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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his policy is on funding any potential shortfall in rent in the event that Afghans resettled under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme are placed in properties where the rent is higher than the Local Housing Allowance rate.

A £25.5 million Housing Costs Fund is available to local authorities to help meet the costs of housing for larger families being resettled through the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), and for those who arrived in the UK before 31 August 2021 via the evacuation from Afghanistan and are being resettled through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), or are British Nationals being provided with resettlement support. The additional housing support is being provided to enable local authorities to come forward with offers of accommodation to larger families as soon as possible. For example, it can be used to provide a top-up payment, where it is needed to meet the gap between market rent and the Local Housing Allowance, or to help meet shortfalls which impact on a family's ability to cover their rent.