Lenders urged to help military families
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Your support makes all the difference.Lenders are being urged by the Government to help armed forces personnel get mortgages after a review found a "significant percentage" found it hard to secure finance.
Banks and building societies are being summoned to urgent talks with ministers to find a solution as part of a range of initiatives aimed at supporting service families.
Up to £11 million is also being diverted from the "pupil premium" policy to ease the burden on schools which educate the children of servicemen and women.
An Armed Forces Bill being published today will give legal force to the military covenant, with governments forced to report annually on how it is being upheld.
Alongside it will be presented the findings of a review of the covenant carried out for the Prime Minister by Oxford University professor of warfare history Hew Strachan.
A formal government response will be made in the spring but Downing Street said a number of measures were being introduced earlier to meet some of the concerns it raised.
Among them are talks to find out why personnel find it hard to get loans - one suggestion being that their need to move regularly and serve abroad affects credit scores.
The move to allocate an extra £200-300 to schools per forces family pupil is also aimed at allaying the costs of pupils moving frequently as well as extra "pastoral" care.
Having a parent whose life is often on the line was hard for youngsters and required careful handling, an official explained.
Unlike the rest of the "pupil premium", it is not designed to improve academic achievement, with the children of military personnel doing better than average in class.
Other initiatives being promised include trials of a "community covenant" which would encourage the creation of projects celebrating and supporting local armed forces.
To be piloted in Hampshire, Oxfordshire and North Yorkshire, it is seen as part of the David Cameron's wider "big society" agenda of fostering community action.
Alongside it will be a new civil award - known as the Chief of the Defence Staff Commendation - to recognise good work on behalf of serving and former personnel and their families.
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