Leeds Armed Forces Champions Tom Hinchcliffe and Jane Dowson have welcomed new Defence Housing Service and a major extension of the Armed Forces Covenant.
The new Armed Forces Bill will extend the Covenant, which ensures that service personnel, veterans, and their families are treated with fairness, respect, and face no disadvantages in
society, to all areas of central government and local authorities for the first time.
This means that social care, employment support and other public services will be legally
required to consider the unique circumstances faced by forces personnel and their families,
benefiting over 20,000 currently serving personnel and veterans in Leeds.
The Bill follows the Armed Forces Housing Strategy, which announced plans to develop
100,000 homes on surplus defence land and the renewal of nine in ten forces’ homes
including 3,239 across Yorkshire and the Humber.
This will be carried out by the new publicly owned Defence Housing Service, removing the need for military households to apply for council or social housing.
Leeds City Council Armed Forces Covenant Champion, Councillor Tom Hinchcliffe (Lab, Bramley & Stanningley), said: “Leeds City Council is proud to have received the gold award for its efforts in upholding the Armed Forces Covenant.
“Bringing the Armed Forces Covenant into law is an important step towards ensuring that armed forces veterans can access the support they deserve, whenever they need it.”
Leeds City Council Armed Forces Champion Councillor Jane Dowson (Lab, Chapel Allerton) said: “The Council has led the way on exempting military compensation when veterans apply for means tested benefit, and has introduced vital measures to make it easier for serving personnel to get their child a school place.
“Alongside these local measures we’re very pleased to welcome the extension of the Covenant to central government and the Defence Housing Strategy to make sure that forces’ families get the public services they need across the board.”
The Armed Forces Housing Strategy is supported by £9bn funding nationally and follows a national initiative earlier this year to bring 36,000 forces family homes back into public ownership.
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