Written evidence submitted by Mr Richard Moore.

The Covenant Rulings have just recently been updated to Allow Armed Forces Personal & Veterans to Join any Social Housing Register in the Country without the need for a Local Connection.

Local Councils used to state only if you had left the Armed forces in the last 5 years. This doesn’t help Veterans who have been out of the services for longer than 5 years and find themselves in difficulty and need assistance with housing.

I recently had to move due to a managed move due to some very nasty Neighbours and fell short of this Loophole in the Covenant.

We were added to the Housing Register for East Hampshire District Council however we fell short of this Loophole I have identified,

We were high on the list for a property on the bidding system due to our circumstances however we could not get majority of the properties on the bidding system due to something called a Section 106 Ruling.

This is a Contract that is drawn up right at the very beginning for new builds which states the 10 percent or so of the houses being given to the Social Housing element must be for people with an Immediate local connection to that Village or Town and if not will not even be considered for the properties.

So unless the Local Council has a Surplus Amount of Old Style Social Housing which we know is not the case as most Local Councils sold all of there properties off hence the mass panic and mass panic building now of new builds on every piece of land that can be obtained.

There needs to be something Written in the Covenant that allows dispensation for a Section 106 to be Disregarded or to give Dispensation to Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans to allow them to apply and be Successful with the New Properties as they are allowed onto the Local Housing Registers with no local Connection But fail every time at this Section 106 Ruling.

I have Personal Experience of this and happy to be contact to discuss this as I have already raised this to Damian Hind Local MP for East Hampshire District Council and the Conservatives Veterans Minister and Armed Forces Minister when they were in Cabinet but I am afraid to report it fell onto Deaf Ears and just got a Standard MP response saying they were not involved in housing and referred me to the Local Council Who I Was already in Discussion with about it.

Obviously, this was not a very pleasant experience which took us over 6 months to be moved from a very hostile situation which we faced daily due to this Loophole.

Going forward My Suggestion and Advice having Experienced this first hand is as follows, Any future Section 106’s being Written Should be made to include a paragraph that States something along the Lines of “Local Connection within a Section 106 can be Waivered if needed for Armed Forces and Veterans when applying on the Properties”.

Otherwise you are going to have Thousands of Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans being allowed on to any Local Authority Social Housing List but having to Wait years if not longer for an Old Property to become Vacant for them to be able to Occupy which will cause a massive backlog and Thousands of Ex Forces and their Families to become Homeless during the Wait.

This needs an urgent redress within the Armed Forces Covenant.

I am Very Happy to be Contacted further with regards to this as have lived experience of the Loophole and the failings of it.

Thank you

Mr R Moore