Op FORTITUDE came with an initial £8.5 million under the Tories and then a further £3.5m from Starmer’s government – total funding similar to the cost of one Ajax armoured vehicle, of which the British military has just delivered 50 ready for deployment on Nato’s eastern flank. Starmer has promised to house all veterans in need and said “homes will be there for heroes”. The government insists it is committed to Op FORTITUDE.
But there remain questions over what the future of that promise looks like.
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The leader of one organisation said funding associated with Op FORTITUDE had stopped – but they were still taking referrals from its hotline.
“We’re still taking the referrals but now not getting paid for it,” Andy Powell, CEO of Healthier Heroes, said.
“Other people essentially are being paid to pick up a phone call, make an assessment, and then refer them on to other partners who are not getting paid to do anything. But I also equally understand how important that call center is for Riverside as well.”
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Up to September, Healthier Heroes had been in partnership with Launchpad to support 230 homeless veterans. But after that they were told they could not access any more cash, with rules barring Community Interest Companies. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said only registered charities or housing providers who had been working with veterans for a minimum of three years were eligible for funding.
“We demonstrated our worth and our ability to produce good results and outcomes and house these veterans. And then at the back end of it was told you’re not having any more money,” Powell added. In the space of just three months, the cash allowed Healthier Heroes to house 92 ex-services personnel, funding services and staff alongside the bed spaces.
“We can’t sack these people and let them go because they are vital to our service…if you were to strip those roles away, we would be left with veterans that are being disadvantaged significantly, and we don’t want to do that. It’s not what we’re about.”
It adds to another organisation who told Big Issue they were taking referrals but not getting funding to go alongside it. Big Issue reported last week that Entrain Space had been listed as taking referrals from Op FORTITUDE in a government press release, but did not receive the associated funding at all.
Op FORTITUDE has helped get more than 1,000 veterans off the streets, and it is believed this work could continue with unfunded services beyond the March deadline, with organisations keen to carry on helping veterans. But there are doubts from many of those taking referrals over its sustainability without cash – and those leading the scheme said the Op FORTITUDE hotline would have little point without funded places to send homeless veterans.
“If we lose that funding we will need to move to only taking low to medium needs referrals,” Lee Buss-Blair. Riverside had 55 bed spaces for veterans with high needs, taking around three quarters of the 200 veterans Riverside has got off the streets since the start of Op FORTITUDE. “We wouldn’t refer a high support needs veteran to a low needs support,” he added.
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Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge and former veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer called on the government to confirm the cash after Big Issue’s story. Cartlidge said: “Ministers must urgently confirm that they will keep funding the accommodation it provides.”
Funding announced under the Op FORTITUDE banner is made up of funding for the Op FORTITUDE hotline, a single point of contact which veterans can call and be referred to other services, and then funding for bed spaces and services to support the veterans brought off the streets.
Some £500,000 of initial money announced with Op FORTITUDE in understood to have gone to the hotline, with the rest going towards accommodation, services, and admin costs. “It is Op FORTITUDE and it isn’t Op FORTITUDE,” said Buss-Blair.
New statistics show 44 rough sleepers recorded on London’s streets in the three months to September 2025 had a UK armed forces history – or just 1.3% of the total.
An MOD spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring veterans and their families across the UK have access to housing support they need, aligning with the Prime Minister’s pledge to provide homes for heroes.
“We have committed £3.5m to veteran homelessness services including Op FORTITUDE, the single referral pathway for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness. On top of this, we have changed the law to make it easier for veterans to access social housing in England and in the last week have awarded £4.5m of grants to refurbish and build new social and affordable housing for veterans”.
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