Landlords and councils urged to find homes for Afghan refugees

Landlords and councils urged to find homes for Afghan refugees

0:04 AM, 19th July 2023, About A year ago 15

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Landlords in the private rented sector and local councils are being urged by the government to help house Afghan refugees who are living in hotels and costing taxpayers £1m every day.

Speaking in Parliament, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Johnny Mercer called on local authorities to make use of the Government’s £285 million package of re-housing support.

The Minister, who has fought several tours of Afghanistan, is now coordinating the Government’s resettlement support for Afghans.

Landlords are also being urged to join a ‘national effort’ to support the resettlement scheme – including the provision of accommodation through their local council or via the Afghanistan Housing Portal.

Entitled to a range of support to find settled accommodation

The Afghans who are currently living in bridging accommodation are entitled to a range of support to find settled accommodation and have arrived in the UK through safe and legal routes.

They have indefinite leave to remain, the right to work, access to healthcare and access to public funds.

Mr Mercer said: “We owe a debt of gratitude to Afghans who have moved to the UK under our resettlement schemes.

“But hotel accommodation must end – it’s unfair on the Afghans living in them, unable to put down more permanent roots, and it is unfair on the taxpayer, who is currently footing the bill.”

He added: “To do this we’ve put in place extensive support, which local authorities can use in a variety of ways to support Afghans into permanent accommodation including funding for deposits, rent top ups and furniture, as well as bespoke advice from staff in hotels.”

Mr Mercer explained the situation in Parliament:

Welcomed more than 21,000 Afghan nationals

The UK has welcomed more than 21,000 Afghan nationals through its resettlement scheme following the withdrawal from the country in 2021.

Since then, thousands of Afghan nationals have been living in hotel accommodation across the country – which was never intended as a permanent solution.

To support the move into settled housing, the government has committed new funding and case working teams have been deployed to every bridging hotel in the country to give advice and guidance.

The funding package includes additional funding for Local Authorities, equivalent to £7,100 per person – which councils can spend on where they think it is needed.

The cash is already being used by some councils to help with deposits, furniture and rent, amongst other things, but council engagement across the country has been ‘inconsistent’, the government says.


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Roogy

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7:23 AM, 22nd July 2023, About A year ago

I know someone working with the Afghan refugees- they say that some of them are turning down perfectly good houses because they want bigger houses ur in a different area- they seem to have an “entitled to” attitude - some even demand to have there teeth whitened !

Reluctant Landlord

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10:47 AM, 24th July 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Roogy at 22/07/2023 - 07:23yes I have heard this too.
If you watched Ministerial statement18 July 2023
Afghan Resettlement update by Jonny Mercer, you will see him continually state that despite the Afghans in hotels being all given notice to leave (latest 31 August) they actually cannot make them move on. He refers to 'making offers/support/guidance', but they cannot (Not willing!!) actually make them take up any offers at all.
The government are basically bunging local councils £7K PER PERSON (including babies/kids etc) over year for 3 years in total to get them to take them on.
Councils where there are no Afghans in the area already dont want to know, and councils where they are being kicked out of hotels will have to take them on anyway when they then present as homeless. As the local council will then have a 'duty' they will be put back into hotel accommodation. The council will apply for more money from the government for this as they will complain, and hey presto the government has to cough up again....
Cycle of stupidity.
On top of this the gvt still has 4,000 Afghans waiting in Pakistan they promised to moved to the UK but they cant as no accommodation. I guess they were thinking they would evict the current hotel Afghans and replace them with the new intake...
JM was asked if this was the plan but of course could not comment as this was a question for the Home Office only apparently....

Beaver

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18:29 PM, 25th July 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 24/07/2023 - 10:47
There was something on the BBC news about this this evening. They covered no-fault evictions, landlord's costs going up, an example of a BTL landlord whose BTL mortgage had tripled and couldn't manage the maintenance costs.

But they also said that in a desperate attempt to get the asylum-seeker-hotel bill down the Home Office is out-bidding councils for the available rental properties. And that's also driving rents up and making the situation worse.

There are a lot of policy-failure-chickens coming home to roost at the same time there then.

I can't imagine all those homeless families living in hotels feeling very positive about asylum seekers refusing the available accommodation.

Reluctant Landlord

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19:30 PM, 25th July 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 25/07/2023 - 18:29
yep ...its dawning! The reality of messing with something you should have left well alone...

Beaver

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19:35 PM, 25th July 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 25/07/2023 - 19:30
The reality of pursuing tax-policies that are basically social-engineering and which punish investment in socially-useful activities...like putting a roof over someone's head...

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