Refugees: Homelessness

(asked on 4th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will respond to the concerns raised by the Local Government Association in its press release entitled Thousands of refugees could be on the streets for Christmas without urgent government action, published on 28 November 2023.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 12th December 2023

We are ensuring our cross government partners, such as the (DWP) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) are sighted on data to enable them to consider the impacts of increased decision making and effectively plan.  We are also working with DLUHC to ensure the right asylum decision data is being shared with local authorities to enable effective planning and to lessen the impact on existing homelessness and rough sleeping pressures. Our accommodation providers are directly working with local authorities to notify them when an individual is due to have their asylum support ended.

The communications will be sent out shortly to all local authorities. The Home Office have decided that the last date for evictions this year will be 22 December. The Home Office will still be processing discontinuations throughout, but anything that falls on the 23 December through to and including 02 January 2024 will have their end of grace period moved to 03 January 2024 when evictions will recommence. This covers the whole festive period and the additional bank holiday in Scotland.

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