Local councils who are “at crisis point” have warned that thousands of Afghan families facing eviction from bridging hotels by the Government will be left homeless amid a housing shortage.
The Local Government Association (LGA) is warning it will be “extremely challenging” to rehouse Afghan refugees across the country as their notice period comes to an end next month.
The UK promised a safe haven for thousands of people who fled Afghanistan as the Taliban swept back into power in 2021 – but many have lived in hotels since arriving.
Around 8,000 Afghan individuals and families - housed at 59 temporary bridging hotels across the country – have been served notice by the Home Office to leave by the end of August and provided details of available support for them to find their own settled accommodation.
But the LGA is calling for a “radical reset” to the Government’s asylum and resettlement schemes amid an “acute shortage” of housing available across the UK and long waiting lists.
New LGA chair, councillor Shaun Davies, said at the annual conference in Bournemouth on Monday: “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.”
The LGA said finding secure appropriate accommodation for all Afghan families in bridging hotels is “extremely challenging” with the deadline looming.
LGA said: “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.
“There must be better engagement with councils and the Home Office must take proper account of local concerns and impacts.”
The LGA said councils are also growing frustrated about a lack of recognition of existing local pressures, and a Government failure to adequately engage with councils on the ground.
The Home Office continues to house to house asylum seekers in hotels with “little improvement” on notice given to councils about where and when they will be stood up, LGA said, while flagging concerns about the increased use of room sharing and “rapid rise” of new arrivals exceeding agreed limits.
“These hotels continue to also be used to accommodate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children...the Home Office oes not appear to take any account at all of the impact on the local council’s ability to carry out its statutory duties in relation to those children,” it added.
Last week protesters in Brighton supported the council’s plan to launch legal action against the Home Office for reopening a hotel where more than 100 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing.
Some £35 million of new funding will help councils provide increased support to help people move from hotels into accommodation across England, while the local authority housing fund will be expanded by £250 million, with most of the cash going to house Afghans and the rest easing homelessness pressures.
The Home Office said the process of moving Afghans out of hotels will be staggered, with people being notified at different times to make sure there is not a “disproportionate demand for housing in one area”.
