Paul Edie: Council will ensure home comforts for ex-troops

While many will have been able to buy homes and have a secure future, others will have been unable to do so, largely because they have had to move around so often. That is the nature of service life, but it means that they often cannot put roots down or build up the finance needed to get on to the property ladder.

Most of these ex-service personnel will be able to obtain rented accommodation, but a few will struggle to find a home and will be faced with long waits to access affordable and permanent accommodation.

In Edinburgh, we have been alive to this issue and when we were reviewing our council house allocations policy we decided to recognise the contribution our armed forces make.

We will now be taking the length of service into account when we allocate council housing. For the first time, the amount of time people have served will be equal to time others have been registered on Edinburgh’s housing register (EdIndex). This important change sends out a strong signal that the council will be there for troops when they finish their service and are looking for a home in Edinburgh.

I feel a strong sense of responsibility to ex-service personnel. If we are asking them to be out there defending our values, protecting our traditional freedoms from attack, while often earning a very low wage for the danger involved, then surely we have to do all we can to support them when they finish their service?

I do not pretend that what we are doing in Edinburgh will magically right the housing problems experienced by former serving personnel, but it is at least a move in the right direction.

lPaul Edie is convener of the health, social care and housing committee at the City of Edinburgh Council