New Accommodation Offer

The New Accommodation Offer starting from 11 March 2024, the MOD will begin introducing a New Accommodation Offer for our Armed Forces. Some of the changes will be available immediately whilst others may only apply to you when you are assigned to a new role or at the end of the three-year transition period. The planned changes are intended to modernise accommodation entitlements, improve the standard of Single Living Accommodation, update the Overseas Accommodation offer and, overall, give our people more of a say in how they live.

What do the changes look like?

Needs based allocation – The starting point for allocation of family accommodation will be the size of the family, not rank.

Transitional Protection – If personnel experience a reduction in entitlement, they will be eligible for transitional protection for a 3 year period following the launch of the New Accommodation Offer on 11th March 2024.

Established Long Term Relationship LTR(E) – Service personnel who have registered their relationship as an ‘Established Long Term relationship’ will be entitled to accommodation on the same basis as those who are married or in a civil partnership.

Dual Accommodation Expense – If you live in Single Living Accommodation (SLA) but your main home is elsewhere, you will be eligible to claim back the cost of your SLA up to a monthly cap.

Support to Buy a Home – We have already made Forces Help to Buy a permanent part of our accommodation policy and, under the new Accommodation Offer, we will offer further support for service personnel becoming first time buyers through refunding top to £1,500 of their legal expenses.

Private Rental Sector – Where SFA is unavailable and you are placed into this route, you will be given support and various payments to cover the costs associated with renting and a contribution towards your monthly rent, adjusted for local housing costs.

Defence Minimum Standard – A minimum standard for SLA has been agreed and we are already assessing the entire SLA estate to understand where rooms are currently failing top meet this. This will inform where investment is needed and, from 1st April 2024 any rooms that fall below that standard will not be used unless the issue can be rectified within 48 hours.

Improving the Overseas Accommodation Offer – Whilst the new Accommodation Offer will begin its roll out in the UK, we are already looking at how to roll out as much of it as possible overseas, beginning with pilots of needs-based accommodation at selected locations.

Accommodation Support Cell – The Accommodation Support Cell are a dedicated team of civil servants specialising on answering all your questions on how the New Accommodation Offer will apply yo you.

Where to find out more?

Visit our web pages to find out more about the New Accommodation Offer: