Issue - meetings

Refugee accommodation

Meeting: 10/03/2023 - Cabinet (Item 81)

81 Refugee accommodation pdf icon PDF 468 KB

To consider the report of the deputy chief executive – transformation and operations. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the report of the deputy chief executive – transformation and operations on work the council was progressing under the Afghan and Ukrainian refugee accommodation workstreams. 

 

In December 2022, the government had announced a scheme to part fund accommodation that was to provide sustainable housing for refugees under the Afghan and Ukrainian schemes.  The council had been offered a grant of £2,136,513 to deliver 14 homes that met the eligibility criteria outlined within the Local Authority Housing Fund prospectus. 

 

The Cabinet member for healthy communities recommended that the council accepted the government grant and signed a memorandum of understanding with the government department.  The scheme would involve setting up a team to deliver the homes by purchasing properties and managing them thereafter.  This scheme would also support the council’s housing delivery strategy. 

 

Cabinet was being asked to continue participating in the scheme by signing the memorandum of understanding.  Officers had carried out an initial assessment of the financial risks, a broad-brush high-level modelling exercise, and had concluded that the scheme should be pursued, subject to more detailed financial checks.  Officers would need to assess and be confident in the costs on a property-by-property basis.  It was anticipated that the council could proceed to purchase these properties without the need to set up a Housing Revenue Account. 

 

The signing of the memorandum of understanding was a non-binding commitment; the council did not have to proceed if the project was not financially viable.  Although the council had allocated funds towards this project in its budget, there was no financial commitment to proceed at this stage until further work had been completed and the council satisfied with the costs. 

 

Noting that further detailed work would be carried out to assess the financial risks, Cabinet supported the proposal to accept the grant and sign the memorandum of understanding.  Cabinet believed that the council needed to work on providing sustainable, settled accommodation to support these refugees. 

 

RESOLVED: to

 

(a)    note the update regarding the refugee accommodation workstreams being reviewed to find sustainable housing for those who are in the UK under the Government Afghan and Ukraine schemes; and

 

(b)    accept the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) grant of £2,136,513 (total allocation) to deliver 14 homes that meet the eligibility criteria outlined within the Local Authority Housing Fund prospectus, and to authorise the Deputy Chief Executive – Transformation and Operations to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with DLUHC, which sets out the understanding between both parties for the use of funding. 


 

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