A decorated Fife soldier and his family are facing being left homeless after he was made redundant from the army.
William Brown (25), who joined the armed forces at 16 and was awarded several medals following service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland, was devastated when he was told he would have to leave due to cutbacks.
In a further blow, Mr Brown, a private in The Black Watch, was informed he and his wife Traceyanne (29) and their four-year-old daughter Bailey would also have to leave their army housing in Inverness.
As a result, the Brown family decided to move back to their home town of Dunfermline, where their relatives live, but despite registering with Fife Council in October last year, the local authority say there is no room for them and have classified them as “no priority need”.
This flies in the face of the council’s policy to prioritise housing applications for former armed forces personnel if they have connections to the area.
An angry Mr Brown said he has been left feeling “very let down”.
The Browns are now facing up to a year’s wait before being able to rent a house from the council, meaning they will be homeless from March 17, which is the date the Ministry of Defence has ordered them to leave their Inverness home.
As well as agonising over their housing dilemma, Mr Brown and his wife are mourning the loss of their son Jack, who was stillborn in August last year.
He said: “I grew up in Fife. All my family is there. It makes me disgusted.”
Alistair Black, area housing and neighbourhoods team leader at Fife Council, said: “I understand that Mr and Mrs Brown are disappointed that they haven’t had an offer of a tenancy, but we are still committed to finding a property as quickly as we can.
“The couple are looking for a specific type of property in Dunfermline and this unfortunately narrows their chances as houses of this type in Dunfermline are much sought after.
“We will continue to do our best to help them with what is certainly a very stressful situation and look for accommodation in the interim.”