Prime Minister's question asked in the House of Commons, by Julian Brazier (Conservative). It was answered on Wednesday, 22 March 2017 on behalf of the Prime Minister.

Engagements

Question

Sir Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con):

With her strong commitment to defence, does my right hon. Friend agree that we must stem the outflow from our shrinking forces? I urge her to reconsider the policy that she inherited of encouraging service families to get on to the housing ladder on the one hand, while on the other hand increasingly focusing the Army in areas where there is no affordable housing, and then applying the new landlord tax arrangements to buy for let.

Answer: I recognise the passion with which my hon. Friend always raises issues about the armed forces. He raises an important point, but I can assure him that we are fully committed to our goal of an 82,000-strong Army by 2020. On his specific point about service accommodation, we want is to ensure that people have a greater choice in where they live by using private accommodation and meeting their aspirations for home ownership. That is why we set up the £200 million forces Help to Buy scheme and continue to support subsidised housing for service personnel—the pot of money will not be cut. The Ministry of Defence is working with the Treasury on the issues my hon. Friend raises, and I am sure that they will keep him updated.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 623 c858
Session: 2016-17
Oral question type: 1st Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Armed forces Housing
Link: View this Prime Minister's question on hansard.parliament.uk

Engagements

Secondary information

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