Conservatives launch new ‘homes for heroes’ policy

The Conservatives are today [18th June 2025] launching fresh housing policy to help Armed Forces families on the housing ladder – addressing the key issue of retention.

This will upgrade the defence estate, expand home ownership and reduce rents for the MoD and armed forces like never before. The next Conservative Government will create a housing association that will oversee these changes that will radically address declining recruitment and retention rates under Labour.

As Minister for Defence Procurement, James Cartlidge MP was responsible for buying back the Defence Estate. The Armed Forces Housing Association is the next step to improving the quality and quantity of homes for our service personnel.

In the most recent Armed Forces Survey 64% of military personnel say they are considering quitting because of the impact of service life on their personal life, and a further 30% say the standard accommodation of accommodation could drive them to leave. In the last year, over 1000 more service personnel left the Armed Forces than joined. Improving housing for our armed forces is an urgent task.

The four benefits of the policy will be:

• Enabling a truly ambitious rebuild and regeneration of the defence estate

• A mutual organisation with board representation for the voice of service families  

• Ring-fencing the funding for accommodation, to guarantee it remains well maintained

• Extending home ownership throughout the ranks

Revolutionising housing for our armed forces comes as part of the Conservatives' policy renewal drive. They are looking at ways to refresh, rewire and reboot the British state so it's fit for the 2030s and ‘homes for heroes' will be key to that.

At a press conference in Westminster, James Cartlidge MP, Shadow Defence Secretary, will say:

“We must rapidly rearm, strengthen our overall deterrence and address the head on the most serious military threats we have faced for years.    

“In my view, the capability that still matters most to our armed forces are its people.  And they are still leaving service to their country faster than new recruits are joining.   

“Many Governments have promised ‘homes for heroes' – this is how we actually deliver that promise in practice.

"Our new forces' housing association would be a wholly independent body focused entirely on transforming the defence estate to deliver high quality accommodation for service families.

"Independence would guarantee a financial ring-fence, restoring trust that service family accommodation would always be well maintained.

"And as housing associations are uniquely able to offer their own home ownership product – part buy part rent - we would also widen the opportunity to get on the property ladder, right across the ranks”.  

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The Armed Forces Housing Association would ringfence money allocated to the defence estate, removing the risk of it being repurposed to fund other government programmes. The Government's Strategic Defence Review announced over £1.5 billion of extra funding for the improvement of service family accommodation. Labour says this means more than £7 billion will be spent during the current Parliament on service family accommodation and new build single living accommodation. The Armed Forces Housing Association would ringfence this funding solely for spending on the defence estate, to avoid the Ministry of Defence or Treasury attempting to spend it on other programmes (MOD, Press Release, 31 May 2025, link).

Over time the Armed Forces Housing Association would work to reduce the current reliance on private sector renting, which costs the taxpayer £80 million per year. According to the Government, the average annual cost of the Rented Living Accommodation Project (RLAP) is £80 million (Written Answer, 2 April 2025, link).

In the last year alone, our armed forces decreased by 1,340 serving personnel (MoD, Quarterly service personnel statistics, 1 April 2025, link).

The Conservative Government put in the work to make the buy back of the Defence Estate from Annington Homes possible, paving the way for an Armed Forces Housing Association to be established that could regenerate the Estate. As Minister for Defence Procurement, James Cartlidge was clear that that the Government should take back ownership of the defence estate, in order to facilitate its regeneration. Rebuilding is a bread-and-butter function of housing associations, and we are proposing setting up a mutual organisation with the interests of service personnel at its heart to carry out this much needed work (James Cartlidge, X, 17 December 2024, link).

More than three quarters of personnel live in service accommodation during the working week – but much of the defence estate is far from good enough. We want to regenerate it and restore trust in the management of the Estate. According to the latest Ministry of Defence survey, the satisfaction rate for responses to requests for maintenance of service family accommodation is 34 per cent. It is clear that we need to move from sticking plaster solutions to proper regeneration and reconstruction of the defence estate. A Forces Housing Association would also have representation on its board from military personnel and service families, which would help to rebuild trust and underscore that housing management henceforth would be focussed on retention and serving armed forces families (MoD, UK Regular Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey Results 2025, 22 May 2025, link).

Less than half of personnel currently own their own home, but the Armed Forces Housing Association model could help expand home ownership. The most common reason why personnel do not own their own home is affordability – but the most common reason why personnel buy their own homes is stability for themselves and their families. Housing associations are able to offer a home ownership product which could attract a lower salary bracket/rank than the Forces Help to Buy Scheme (MoD, UK Regular Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey Results 2025, 22 May 2025, link).

The Conservative Government had a strong track record of investing in military homes, prioritising investment of £400 million to upgrade thousands of homes in 2023. The funding, announced in November 2023, was committed over two years to refit kitchens and bathrooms, upgrade boilers, deal with mould and damp, improve thermal efficiency with new doors, windows and roofs, and to refurbish around 1,000 unused homes to increase the number of modern homes available to Service families (MOD, Press Release, 14 November 2023, link).