News story

Latest Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report

What is the UK government doing to honour its commitment to support the armed forces community?

• From: Ministry of Defence
• Published: 30 January 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Every local authority in Great Britain has signed a Community Covenant

The armed forces community faces a number of challenges brought about by service life, such as:

• finding school places for their children as families frequently move around the country or overseas
• finding meaningful employment for partners/spouses
• getting fair access to competitive mortgage rates

The Armed Forces Covenant looks to change that by providing an extensive network of support across the country, including asking companies and local authorities to pledge their commitment to improve support for personnel.

So far, 394 companies have signed the corporate part of the Armed Forces Covenant and the latest annual report shows that:

• every local authority in Great Britain has signed a Community Covenant
• the Forces Help To Buy Scheme was launched on 1 April 2014 and has allocated £34 million to help 3,500 service families get on or stay on the property ladder
• the MOD established a £40 million fund for projects specialising in accommodation for veterans

Read the full report and the update to see how the covenant has helped veterans, serving personnel, reserves and their families.

Armed Forces Covenent, a message from the Chief of the Defence Staff

Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, on the Armed Forces Covenent

Published 30 January 2015