Starbucks UK expands pioneering housing employee benefit scheme: Starbucks UK is expanding the reach of its pioneering housing employee benefit scheme. The company is now making the Home Sweet Loan rental deposit scheme available to UK employees who are sub-letting rooms and have been with Starbucks for more than six months. More employees in its UK workforce could now benefit from an interest-free loan, to help cover the cost of rental deposits when moving home. Home Sweet Loan was the first scheme of its kind by a private company in the UK, developed in partnership with Shelter and Generation Rent and launched in September 2015. The interest-free loan can be paid back over 12 months and aims to help Starbucks partners, particularly those aged under 25 years old, to tackle the cost of living. At the Business in the Community Seeing is Believing visit, Martin Brok, president, Starbucks EMEA, said: “A lot of our partners live in cities close to our stores where the cost of living is soaring and we believe with Home Sweet Loan we can make a real difference to their lives by offering this benefit. This month we have had the highest number of applicants, so we hope by extending the scheme, more partners will take advantage of this initiative.” Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of London First, which works with business leaders, local and national government to make London “the best city in the world in which to do business”, added: “London has persistently failed to build the number of homes it needs which has put huge pressure on renters, and caused tenancy deposits to regularly top £3,000. It’s great employers like Starbucks are doing what they can to help. But ultimately, the crisis is one of undersupply, and there’s no substitute for the government and City Hall building the homes we need.”