Official Statistics

Forces Help to Buy Quarterly Statistics quarter 2 2020/21

Updated 29 April 2021

This quarterly statistical release provides summary statistics on applications, payments and purchases made under the Forces Help to Buy (FHTB) scheme. In addition, biannual statistics are provided on the proportions of payments by region and on the age of personnel using the scheme.

FHTB is an advance of salary scheme which was introduced in April 2014 and allows Regular Armed Forces personnel to borrow money to buy their first home or move to a new location.

Main Points and Trends

Since the Scheme began:

• 51,186 First Stage FHTB applications have been received.
• 26,317 of these applications have proceeded to the Second Stage.
• Payment has been made to around 22,200 applicants, totalling around £336 million, an average of approximately £15,100 per claim.
• At least 95% of payments, as at 30 September 2020, have already resulted in a purchased property or extension.

Figure 1: FHTB Payments - Q2 2014/15 to Q2 2020/21

Source: DBS

In Q2 (1 July to 30 September) 2020/21:

• 3,112 First Stage applications were received.
• 1,267 Second Stage applications were received.
• 822 payments were made to Service personnel.

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Please refer to the Supplementary tables containing all data presented in this publication.

Introduction

The FHTB scheme was launched in April 2014 with the aim of supporting and encouraging home ownership amongst Service Personnel whose level of home ownership has historically been lower than the rest of the UK population. Regular Service Personnel can borrow up to 50% of their gross annual salary (to a maximum of £25,000) to buy their first home, move to another or, in exceptional circumstances, extend an existing property.

First Stage applications are those which pass initial eligibility checks and second stage applications are those which pass detailed eligibility checks.

First and Second Stage application data and the values of FHTB payments are provided by Defence Business Services (DBS). The Service and Rank breakdowns are provided from Joint Personnel Administration (JPA). The two sets of data are ‘as at’ different dates in a month. DBS data is as at the end of the preceding month and JPA data is produced according to when the last pay run for military personnel was completed. The pay run occurs in the middle of the month and varies according to the month length.

Data on the proportion of payments that result in purchases of properties or extensions under the scheme are provided by Defence Business Services (DBS) on a quarterly basis. Some FHTB payments do not result in the purchase of a property or the extension of an existing property due, for example, to changes in personal circumstances or to the withdrawal of a party from a property chain.

These statistics were published monthly from March 2016 to November 2017 before being released quarterly.

Applications

Figure 2: FHTB First Stage Applications — Q2 2014/15 to Q2 2020/21

Source: DBS

Figure 2 shows a 28% increase in the number of First Stage applications when comparing Q2 2019/20 (2,428 applications) and the latest Q2 2020/21 (3112 applications). 2020/21 Q2 First Stage application figures are the highest quarterly First Stage application figures seen to date. The increase in the 2020/21 Q2 First Stage applications coincides with the summer relaxation of strict lockdown measures during the COVID-19 global pandemic in the United Kingdom.

Table 1: Quarterly average number of First Stage applications by financial year.

Financial year	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20
Quarterly average of 1st Stage Applications	1900	1646	1928	1995	1923	2,210

The quarterly average, which increased by 17% between 15/16 and 16/17 financial years, remained relatively stable between financial year 16/17 and 18/19. However, the quarterly average has increased 15% between 18/19 and 19/20 (see Figure 2 and Table 1). It should be noted that the average for 2014/15 is inflated by the high number of applications received when the scheme first opened.

Applications

Figure 3: FHTB Second Stage Applications - Q2 2014/15 to Q2 2020/21

Source: DBS

Figure 3 shows a 40% increase in the number of Second Stage applications when comparing Q2 2019/20 (908 applications) and the latest Q2 2020/21 (1267 applications). 2020/21 Q2 Second Stage application figures are the highest Second Stage application figures seen since the first quarter of the scheme starting in 2014/15. The increase in the 2020/21 Q2 Second Stage applications coincides with the summer relaxation of strict lockdown measures during the COVID-19 global pandemic in the United Kingdom. ###Table 2: Quarterly average number of second stage applications by financial year

Financial year	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20
Quarterly average of 2nd Stage Applications	1,142	1,031	1,093	1,053	932	879

Although remaining broadly stable between 2015/16 and 2017/18, the quarterly average for the number of Second Stage applications has decreased 11% between 2017/18 and 2018/19 and a further 6% between 2018/19 and 2019/20 (see Figure 3 and Table 2). It should be noted that the average for 2014/15 is inflated by the high number of applications received when the scheme first opened.

Payments and Purchases

A total of 22,239 payments have been made under the FHTB scheme since it was introduced in April 2014 (as at 30 September 2020). With an average claim of approximately £15,100, this has resulted in expenditure of around £336 million.

Figure 4: FHTB Payments - Q2 2014/15 to Q2 2020/21

Source: DBS

1A copy of Figure 1 with additional extension announcement reference points

Figure 4 shows the number of payments for Q2 2019/20 (811 payments) and the latest Q2 2020/21(822 payments) has remained broadly stable. After a sharp decrease in payments in Q1 2020/21, the number of quarterly payments in 2020/21 Q2 has returned to levels seen in the previous financial year. This coincides with the summer relaxation of strict lockdown measures during the COVID-19 global pandemic in the United Kingdom.

