Following both the successes and the criticisms of the Help to Buy Schemes, the government has turned to helping those who are part of the armed forces to get onto the property ladder and become home owners with a new scheme, Forces Help to Buy (FHtB).

This new scheme, available from April 1st, is the spiritual successor to the Armed Forces Home Ownership scheme that was nowhere near as high profile or wide reaching as the main Help to Buy Equity Loan and Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee schemes.

Under this scheme, regular service personnel will be eligible to apply for loans of up to 50% of their salary to go towards purchasing a house.

Initially just available for 3 years (but who knows how long it will last considering the recent Help to Buy extension), is the beginning of a programme through which the government hopes to modernise the terms and conditions of the service for serving personnel.

The Chief of Defence Personnel, Lieutenant General Andrew Gregory, welcomed the new scheme. He said “through our work in the new employment model and the armed forces covenant we are continually striving to make improvements to those aspects of life outside of service which we know can be adversely affected by life in service.

“It is a hugely positive step forward that we are able to introduce the Forces Help to Buy scheme today, a year ahead of our original plan.”