SOLDIERS returning to East Lancashire from conflicts like Afghanistan could be given a home under a unique scheme.

Campaigners are in talks with housing chiefs to establish ‘halfway houses’ in Burnley and Pendle for ex-services personnel.

The scheme is the brainchild of the Veterans Association and the Burnley-based forces group SALUTE who are worried about the growing number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who end up living on the streets or unemployed.

Around 30 soldiers across the country end up homeless every month, according to the campaigners.

The pioneering scheme won the immediate backing of Annette Aspin, whose son Shaun, 22, from Colne, was seriously injured serving with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in Helmand province.

She said: "This is the sort of thing we should be supporting. But it should be down to the government to offer proper support.

"I think it is absolutely disgusting, the way that people are left when they leave the forces.

"I don’t think people realise the sacrifice that people make, laying their lives on the line out there."

Tony Hayes, Veterans’ Association chief executive, said: “We have got to recivilianise the people we are working with.

“Some of the people we are working with have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and others have been in the services for some time and have always had everything sorted out for them.”

He has drawn up a bid to the Henry Smith charity for £30,000, over a three-year period, to back the initiative.

Each person living at the house would be expected to contribute towards the rent and council tax for the property.

And the not-for-profit veterans organisation would then be able to help guide the residents into training and employment.

Mr Hayes, who himself served with the Royal Horse Artillery and the South Notts Hussars, said: “Around 99.9 per cent of the people who leave the services are suffering from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s just a matter of the degree of problems they will face.”

He is planning to meet with Ian Clark, an executive director at Housing Pendle, in a bid to obtain support for the scheme.

The veterans group, launched in April, has a national network of co-ordinators and has been lobbying Housing Minister Grant Shapps over the restoration of housing rights for former services personnel.

Mr Hayes has another meeting scheduled, this time with Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry, Mr Shapp’s private secretary, to discuss the restoration of the ‘forces covenant’.

Ex-forces group SALUTE (Soldiers Assisted Leaving Uniform Together Empowered) is also hoping to progress a similar scheme in the Burnley and Padiham area.

Chairman Keith Shepherd said: “At the moment we need funding. A lot of places are becoming available locally, buildings that have been children’s homes for example.

“We are trying to get funding to pay for a four or five-bedroom house with a kitchen, bathroom and lounge. Eventually we would like to put a manager in there.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is that 30 soldiers across the country are going on the streets every month.

“We have already helped soldiers find houses and jobs but if we had our own house it would be a lot easier.”

Campaigners at SALUTE have so far raised money through a range of small events and have received support from other organisations.

Vice-chairman Daniel Hutchinson, who is responsible for the day-to-day running, added: “Unfortunately one of the problems we have is veterans becoming homeless.

“What we do at the moment is get them registered with Burnley Council which is very good at getting them into a temporary bed and breakfast.

“But what we would like to do is have our own house to put them in. If we had that, we wouldn’t have to burden the system.

“We want to give them the option of not going on the streets.”