Community Housing
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 Community Housing 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 Community Housing 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 Reservists
- Armed Forces Charities
We also pledge the following:

We will promote that we are an Armed Forces Friendly Housing Association. We will offer Employment Support to members of the Armed Forces Community: through our Building Better Opportunities employment service, to those veterans and their families who need help seeking work and with building up life skills to be able to access work. Communications, engagement and outreach: We will identify our customers who are still serving and who are veterans and note their profiles on our housing management system. We will give them special consideration with communications where we do not receive a re-quired response from them, making an additional committed attempt to engage with them Support: we will train our staff to be forces friendly and aware of challenges, such as mental health and combative behaviours, and additional needs faced by servicemen and veterans. We will designate and train forces champions who will be a resource and point of contact for staff and customers. Armed Forces Charities: we will work with Armed Forces Charities such as the Kidderminster & Wyre Forest Armed forces and Veterans breakfast club, to offer support to our customers who attend. We will also work with local RBL and SSAFA in partnership to support our custom-ers. Employees: we will support employees who choose to be members of the reserve forces, al-lowing time off for training and deployment where possible. A maximum of 2 weeks paid leave may be granted per year for reserve forces personnel to attend required training. If de-ployed, the employees job will be held for them. Housing: we will work in partnership with local authorities housing needs teams to provide suitable accommodation to veterans and servicemen/women. Promoting services: we will regularly work with our marketing team to promote awareness that we are a forces friendly organisation and that we have designated forces champions who can be a point of contact and support. Rent arrears: if the rent account of a veteran or serving member of the armed forces falls into arrears, the income team will make considerations if the customer is not responding to con-tact requests; they will refer to the Veteran Champions who will make additional contacts and offer support.

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.