Official Statistics

Forces Help to Buy Quarterly Statistics quarter 4 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:

• 56,540 First Stage FHTB applications have been received.
• 28,296 of these applications have proceeded to the Second Stage.
• Payment have been made to around 24,100 applicants, totalling around £366 million, an average of approximately £15,200 per claim.
• At least 95% of payments, as at 31 March 2021, have already resulted in a purchased property or extension.

Figure 1: FHTB Payments - Q4 2014/15 to Q4 2020/21

Source: DBS

In Q4 (1 January to 31 March) 2020/21:

• 3,121 First Stage applications were received.
• 1,108 Second Stage applications were received.
• 929 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 — Q4 2014/15 to Q4 2020/21

Source: DBS

Figure 2 shows a 40% increase in the number of First Stage applications when comparing Q4 2019/20 (2,237 applications) and the latest Q4 2020/21 (3,121 applications). 2020/21 Q4 First Stage application figures are the highest quarterly First Stage application figures seen to date. The UK continues to face COVID-19 lockdown restrictions throughout this latest quarter.

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.

Applications

Figure 3: FHTB Second Stage Applications - Q4 2014/15 to Q4 2020/21

Source: DBS

Figure 3 shows a 34% increase in the number of Second Stage applications when comparing Q4 2019/20 (824 applications) and the latest Q4 2020/21 (1,108 applications).

2020/21 Q4 is the first financial year since 2016/17 where there has been an increase in the number of Q4 Second Stage applications compared to the previous financial year.

The UK continues to face COVID-19 lockdown restrictions throughout this latest quarter.

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.

Payments and Purchases

A total of 24,127 payments have been made under the FHTB scheme since it was introduced in April 2014 (as at 31 March 2021). With an average claim of approximately £15,200, this has resulted in expenditure of around £366 million.

Figure 4: FHTB Payments - Q4 2014/15 to Q4 2020/21

Source: DBS

Figure 4 is a copy of Figure 1 with additional extension announcement reference points

Figure 4 shows a 29% increase between the number of payments for Q4 2019/20 (722 payments) and the latest Q4 2020/21 (929 payments).

2020/21 Q4 number of payments figures are the highest number of Q4 payments seen since the scheme started in 2014/15.

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.

Payments and Purchases by rank and service

In Q4 2020/21, the highest percentage 76% of payments were made to Other Ranks compared to 24% of payments made to Officers¹. For comparative purposes, 81% of Other Ranks and 19% of Officers make up the Regular Full-time trained strength population. ²

The highest percentage of the payments in Q4 2020/21 were made to Army personnel 49%, with 26% of payments made to Royal Navy/Royal Marines personnel and 26% 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 population. ²

Figure 5: Payments by Rank, Q4 2020/21

Source: JPA

Figure 6: Payments by Service, Q4 2020/21

Source: JPA

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

¹JPA 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.

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

Payments by Age

The largest shares of payments have been made to personnel in the 30-34 (31%), 35-39 (21%) and 25-29 (21%) age groups. For comparison, personnel in these age groups make up 19%, 16% and 20% of the Regular Service population respectively. Service personnel aged between 18-24 account for 24% of the Service population and received 24% of the payments. Receipt of FHTB payments among the remaining age groups are broadly similar with their representation in the Service population.³

Figure 7: Proportion of Payments by Age, April 2014 – March 2021

³Service population data by age was taken from the latest MOD UK Armed Forces Diversity Statistics

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

Payments by region

Figure 8 shows the estimated proportions of payments used to purchase or extend properties in each UK region under the scheme since it began. As at 31 March 2021, 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 April 2020⁴, over half of Service personnel were in the South West (27%) and South East (27%). By contrast, very few were in the North East (1%), North West (1%) or Northern Ireland (1%).

Figure 8: Proportion of Payments⁵, by UK region of property, April 2014 – March 2021

Source: JPA

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

⁴Exclude missing or invalid postcodes 1%.

⁵Service population data by region was taken from the latest MOD UK Armed Forces 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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