Asylum: Housing

(asked on 15th December 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of holding a summit with refugee and migration experts, local authorities and housing providers on potential short- and long-term accommodation options for people seeking asylum.


Answered by
Robert Jenrick Portrait
Robert Jenrick
This question was answered on 22nd December 2022

The Home Office already engages with a range of internal and external stakeholders in relation to the provision of support and accommodation to destitute asylum seekers, through a variety of channels. These include the Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMPs) which are Local Government led partnerships funded by, but independent of, the Home Office, whose role is to coordinate and support delivery of national programmes in asylum and refugee schemes as well as agreed, national, regional and devolved migration priorities.

The Director of Asylum Support and other senior Home Office officials engage with the Local Government Association (LGA) and UK-wide LA Chief Executives through the Asylum Resettlement Councils Senior Engagement Group (ARCSEG, formerly Home Office Local Government Chief Executive group (HOLGEX)). The Strategic Engagement Groups (SEG) and the associated sub-groups are the Home Office’s (HO) principal engagement forums with external asylum and resettlement Non-Government Organisations (NGO) and voluntary sector stakeholders.

We also regularly engage with our accommodation providers to discuss any issues that arise and ensure best practise is always followed. Providers’ performance is monitored closely by dedicated staff in each contract area, who are in daily contact with them. This is supplemented by a formal governance process which includes quarterly Strategic Review Management Boards and monthly Contract Management Groups. Service credits and subsequent improvement plans are discussed and monitored as part of this process.

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