Chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) councillor Shaun Davies said: “Increased demand and acute shortage of housing available across the country, combined with other pressures from across asylum and resettlement schemes, will make it extremely challenging for the large number of families remaining in hotels to find affordable, long-term accommodation in the areas they want to live in before their hotels close.”
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Councils assemble vital support for Afghan children and families
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Legal Update: Support for Afghan children
His comments come following a written statement by veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer in which he says the government has given three months’ notice to more than 8,000 residents living in hotels and serviced apartments.
The accommodation was set up by the Home Office for refugees arriving from Afghanistan on either the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and over 9,100 through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) in January last year.
Mercer said that “a small number” of refugees will be expected to leave accommodation at the end of this month.
He added that local authorities are entitled to £7,100 per person of “flexible funding to support move-on, including through providing deposits, furniture, rental top ups and rent advances”.
“This government remains committed to ending access to costly hotels and serviced apartments at the end of the notice periods that we have issued to Afghan households,” Mercer said, noting that allowances had been made for those on pre-matched housing schemes with their local authority and those under medical care at specific hospitals.
However, cllr Davies warned that “councils remain hugely concerned that large numbers of families - some of whom are particularly vulnerable – may have to end up presenting as homeless, particularly larger and multi-generational families.”
He said: “Councils will do all they can to minimise multiple moves and disruption for families in the remaining time before the hotel closures start, and to secure places in schools for any children moving to new areas when these start again in the autumn.”
Since its launch in January last year 12,200 people have been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK through the ARAP and more than 9,100 through the ACRS, according to Mercer’s statement.
It came less than 24 hours after MPs voted down peers amendments to the Illegal Migration Bill on subjects including the detention of children and the right to deport children who arrive in the UK as unaccompanied minors once they turn 18.
