A British-Ukrainian couple who fled the war in Ukraine have decided to move back to the country after failing to find acceptable housing in Nottingham. Joe Place, a British 29-year-old PhD student and content writer from Sheffield, and his wife Iryna, a 34-year-old Ukrainian working as a content manager, left their home in Kyiv in February to escape the conflict in the country.
Mrs Place had received a Ukraine Family Scheme visa and because the couple had this and employment in the UK they could not then apply for the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Initially house-hopping between family and friends after arriving in the UK, Mr Place said they looked for a long-term place to live in Nottingham or Sheffield but were met with “terrible” housing conditions, high costs and rental requirements they could not meet.
After struggling for seven months to find a permanent home, the couple returned to Ukraine in September and are now living in the western city of Uzhhorod – despite the prospect of electricity and heating outages due to Russian missile strikes. “This comes to the problem that everyone in the UK seems to be facing with finding (a rental),” Mr Place said.
