Updated House of Commons Library briefing on accommodation and integration support for resettled Afghans

An updated research briefing published by the House of Commons Library last week provides a useful overview of the support available for Afghans who have been resettled in the UK.

You can read a full copy of the briefing below or you can download the original 19-page report here.

As the House of Commons Library explains, Afghans arriving in the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) are eligible for integration support, including help to find housing.

The updated briefing focuses, in particular, on accommodation arrangements and the withdrawal of the use of temporary 'bridging' hotel accommodation to house resettled Afghans.

"In April 2023 the government began a process to stop all use of bridging accommodation. The first group of people are expected to leave hotels by the end of July. All households currently issued with a notice to quit are due to move out by the end of August. Also, the government is now only arranging travel to the UK for further people offered resettlement under the Afghan schemes once they have long-term accommodation in place," the briefing states.

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House of Commons
Library

Accommodation and integration support for resettled Afghans

Research Briefing
27 July 2023
By Melanie Gower

Summary
1 Integration support for Afghan refugees
2 Accommodation arrangements

commonslibrary.parliament.uk

Number 9804

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Contents
Summary
1 Integration support for Afghan refugees
1.1 Afghan immigration schemes
1.2 Operation Warm Welcome
2 Accommodation arrangements
2.1 The use of bridging accommodation
2.2 April 2023: Withdrawing bridging accommodation
2.3 Reactions to withdrawing bridging accommodation
2.4 Implications for future Afghan resettlement and relocation scheme arrivals

Summary

Use of hotels for bridging accommodation

Since the summer of 2021, 'bridging' accommodation has been used to house people arriving under the Afghan resettlement and relocation schemes until they move into appropriate long-term accommodation. It is typically rooms in hotels or serviced apartments and costs around £1 million per day.

Bridging accommodation was intended to be a temporary measure but many households have spent much longer than anticipated living in hotels.

Underlying causes include a lack of suitable accommodation to move on to, ineffective matching of households to accommodation, reluctance to leave existing support structures and move to unfamiliar parts of the UK, and difficulties renting in the private sector. At the end of March 2023 there were over 8,000 Afghans in bridging accommodation, half of them children.

Withdrawing bridging accommodation

In April 2023 the government began a process to stop all use of bridging accommodation. The first group of people are expected to leave hotels by the end of July. All households currently issued with a notice to quit are due to move out by the end of August. Also, the government is now only arranging travel to the UK for further people offered resettlement under the Afghan schemes once they have long-term accommodation in place.

Some vulnerable households will receive an offer of long-term accommodation to move into, which could be anywhere in the UK. If the accommodation will not be ready to move into until after the household must move out of their hotel, interim accommodation will be provided, either in the same bridging hotel or elsewhere.

Most households will not receive an offer of housing and are instead being supported to find their own accommodation. The government is providing £285 million new funding to help local authorities source suitable properties and support people to make their own arrangements.

Ministers say the new policy is "tackling difficult problems" and strikes an appropriate balance between support and compulsion to move out of hotels.

Reactions to the announcement

There is broad agreement that prolonged stays in bridging accommodation are undesirable. But local government representatives have said it will be challenging to find accommodation for everyone and are worried that some households will become homeless following the withdrawal of bridging accommodation.

1 Integration support for Afghan refugees

1.1 Afghan immigration schemes

The UK operates two bespoke immigration routes for Afghan nationals and their family members. [1]

• The Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP). This is available to Afghan citizens who worked with or for the UK Government in exposed or meaningful roles and are assessed to be at serious risk of threat to life.

• The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). This is available to some vulnerable Afghans who are at risk in Afghanistan or have already fled to neighbouring countries or came to the UK under the emergency evacuation exercise Operation Pitting in summer 2021.

Everyone brought to the UK under the ACRS or ARAP schemes has permission to stay permanently (indefinite leave to remain), permission to work, access to education and healthcare, and the 'right to rent'. They are exempt from the habitual residence test for access to benefits and are eligible to apply for benefits classed as public funds. The Library's briefing on UK immigration routes for Afghan nationals explains both schemes in greater detail.

Responsibility for the Afghan schemes is spread across several government departments, chiefly the Home Office, Ministry of Defence, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), responsibility for the Afghan resettlement programme is currently held by Felicity Buchan, Minister for Housing and Homelessness.

