Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether Afghan refugees who are in hotels can apply for homelessness with any local authority.

We recognise the work of local authorities up and down the country in providing housing and integration support to enable Afghan families to begin their new lives in the UK. All Afghan arrivals via the ARAP and ACRS schemes have had the right to work and receive benefits from the first day of their arrival, as well as access to public services which includes housing and homelessness assistance.

Under homelessness legislation, the first local authority approached will need to take a homelessness application and assess what duties are owed. The council can then consider if a local connection referral is appropriate. In cases where there is no local connection, but there is a local connection to a different local authority; they may refer the household back to where they do have a local connection.