Liverpool City Council has explained why it missed a deadline to accept crucial government cash to help accommodate refugees.
The council was awarded nearly £2.1m by the government's Department of Levelling Up to provide accommodation for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees in the city.
The cash is provided to councils to help address immediate pressures from temporarily housing refugees as well as increasing the stock of affordable homes for the future settlement of refugees in the city.
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But the council nearly lost out on the vital funds after missing a crucial deadline to accept them. An urgent key decision report published on the council website shows that the council had to move quickly to make an emergency decision to accept the cash after missing the original deadline of March 15.
The urgent decision report states: "DLUHC have confirmed that it has accepted the council’s validation form and is prepared to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the council to release the funding. Although the council has missed the deadline of 15 March 15 2023, DLUHC have advised that they are prepared to extend the deadline to May 5 2023."
With the deadline extended to May 5 to accept the cash, interim chief executive Theresa Grant took an urgent decision to accept it a day earlier on May 4.
A Liverpool City Council spokesperson said the local authority was challenged by the timetable given regarding the money. They said the situation was complicated by the need to find a housing partner organisation before accepting the cash.
The spokesperson said: “We only wanted to submit a bid if we were confident we could deliver on it. The initial timetable for bidding was challenging, and had an added complexity as we needed to find partner organisations able to deliver the housing on our behalf. The Government were willing to be flexible on the timing of our submission which means we are now in a position to accept this funding.”
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