FEDERATION
NEM: Introduction of Combined Accommodation Assessment System for Service Family Accommodation (SFA)
We covered this article on our website, as a news feature the day it was issued. Our web traffic went through the roof. Here’s a re-cap:
A
Written Statement to Parliament by the Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans was presented
to Parliament about the introduction of a Combined Accommodation Assessment System (CAAS) for Service Family Accommodation.
The Combined Accommodation Assessment System (CAAS) is planned to replace the current Four Tier Grading (4TG) system for all SFA from 1 April 2016.
The introduction of CAAS will ensure that charges for Services accommodation are fair, transparent and represent good value for money, with a substantial subsidy, compared to the civilian sector. Charges will not be linked to civilian rents.
The RAF Families Federation’s view: Bill Mahon, Director of the RAF Families Federation has added, “We’ve been involved in helping the MoD Team responsible for developing the CAAS process to understand the issues and concerns around grading. We supported our contribution with YOUR evidence, so thanks for that. There’s no doubt that the current 4-tier grading process is broken and we have received a steady stream of complaints about it over the last couple of years especially. This new system of grading is badly needed and provides a fair and pragmatic way of reflecting the accommodation issues that most affect RAF families occupying SFA. As such, it has our support.“
In short – what to expect: • Throughout the first half of 2015, properties will be assessed for their new charge
18 Envoy Winter 2014
• February 2016, prior to CAAS being launched in April 2016, notification of final charges will be sent to all occupants. No charges will change before April 2016
• July will see an estimated charge sent to all occupants
• In Summer/Autumn 2015 a series of events and publications will be made available to Service personnel
• From April 2016, new charges will apply. Decreases will be implemented in full at the time; increases will be staggered over several years.
Background 1. MOD has made significant investment in SFA in recent years (£90M in the last financial year alone). The quality of the homes provided overall to Service Family has improved. Last year over 10% of our UK stock was improved (over 5000 properties), which included the installation of more than 2000 new bathrooms and kitchens and nearly 1500 new boilers. £10M was spent on eradicating mould and damp. MOD also built or bought more than 700 new properties. This investment will continue.
2. The current system that is used to set charges, 4TG, is so complex and subjective that many assessments (for more than half of all family homes) are inaccurate. As a result, the charges for many properties where improvements have been made have stayed at low levels. To ensure that charges are set fairly, and to make sure our investment programme is sustainable and properly targeted, we need a new assessment system that is fit for the future.
What will happen to charges? 3. In April 2016, we plan to introduce a new set of objective standards to assess Service Family Accommodation. These will be based on existing Government standards, so that we can determine charges simply and transparently. • The highest charge payable (i.e. the new equivalent of the Grade 1 for Charge) will not change as a result of the introduction of the new system.
• From April 2016, far fewer properties will pay that highest charge than under the current system.
• Around a quarter of occupants will see charges decrease in April 2016 by, on average, £50 a month – these decreases will be implemented in full at that time.
• Around three quarters of occupants will see charges rise gradually from April 2016. This is most likely to apply to those in properties currently paying low charges but which are of a better standard.
4. Where a property was under-graded under the old system, charges will rise to a higher rate, gradually, fairly and transparently. All rises will be capped to a set amount each year. The cap will vary according to rank and house size, but will be around £40 a month for junior officers and £20-30 a month for other ranks. For the majority of properties, the total change to the monthly charge, staggered over several years, will be between £50 and £75 from its current level.
An example of what might happen to monthly charges for a three-bed home (Type C) which has been under-graded is shown below. Note; that the exact figures have not yet been set –
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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