Table 3: Quarterly average number of payments

Financial year	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20
Quarterly average of Payments	762	899	973	941	871	815

The quarterly average for the number of payments increased 18% between 14/15 and 15/16. Averages increased to a peak in 2016/17 (973) but have decreased (between 3% and 7%) each financial year since then. Please note that the average for 2014/15 is reduced by the low number of payments made when the scheme opened.

Payments and Purchases by rank and service

In Q2 2020/21, 24% of payments were made to Officers compared to 76% of payments made to Other Ranks. For comparative purposes, 19% of Officers and 81% of Other Ranks make up the Regular Full-time trained strength population2.

52% of the payments in Q2 2020/21 were made to Army personnel, with 21% of payments made to Royal Navy/Royal Marines personnel and 27% to RAF personnel1. For comparative purposes, 55% of Army personnel, 22% of RN/RM and 23% of RAF personnel make up the Regular Full-time trained Armed Forces strength population2.

Figure 5: Payments by Rank, Q2 2020/21

Source: JPA3

Figure 6: Payments by Service, Q2 2020/21

Source: JPA

It is estimated that at least 95% of payments, as at 30 September 2020, have already resulted in a purchased property or extension. There is a small lag between payments and loan repayments once a property has been purchased or extended. Some FHTB payments do not result in the purchase of a property or the extension of an existing property, due, for example, to changes in personal circumstance or to the withdrawal of a party from a property chain.

2 Based on figures as at 1 July 2020 taken from the Defence Statistics’ Quarterly Service Personnel Publication. Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. 3 JPA data is produced according to when the last pay run for military personnel was completed. The pay run occurs in the middle of the month, which varies according to the month length. Therefore, the Officer / Rank and Service breakdowns represent the number of payments recorded between the pay runs in that month and the preceding month.

Payments by Age

Figure 7: Proportion of Payments by Age, April 2014 – September 2020

The largest shares of payments have been made to personnel in the 30-34 (31%) and 25-29 (22%) age groups. For comparison, personnel in these age groups make up 19% and 21% of the Regular Service population respectively. Service personnel aged between 18-24 account for 24% of the Service population and received 4% of the payments. Receipt of FHTB payments among the remaining age groups are broadly similar with their representation in the Service pop-ulation1

Service population data by age was taken from the latest MOD UK Armed Forces Diversity Sta-tistics

Age data is reported using the ONS Harmonised Standard 4 age bandings

Payments by region

Figures 8 and 9 show the estimated proportions of payments used to purchase or extend proper-ties in each UK region under the scheme since it began. As at 30 September 2020, just over a fifth (22%) of payments were used to purchase or extend properties in the South West of England – the largest share of any region. The regions with the lowest share of payments were Northern Ireland (1%) and London (1%). These proportions have remained stable since they were first reported in the FHTB September 2016 edition.

For comparison, as at 1 July 20204, over half of Service personnel were located in the South East (27%) and South West (27%). By contrast, very few were located in the North East (1%), North West (1%) or Northern Ireland (1%).

Figure 8 and 9: Proportion of Payments5 by UK region of property, April 2014 – September 2020

Source: JPA

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2016.

Regional data is reported using the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics Level 1

4 Exclude missing or invalid postcodes <1%.

5 Taken from Defence Statistics publicationQuarterly Location Statistics

Glossary

Forces Help to Buy (FHTB): FHTB is an advance of salary scheme which was introduced in April 2014 and allows Regular Armed Forces personnel to borrow money in order to buy their first home or move to a new location.

Regular Armed Forces Personnel: Full time Service personnel excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel.

First Stage applications: Applications which pass initial eligibility checks.

Second Stage applications: Applications which pass detailed eligibility checks.

Defence Business Services (DBS): Organisation which provides corporate services, such as recruitment and payroll, across the Ministry of Defence.

Joint Personnel Administration (JPA): The system used by the Armed Forces to deal with matters of pay, leave and other personnel administrative tasks. JPA replaced several single Service IT systems and was implemented in April 2006 for RAF, November 2006 for Naval Service and April 2007 for Army.

Rounding

Payment figures in this publication have been rounded to the nearest £1 and the average payment rounded to nearest £100. Percentages are calculated from unrounded data and rounded to the nearest whole number, therefore may not sum to 100%.

Statistics quoted in the narrative may be rounded for clarity, with more precise figures available in the Supplementary tables

Further Information

Revisions

Corrections to the published statistics will be made if errors are found, or if figures change because of improvements to methodology or changes to definitions. When making corrections, we will follow the Ministry of Defence Statistics, revisions and corrections policy. All corrected figures will be identified by the symbol “r”, and an explanation will be given of the reason for and size of the revision. Corrections which would have a significant impact on the utility of the statistics will be corrected as soon as possible, by reissuing the publication. Minor errors will also be corrected, but for convenience these corrections may be timed to coincide with the next release of the publication.

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