1.2 Operation Warm Welcome

In September 2021 the government launched 'Operation Warm Welcome', a cross-government initiative to support Afghans' integration in the UK. [2]

ACRS and ARAP arrivals are eligible for integration support, including help to learn English and find work. This is intended to facilitate their "rapid self- sufficiency and social integration in UK communities." [3]

The private, voluntary and community sectors were encouraged to help with the challenge of supporting new arrivals. Offers of support to Afghan arrivals, including housing and employment, can be made through a page on GOV.UK.

There have been criticisms that Operation Warm Welcome has not delivered in practice for many Afghans. [4] There have been significant difficulties finding suitable long-term accommodation for new arrivals. Some observers suggest there has been a lack of focus within government on the Afghan schemes since the launch of immigration routes for Ukrainian nationals in spring 2022. [5]

Local authorities' responsibilities and funding

Local authorities have a central role in delivering the Afghan schemes, but their participation is voluntary. Around 350 local authorities currently participate. [6]

Arranging settled accommodation and integration support

Those that choose to participate have responsibilities for arranging long-term accommodation and providing integration support to new arrivals. They receive funding from central government for each resettled person they arrange permanent accommodation and integration support for. They must develop a bespoke 12-month integration support plan for each resettled family or individual.

The core tariff is set at £20,520 per person, over three years. There is some flexibility over how the core funding can be used for arranging accommodation. For example, it can contribute towards costs arising from renting accommodation in the private sector, such as deposits, letting fees and purchasing furnishings. [7] The integration support funding instruction for local authorities 2022-23 has more detailed information.

Some additional funding has also been provided to local authorities with higher costs. [8]

Local authorities and health providers also receive funding for costs associated with providing children's education, adult English language tuition, and healthcare. [9] The government's collection of funding instructions and information on the Afghanistan resettlement education grant and- resettlement allocations has further details.

Responsibilities to Afghans in bridging accommodation

Local authorities do not operate the temporary hotel accommodation for Afghans ('bridging accommodation'; discussed in section 2 of this briefing).

Those with bridging accommodation in their area are paid to provide 'wrap around' support to residents at a rate of £28 per person per day. This support includes helping residents to access mainstream services and holding conversations to support people to move out of hotels.

Local authorities' statutory responsibilities on safeguarding and responding to care needs also apply in respect of people in bridging accommodation. The hotel wraparound support funding instruction for local authorities issued by the Home Office has more details.

Support for evacuated British nationals and relatives

The integration support available to resettled Afghans was also available to evacuated British nationals (and their family members). [10] Victoria Atkins, then Minister for Afghan Resettlement, said in January 2022 that this was to recognise that they "experienced the same trauma and have the same needs as their Afghan neighbours fleeing Kabul alongside them." [11]

2 Accommodation arrangements

2.1 The use of bridging accommodation

The government's policy intention was that Afghans resettled in the UK would move people into settled, long-term accommodation soon after arrival.

The speed and volume of arrivals from Afghanistan increased significantly in the summer of 2021 due to the rapidly deteriorating security situation around the time of the Taliban's takeover. Efforts to find suitable accommodation could not keep pace, so people were placed in temporary 'bridging accommodation' until they could move into permanent accommodation.

Bridging accommodation is typically rooms in hotels or serviced accommodation. In April 2023, the government began a new policy of moving people out of bridging accommodation and is no longer offering it as an option for new arrivals (discussed in sections 2.2 and 2.3 below).

Up to April 2023, some households moved out of bridging accommodation after making their own accommodation arrangements or after being matched with permanent accommodation. For a variety of reasons (see p.10-11), other households have remained in bridging accommodation for far longer than originally envisaged. Some have been living in hotels for up to 18 months.

The Home Office has estimated that using hotels as temporary accommodation for Afghans costs around £1 million per day. [12] It has been suggested that this is more than five times the average cost of renting housing for those families. [13] Controversially, the government has used some of the UK aid budget to contribute to the costs of supporting resettled Afghans. [14]

There is broad agreement across central and local government, refugee charities, and other stakeholders that prolonged stays in bridging accommodation are inappropriate and undesirable. In the government's view, bridging hotels "hold families back from putting down routes and getting consistency in education, healthcare and employment". [15]

Operational data published by the Home Office shows 8,799 people (around half of them children) living across 58 hotels. [16] This is a slight reduction compared to the figures published in late February (9,483 people in 63 sites). The Home Office says local casework data suggests the actual number of people in temporary accommodation might be lower than the published number, citing lags in data recording and rapidly fluctuating numbers on the ground as possible explanations. [17]

Where are the bridging hotels?

