Official Statistics

Forces Help to Buy quarterly statistics - Q3 2021/22

Updated 28 April 2022

This quarterly statistical release provides summary statistics on applications, payments and purchases made under the Forces Help to Buy (FHTB) 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.

1. Main points and trends

Since the Scheme began:

• 61,687 First Stage FHTB applications have been received.
• 30,472 of these applications have proceeded to the Second Stage.
• Payment has been made to around 26,537 applicants, totalling over £404 million, an average of approximately £15,300 per claim.
• At least 95% of payments, as at 31 December 2021, have already resulted in a purchased property or extension.

1.1 Figure 1: FHTB Payments – Q1 2014/15 to Q3 2021/22

Source: DBS

Alternative text for figure 1: A bar chart showing the number of FHTB payments made each financial quarter between April 2014 to December 2021 and the quarterly average for each financial year.

1.2 In Q3 (1 October to 31 December) 2021/22:

• 1,309 First Stage applications were received.
• 550 Second Stage applications were received.
• 581 payments were made to Service personnel.

Responsible Statistician: Analysis Publications Head of Branch
Telephone: 030 679 84458
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Please refer to the Supplementary tables containing all data presented in this publication.

2. 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.

3. Applications

3.1 Figure 2: FHTB First Stage Applications — Q1 2014/15 to Q3 2021/22

Source: DBS

Alternative text for figure 2: A bar chart showing the number of first stage applications made between April 2014 and December 2021 and the quarterly average for each financial year. October 2016, 2018 and 2019 are marked as dates the extension of the scheme was announced.

Figure 2 shows a 41% decrease in the number of first stage applications when comparing the latest Q3 2021/22 (1,309 applications) to Q3 2020/21 (2,233 applications).

The number of first stage applications is the lowest recorded since Q3 2015/16 (1,823 applications).

3.2 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	2020/21
Quarterly average of 1st Stage Applications	1900	1646	1928	1995	1923	2,210	2,534

The quarterly average has remained relatively stable between financial year 16/17 and 18/19. However, it has increased 15% between 18/19 and 19/20 and 15% between 2019/20 and 2020/21 (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.

4. Applications

4.1 Figure 3: FHTB Second Stage Applications – Q1 2014/15 to Q3 2021/22

Source: DBS

Alternative text for figure 3: A bar chart showing the number of second stage applications made between April 2014 and December 2021 and the quarterly average for each financial year. October 2016, 2018 and 2019 are marked as dates the extension of the scheme was announced.

Figure 3 shows a 37% decrease in the number of second stage applications when comparing the latest Q3 2021/22 (550 applications) to Q3 2020/21 (871 applications).

Q3 2021/22 is the second lowest number of second stage applications recorded, after Q1 2020/21 (532 applications), and is the lowest recorded second stage applications in a Q3 period.

4.2 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	2020/21
Quarterly average of 2nd Stage Applications	1,142	1,031	1,093	1,053	932	879	945

Although the number of Second Stage applications decreased 12% between 2017/18 and 2018/19 and a further 6% between 2018/19, it has increased 8% between 2019/20 and 2020/21 (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.

5. Payments and Purchases

A total of 26,537 payments have been made under the FHTB scheme since it was introduced in April 2014 (as at 31 December 2021). With an average claim of approximately 15,300, this has resulted in expenditure of over £404 million.

5.1 Figure 4: FHTB Payments – Q1 2014/15 to Q3 2021/22

Source: DBS

Alternative text for figure 4: Figure 4 is a copy of figure 1 with additional reference points, October 2016, 2018 and 2019 are marked as dates the extension of the scheme was announced.

Figure 4 shows a 39% decrease between the number of payments in Q3 2021/22 (581 payments) compared to Q3 20/21 (959 payments).

This is the lowest number of payments recorded in any Q3.

5.2 Table 3: Quarterly average number of payments

Financial year	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Quarterly average of Payments	762	899	973	941	871	815	772

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.

6. Payments and Purchases by Rank and Service

6.1 Figure 5: Payments by Rank, Q3 2021/22

Source: JPA Alternative text for figure 5: A pie chart showing the percentage of payments made to Officers and Other Ranks in Q3 2021/22. In Q3 2021/22, the highest percentage of payments were made to Other Ranks, 79%, compared to 21% of payments made to Officers^{[footnote 1]}.

For comparative purposes, the regular full-time trained Armed Forces strength population is made up of 81% Other Ranks and 19% Officers^{[footnote 2]}.

6.2 Figure 6: Payments by Service, Q3 2021/22

Source: JPA

Alternative text for figure 6: A pie chart showing the percentage of payments made to Army, Royal Navy/Marines and Royal Air Force personnel in Q3 2021/22.

The highest percentage of the payments in Q3 2021/22 were made to Army personnel, 50%, with 28% of payments made to Royal Navy/Royal Marines personnel and 23% to RAF personnel^{[footnote 1]}. For comparative purposes, the regular full-time trained Armed Forces strength population is made up of 56% Army personnel, 22% RN/RM personnel and 22% RAF personnel^{[footnote 2]}.

It is estimated that at least 95% of payments, as at 31 December 2021, 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.

7. 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.

Q3: Quarter 3 is the time period October to December.

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

8. Further Information

8.1 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.

8.2 Contact us

Defence Statistics welcome feedback on our statistical products. If you have any comments or questions about this publication or about our statistics in general, you can contact us as follows:

Telephone: 030 679 84458

Email: [email protected]

If you require information which is not available within this or other available publications, you may wish to submit a Request for Information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Ministry of Defence.

For general MOD enquiries, please call: 020 7218 9000

1. 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. ↩ ↩²

2. Based on figures as at 1 October 2021 taken from the Defence Statistics Quarterly Service Personnel Publication. Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100%. ↩ ↩²