Asylum: Housing

(asked on 25th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her Department's policy to serve eviction notices to people who have been granted refugee status to leave their asylum accommodation before the ban on evictions ends due to the covid-19 outbreak; and what discussions she had had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on accommodation needed for people facing eviction in order to prevent them from becoming homeless.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 30th June 2020

Asylum seekers who are granted refugee status are normally given notice that they must leave any accommodation that has been provided to them by the Home Office within 28 days, as they may now take employment and have access to mainstream benefits and housing assistance from their local authority. Whilst this process was paused on 27 March for a period of three months, we are currently reviewing plans about appropriate timing to resume issuing notices in individual cases in a carefully phased and measured way and have been having discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Local Authorities and others on the arrangements.

The timing of those decisions is not affected by the current restrictions on evicting tenants from private rental properties. Those arrangements do not apply to those in asylum support accommodation. This is confirmed in paragraph 2.2 of the Government’s guidance to landlords and tenants, which can be found at: MHCLG guidance (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888843/Updated_Landlord_and_Tenant_Guidance.pdf)

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