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The model

Managed Trained Licensees puts vetted, responsible veterans inside the building under licence. Under a signed Operating Manual. Licensees with clear terms, clear rules, and no security of tenure because no tenure is implied. The distinction matters legally. A tenancy creates rights that are difficult and expensive to terminate. A licence creates a permission to occupy that can be ended cleanly when the property is needed back. The licence agreement is the structural foundation of the entire model. It defines the occupant's obligations, the property rules, the notice terms, and the conditions under which the licence can be revoked. It is drafted to stand up in court if challenged.

The building is occupied around the clock. Not visited. Not patrolled. The Trained Licensees are present day and night, every day. The building is heated, ventilated, checked, and kept in active use. Deterioration is caught early because someone is living with it. A dripping pipe is reported the day it starts, not discovered three months later when the ceiling collapses. A broken window is noticed immediately, not found during a quarterly inspection. The fabric of the building is preserved through the simple fact of daily human presence.

Access is controlled because the Trained Licensees know who belongs and who does not. An empty building has no one to notice an intruder at the back door. An occupied building has people who recognise unfamiliar faces, hear unusual sounds, and report anything that does not look right. This is not formal security. It is the natural awareness that comes from living in a space and caring about its condition.

The legal position is where the model delivers its strongest advantage. Under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, squatting in a residential occupancy setup is a criminal offence carrying a potential prison sentence of up to 51 weeks, a fine, or both. Trained Licensees occupation converts a vacant commercial property into a residential setup for the purpose of this protection.

The practical difference is decisive. A commercial building sitting empty is a civil matter if someone enters and refuses to leave. The police attend, assess the situation, and tell the owner it is a civil dispute. The owner must instruct solicitors, file a claim, attend court, obtain an order, and enforce it. The squatter remains in the building throughout that process, potentially for weeks or months, with the right to contest the claim. The cost in legal fees, lost time, property damage, and delayed redevelopment can be severe.

A building with a managed residential occupancy setup is a different situation entirely. The police attend and the squatter is committing a criminal offence by being there. The police can arrest. The process moves from civil courts and weeks of waiting to criminal enforcement and immediate action. That single legal distinction, residential status under LASPO, changes the entire risk profile for the property owner. And squatters know this. The deterrence is real and is 100%.

Beyond the legal position, the building benefits from daily human presence in ways that no visiting security service can replicate. Heating and ventilation prevent the damp, mould, and condensation damage that accelerates in unoccupied properties. Running water prevents pipe stagnation and legionella risk. Regular use of electrical systems identifies faults before they become dangerous. The building stays alive because people are living in it.

The Trained Licensees are not security guards. They do not hold SIA licences and they do not patrol. They have only ordinary citizen powers and a veteran mindset. They protect the property through occupation, order, responsible presence, and the practical knowledge that comes from living in the building every day. They know which doors stick, which windows need checking, where the stopcocks are, and what the building sounds like when everything is normal. That knowledge is more valuable than any external patrol because it is continuous, intimate, and grounded in daily experience.

The building is not merely watched. It is lived in, known, maintained, reported on, and harder to treat as abandoned. That is the difference between security and Managed Trained Licensees, and it is the reason the model works.

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See the financials
The financials

Before we go to the financials, allow us to say something.

"No man or woman who accepted the possibility of death for this nation shall ever know scarcity of life."

That is the line our charity was built on. Right now, veterans who served this country are sleeping on its streets. One room in your building, twelve months, and a structured programme through a registered charity gives one of them a path back to stable employment and independent living. A soup kitchen and shower facility in the same building serves some others, vetted and referred through reputable veteran associations, who are not yet ready for the programme but need somewhere to start.

That is what your empty building can do while it waits for its next purpose. The full story is at veteraninneed.org.

Now, let's see the numbers, and you'll find that a noble act can also go along a profitable venture.

OptionAnnual cost to ownerSquatting statusBuilding condition
24/7 SIA security£149,000Civil matter, unchangedGuard on door, no fabric monitoring
CCTV and alarm£5,000 to £10,000Civil matter, unchangedRecords damage, prevents nothing
Do nothing£30,000 to £100,000 in rates alone, plus insurance and decayCivil matter, fully exposedDeterioration accelerating, unmonitored
Trained Licensees occupation with charityCosts for running utilities and the usual certificatesCriminal offence under LASPO. Rates relief 80 to 100%Occupied, heated, monitored daily. One veteran housed

In short: even with you paying the utilities, the financial comparison is completely absurd. We are not asking you to give us charity. We are proposing to save you tens of thousands of pounds a year while providing a live-in military-experience presence that is inherently more secure than a demotivated, minimum-wage static guard, and also to get the "feel good" of doing something about the delicate issues of the veterans abandoned by society.

Trained Licensees

Trained Licensees are vetted working veterans who occupy vacant commercial properties under the clear provisions of a licence and an Operating Manual. They are referred by veteran associations. They are not security guards. They hold no SIA authority and carry no special powers. They are veterans who have been referred, inducted, and trained to live in a managed property to a defined standard.

Every Trained Licensee provides identification, proof of employment, bank statements, an employment reference, and a DBS criminal record check. Every Trained Licensee reads and signs the Operating Manual and the licence agreement before moving in. The Operating Manual covers property care, fire safety, cleanliness, conduct, reporting, and the conditions under which the licence can be terminated immediately.

The building is protected not by equipment or authority but by the constant presence of people who live in it, know it, and are personally accountable for its condition. That presence is more effective than any guard on a door or camera on a wall.