LGA voices fears about the risk of homelessness, and calls on the government to work with councils on a jointly managed, locally driven process to asylum and resettlement
Around 8,000 Afghan individuals and families could become homeless at the end of next month as the Home Office serves notice for them to leave temporary bridging hotels, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.
As it begins its annual conference in Bournemouth today, the LGA highlights that while councils are committed to protecting and supporting refugees and asylum seekers and helping deliver a wide range of government asylum and resettlement schemes, the combined pressures from such schemes are growing and leading to unsustainable pressures on housing, homelessness, and children’s services teams.
In particular, the LGA points to the risk for around 8,000 Afghan individuals and families – currently housed at 59 temporary bridging hotels across the country – who have been served notice by the Home Office to leave by the end of August 2023 and provided with details of available support for them to find their own settled accommodation –
'… the acute shortage of housing available across the country and short timeframe until the end of notice periods is making the ability to quickly secure appropriate accommodation for all Afghan families in bridging hotels extremely challenging. Councils are increasingly concerned that many will end up needing homelessness support if families – some of whom are vulnerable and include children – fail to find properties or refuse the offer they receive.'
Expressing its frustration about the current lack of recognition of existing local pressures and the failure to adequately engage with councils on the ground about the complexities they face, the LGA calls on the government to work with councils on a jointly managed, locally driven process to asylum and resettlement.
LGA Chair Shaun Davies said –
'Councils have a proud history of stepping up and supporting asylum seekers and refugees to settle in the UK and rebuild their lives. But combined pressures from government asylum and resettlement schemes are growing on councils. We are at crisis point.
We want to work with the Government to get this right. Not just in a way that best supports the people arriving in the UK but also tackles the unsustainable pressures on our local services and on our communities.'
For more information, see Afghan homelessness fears as LGA warns of asylum and resettlement pressures from local.gov.uk