UK Veteran Housing Schemes 2026: Forces Help to Buy, Op FORTITUDE, Social Housing and Charities

The UK has no veteran mortgage guarantee like the US VA home loan. Housing support for the Armed Forces community comes from five places instead: Forces Help to Buy for people still serving, priority and local connection rules for social housing, the Op FORTITUDE referral line for veterans who are homeless or at risk, veteran housing charities such as Haig Housing and Stoll, and the government directory and VALOUR network that replaced the Veterans' Gateway. This guide explains each one, who qualifies and how to apply, with figures checked on 9 October 2026.

Forces Help to Buy: for serving personnel only

Forces Help to Buy (FHTB) lends eligible Regular service personnel up to 50% of their annual salary, capped at £25,000, interest free. You can put it toward a deposit, solicitor's fees and estate agent's fees. It covers buying a first home, moving because of a new assignment and, in some cases, extending a property when family needs change. The scheme became enduring policy on 1 January 2023, and the GOV.UK page was last updated on 9 January 2026.

The rules that matter:

• You must be a Regular. Reservists and the Military Provost Guard Service are excluded.
• You must have completed the required length of service, set out in JSP 464, and have more than six months left to serve when you apply.
• You must meet the required medical categories, with exceptions possible in special medical and personal circumstances.
• You apply through the Forces Help to Buy self-service application on JPA.
• The loan is normally repaid from salary over up to 10 years. If you leave before it is repaid, the balance is recovered from your terminal benefits, according to Discover My Benefits.

Veterans cannot apply, so FHTB is a decision to make while serving. Anyone planning to buy should look at it at least six months before their exit date, and should factor the deduction from terminal benefits into their leaving budget.

Social housing: local connection and priority

Councils in England allocate social housing under the Housing Act 1996 and statutory guidance. The statutory guidance on improving access to social housing for the Armed Forces, updated on 18 December 2024, sets out three protections.

1. Exemption from local connection tests

Since the Allocation of Housing (Qualification Criteria for Armed Forces) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2024, all current and former members of the Regular Armed Forces are exempt from local connection requirements. Before that change, the exemption only covered people who had served within the five years before applying. The government announced the change in September 2024, noting that 89% of councils use local connection tests. The exemption also covers bereaved spouses and civil partners leaving MOD accommodation where the death was attributable to service, and Reservists with a serious injury, illness or disability attributable to service.

2. Additional preference

Where an applicant has urgent housing need and falls within a reasonable preference group, councils must give additional preference to former Regulars, serving Regulars with a serious service-attributable injury, illness or disability, Reservists with such a condition, and qualifying bereaved spouses or civil partners.

3. Mental ill health

Guidance from June 2020 says anyone who needs to move because of a mental health condition should fall within the medical and welfare preference group, and that a relevant condition linked to service counts as an illness or disability for additional preference. Councils should not make evidence requirements so heavy that they put applicants off.

Councils are also strongly encouraged to waive local connection for spouses or civil partners who must leave MOD accommodation after a relationship breakdown, and they can disregard lump-sum injury compensation when assessing finances.

Scotland and Wales

Wales issued its own allocation guidance in March 2016, with local connection exemptions for applicants who can show a posting to an area in Wales. In Scotland, a Practice Guide for social landlords covers priority for service leavers, and a March 2021 ministerial statement set criteria for local connection referrals. The Armed Forces Covenant housing page links to each.

Op FORTITUDE: one referral route for homeless veterans

Op FORTITUDE is the UK-wide, government-backed referral pathway for veterans who are homeless or at risk of losing their home. The hotline opened on 3 July 2023, delivered by the Riverside Group as part of an £8.55 million programme covering more than 900 supported housing units. In June 2025 Riverside received a further £480,000 from the Office for Veterans' Affairs, and reported that over 360 veterans had moved into supported accommodation and 543 into temporary or emergency accommodation through the service.

• Phone: 0800 952 0774, 24 hours a day. An out-of-hours team covers evenings and weekends.
• Who can refer: you, family or friends, charities, homelessness services, councils, Defence Transition Services and HM Prison and Probation Service.
• What happens: an assessment of your safety, housing situation and needs, then help to keep your home, work with your council under the Homelessness Reduction Act, or move into veteran supported accommodation.
• Threshold: you do not need to be in crisis to call.

Veteran housing charities

What happened to the Veterans' Gateway

The Veterans' Gateway website was retired in 2024. The Office for Veterans' Affairs says the GOV.UK "Support for veterans and their families" directory replaces the Veterans Gateway. In 2026 the government added VALOUR, a £50 million UK-wide veteran support network that the Office for Veterans' Affairs says went live on 30 July 2026. VALOUR covers housing, work, health and finances, and its contact page lists 0808 1914 218 (option 6 for Veterans Services) and an online referral.

Other support for serving families

Since 2016 several major lenders, including Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and Yorkshire Building Society, have let service personnel rent out their home when posted without changing their mortgage or paying more. The Refund of Legal Expenses covers legal costs when you sell and buy because of a service move. In November 2025 the Defence Housing Strategy promised new home ownership opportunities for personnel and veterans under a "Forces First" approach, without scheme details at launch.

UK and US housing support compared

Housing decisions carry long financial commitments. Treat this guide as factual background and take regulated financial advice before borrowing or buying. For the money side of leaving, see the guide to the income cliff after service.