rather than something that would act as a retention mechanism in its own right: Understanding service personnel experiences of FHTB and exploring barriers to home ownership - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The RAF Families Federation is an independent organisation managed by The RAF Association (RAFA) Patron: Her Majesty The Queen
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RAF SP in forums with the RAFFF have overwhelmingly seen FHTB as a positive initiative, and it has been cited by personnel on many occasions when they have been asked for examples of ‘positive change by the MOD or RAF.’
There could be other even more retention positive methods of supporting personnel to buy their own homes. We do not have the expertise within the team to comment on the options, but we would support a review of alternate options.
The Haythornthwaite Review (HRAFI)
4. Do the Haythornthwaite Review recommendations resonate with your research and findings?
The recommendations do resonate with our findings, particularly around the frustrations with the bureaucracy and inflexibility around pay and allowances and ensuring that policies that support the whole family – such as those that support partner employment – as being retention positive.
Single Living Accommodation
5. On SLA, we would encourage the Committee to give some focussed time on seeking detailed information from DIO and the Single Services on:
4 October 2023