Christopher Pincher Supports the Armed Forces in Debate

Tamworth’s Member of Parliament, Christopher Pincher, last week participated in a debate honouring our armed forces.   In his short speech which came at the end of the debate Mr Pincher began by expressing his admiration for 3 Mercian (the Staffords) who have recently came back from Afghanistan, he also paid his respects to those fallen in combat, particularly Pte Gareth Bellingham from Stoke.

He said:

“May I put on the record my admiration for the work of my local battalion? The Staffords, the 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment, have just returned from Afghanistan after a 10-month tour of duty. They will be proudly marching through Tamworth on 29 November and I, for one, will be there to welcome them, to honour them and to remember Private Gareth Bellingham, who unfortunately lost his life during the tour.”

He then commended the Armed Forces Covenant, enshrined in law by the Armed Forces Act 2011 of which Mr Pincher was a committee member before moving onto raise concerns about Services housing.  He asked:

“First, will the Minister consider enhanced accommodation allowances for our service personnel? Secondly, will he consider developing the shared equity scheme that the previous Government piloted? Thirdly—this one will cost him nothing—will he encourage the Chancellor of the Exchequer to sit down with banks and encourage them to offer forces-friendly and flexible mortgages, to help our servicemen and women? They need a stable, fixed address and the opportunity to put their feet on the property ladder. If they can do that, it will help us to reduce the £285 million a year bill on the 50,000 units of service family accommodation, which often needs to be upgraded. These people have put their lives on the line for us abroad. The very least we can do is offer them the opportunity of having a good home at home.”

Mr Pincher’s speech was acknowledged by the Labour Shadow Defence Minister, Russell Brown MP, who agreed his choice topic of service housing was a “vitally important subject” and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Andrew Robathan MP, who addressed some of his concerns in his “wind up speech”:

I wish to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Christopher Pincher) for his work on the Armed Forces Bill. I agree with him about the serious housing issues, on which we will continue our work. We have a group, involving the housing Minister, that discusses the difficulties that service personnel face in buying houses.

After the speech Mr Pincher added:

“We must continue to support our Armed Forces and helping them with a good home at home is one of many things we can do.  I will continue to work with the Government to make sure our Armed Forces get the best possible deal.   There is much to be done.  On the very day the government came to office, 36% of Services families living in accommodation said that accommodation was unacceptable.”