Onward Homes has signed the Armed Forces Covenant, pledging its commitment to supporting serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families.

The housing provider will support the armed forces personnel across its communities in the North West, with a focus on homelessness amongst veterans. This adds further support to Andy Burnham’s campaign to eradicate homelessness Greater Manchester by 2020.

A large proportion of homeless people are believed to be ex-service personnel. Through the covenant Onward Homes will provide focused housing support to serving and veteran armed forces personnel whilst ensuring that staff have the skills and knowledge to signpost and access the most appropriate services.

The housing provider will also look at how it can identify veterans among its existing customers to offer tailored support.

Executive Director of Operations for Onward Homes, Alastair Cooper, who is also a Colonel in the Army Reserve said, “The military can be quite invisible in society. As an officer in the Army Reserve I have a deep-rooted commitment to ensuring that our service men and women and their families are fully supported by organisations such as Onward Homes.

Andy Burnham’s commitment to tackling homelessness and his recognition of the Armed Forces Covenant is really encouraging to see, and I truly believe that we will see some big changes in Manchester for Armed Forces personnel over the next few years.”

Colonel Ray Hughes, Deputy Commander (Reserves), Headquarters North West, commented, “It is a pleasure to be working alongside Onward Homes. I hope that we will do good things together in the future.”

Leaders of all Greater Manchester Local Authorities, The Mayor, Greater Manchester Police and NHS leaders, alongside representatives of the Ministry of Defence have all signed the Armed Forces Covenant.

Onward Homes is one of the North West’s largest housing providers with 35,000 properties across Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire.