Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to encourage (a) landlords and owners of (i) holiday let and (ii) second home owners to make their properties available to incoming refugees.

Accommodation for refugees is offered by Local Authorities. Before committing to offering resettlement places a local authority should think about whether they have, or are able to put in place, the accommodation, infrastructure and support networks needed to ensure the appropriate care and integration of people in need of our help.

We work on a daily basis with local government to ensure we meet our international and statutory obligations to provide accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees, encourage greater participation, and to understand and address reasons for not doing so.

The current global pandemic, an increased influx of small boat arrivals and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has presented us with significant challenges when it comes to the provision of asylum accommodation. During these unprecedented times, the Home Office acted quickly to source contingency accommodation, including several hotels and former MoD sites, to create additional capacity to ensure our obligations can continue to be met in full. The accommodation at Napier was set up in response to these enormous pressures placed on our asylum system. These pressures remain, and we will continue our use of Napier Barracks as contingency asylum accommodation until March 2025.

The New Plan for Immigration includes proposals to introduce new asylum accommodation centres to provide accommodation and support while processing the claims of asylum seekers. Accommodation Centres will ensure that asylum seekers can be provided with basic, safe and secure accommodation while their claims are processed.

The Home Secretary recently announced a humanitarian sponsorship pathway, which will provide those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine with a route to the UK. Under the scheme, sponsor groups – which may include those who have capacity to accommodate people in their properties - will provide housing and integration support to those eligible.