The military community will benefit from £57.7m worth of investment in projects, the Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement…
LIBOR funds will provide a £20 million boost to fundraising for the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC), in addition to financing four projects endorsed by the Ministry of Defence.
MOD endorsed projects
Iraq-Afghanistan Memorial
A £500,000 grant will fund the unveiling of a memorial marking the contribution made by the people of Britain, both military and civilian, who served in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 25 years. This service will provide a national moment to unveil the memorial which will recognise, praise and remember the brave service of all those who were engaged in these countries. The memorial, which will be installed in Victoria Embankment Gardens in London, is set to be unveiled in the spring.
RAF 100
The Royal Air Force Centenary is on 1st April 2018 and will commemorate the achievements of the RAF and all those who have served. This is a chance to celebrate the rich history of the RAF, from the battle-winning performances high above the skies of Britain in the nation’s greatest hour of need, to more recent activities such as tackling Daesh in Iraq and Syria. £2,432,000 has been allocated to address both the history and the future of the RAF. Some of the funds will help veterans and families attend commemorative events due to take place in London in July 2018, whilst a large proportion will go on youth engagement programmes, encouraging children to choose science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related-subjects at school and to consider careers in aerospace.
Invictus Games
An award of £150,000 will contribute towards sending a UK delegation to Toronto, Canada in September to take part in next year’s Invictus Games. In line with previous arrangements, the delegation is being organised by a partnership of the MOD and charitable partners Help for Heroes and The Royal British Legion. The Games are a high profile, international sporting event for wounded, injured and sick serving and veteran military personnel, created by Prince Harry while he was serving in the British Army.
Service families
Over £450,000 has been allocated to support families of the Armed Forces. A significant portion of this is going to the Families Federations, who will help families by supporting them with information on deployment and relationships, and raising awareness of the range of help which is available to them. They will also use the funds to commission research into important issues which may affect families in the Forces, such as how the Covenant is supporting Army families overseas.
A share of the funding will also go towards specialist organisations working with the service welfare arm of the MOD. This will be used to continue the good work being done to ensure domestic abuse crimes remain low within service families and supporting those who are unfortunately affected.
Other funding
You can read the full list of projects funded by LIBOR here
Included is £20 million towards the construction of the defence element of the brand new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) at Stanford Hall. The centre, a purpose-built, world-leading clinical rehabilitation site to offer medical services for injured members of the Forces, is set to become operational in 2018.
Welcoming the announcement Defence Minister Mark Lancaster said: "Last week I saw the remarkable progress on the DNRC building work first hand. Today’s £20 million LIBOR grant will propel us further towards a truly world-class healthcare facility, and is a further commitment from this government to support our Armed Forces as well as wider society."
