Call for justice over homes for veterans

VETERANS are being denied council housing despite putting their lives at risk in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to new research backed by former military chiefs.

Councils are “biased” against former servicemen and women when allocating housing because they give priority to applicants on the waiting lists with a strong connection to the area, the investigation has found.

A new campaign, the Homes for Heroes Foundation, will be launched on Tuesday, with the backing of former Nato secretary-general Lord Robertson and Lord Richards, the former Chief of Defence Staff.

The group, founded by Grant Shapps, the Conservative MP and former housing minister, aims to ensure that Britain will be the best in the world at providing housing for veterans within the next four years.

Lord Robertson, a Labour peer and former defence secretary, told The Sun

day Telegraph that he wanted to find practical solutions to housing problems for veterans. “There is an awful lot of sentiment around about ‘heroes’ and ‘our boys’,” he said. “That translates sometimes into money and collections, with a focus on the body bags and the wounded soldiers. But it is the tip of the iceberg.

“Below it is a large number of people who just want to get on with their lives and who find it difficult because they have never been able to put down roots. The system is still biased against service personnel on the waiting list.”

Research conducted by the Foundation suggests that some councils are still unwilling to prioritise housing for former servicemen and women and their families. There is evidence that they are failing to apply statutory government guidance on prioritising veterans on social housing waiting lists.

There are also fears that seriously injured service personnel are not being given the help with home adaptations that they need.

The Foundation will aim to reform the housing system for veterans by 2019, which marks 100 years since the “homes fit for heroes” Housing Act was passed after the First World War.

‘A large number of people find it difficult [to get homes] because they have never been able to put down roots’