First Choice Homes Oldham Ltd
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-10)

We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.

The Armed Forces Covenant

An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families

The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.

Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.

This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.

Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant

1.1 We First Choice Homes Oldham Ltd will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment

2.1 First Choice Homes Oldham Ltd recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Reservists
- UK Cadets
- Armed Forces Day
We also pledge the following:

-publicise our corporate covenant commitments through the website and by displaying posters at First Place and Primrose Place -Displaying the corporate covenant logo to show members of the armed forces community they are welcome customers -We will follow armed forces day on facebook and twitter, post messages of support on social media sites and link to the armed forces day website -We will work with the career transition partnership to offer opportunities to veterans who are leaving -We will always consider offering an interview to veterans if they meet the selection criteria laid out in the job advert. This does constitute the guarantee of a job, but rather the offer of an opportunity to prove themselves in an interview -We will offer work placements and volunteering opportunities to veterans or those about to leave the armed forces -we will look sympathetically on requests for holidays before, during or after overseas deployment, when the service person has leave to spend time with their family -considering offering special paid leave for employees who are bereaved or whose loved ones are injured -we will accommodate reservists’ training commitments wherever possible and the mobilisation of reservists if they are required to deploy -We will develop and support a community group for veterans -FCHO facilities and premises will be made available for the use of the cadets -We will offer support or sponsorship, either in cash or kind, to facilitate FCHO customers joining their local cadet unit

2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.