The number and location of hotels in use has fluctuated in line with new arrivals and with people moving into longer-term accommodation.

Some information about the locations of hotel accommodation was provided in Annex C of a letter sent to the Home Affairs and Levelling Up Committees in March 2023. [18] The figures reflected the position at the end of 2022.

At that time there were 8,412 people in bridging hotels. The five regions with the highest number of people in hotels were in the South East (2,688 people), North West (1,506), South West (772), East (722), and London (719). There were no local authorities in the North East region or Northern Ireland with Afghans in bridging hotels.

More recently, the Home Office has published regional and local authority data showing the number of resettled Afghans in bridging accommodation by local authority (as at 31 March 2023). [19] Updated data is expected to be published in late August 2023.

Action previously taken by the government to support moves into permanent homes

Successive ministers have spoken of a "huge effort underway" to support families to move into permanent homes as soon as possible. [20] The government has taken various actions over the past 18 months to reduce the use of bridging accommodation. Over time there has been an increasing emphasis on encouraging households to find their own accommodation.

Actions taken include:

• Encouraging more local authorities to participate in the Afghan schemes.

• Providing a £25.5 million Afghan Housing Costs Fund to help local authorities meet larger families' housing costs, such as with top-up payments to help cover a gap between the Local Housing Allowance and market rents. [21]

• Establishing an Afghanistan housing portal through which property owners, organisations or companies can offer entire homes for people arriving from Afghanistan.

• Improving the accommodation matching process, such as by ensuring offers reflect individual families' needs, are in a good state of repair and of an appropriate size. [22]

• Introducing, in May 2022, an 'enhanced matching process' (PDF) policy to govern offers of settled accommodation to people in bridging accommodation. The policy was intended to improve the accommodation acceptance rate and minimise knock-on pressures such as homelessness.

• Launching a 'Find Your Own Accommodation' scheme in summer 2022 to support Afghans to source their own accommodation while retaining access to integration support from a local authority. [23]

• Working on alternative accommodation options including the use of Ministry of Defence properties, education-based accommodation and the private rented sector.

• Establishing a bespoke local engagement team within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to make it easier for local authorities to come forward with offers of accommodation. [24]

Why have people remained in hotels for so long?

Prolonged stays in temporary accommodation have been attributed to various factors aside from a shortage of accommodation to move on to.

Criticisms of original policy approach

Some observers have identified insufficient planning and a failure to locate people in areas close to where there is suitable long-term accommodation; poor communications and expectation management while people were in bridging hotels; and an absence of support for people to find their own accommodation. [25]

Local government representatives asked for better data sharing and engagement from central government to plan placements and support structures across the UK. [26] There have also been criticisms that in parts of the UK, the gap between local housing allowance rates and market rents makes it extremely difficult to source affordable accommodation. [27]

Difficulties finding accommodation in the private rented sector

Obstacles to finding accommodation in the private rental sector include some landlords' reported reluctance to rent to resettled Afghans, difficulties navigating the letting process and paperwork requirements and associated upfront costs, and lack of credit history and guarantors. [28]

Conditions attached to the funding arrangements for local authority-led integration support have also been identified as a deterrent. To retain access to funded integration support, households finding their own accommodation in a new area need to secure agreement from the Home Office and the new local authority beforehand.

The local authority is also required to approve the family's proposed accommodation. These requirements have been criticised for being "cumbersome and unnecessary" and out of step with the pace of the private rental market, resulting in people losing offers of accommodation. [29]

Refused accommodation offers

Home Office figures show 315 households (equating to around 1,200 people) have refused accommodation offers. The Home Office said that families' reasons for refusing accommodation were varied and "often justifiable" and that it was working hard to identify and address families' concerns.

Reasons for families' reluctance to take up offers of accommodation include because it was too distant from their jobs or support networks; was in a poor state of repair or otherwise ill-suited to their needs; or required moving to an unfamiliar or remote location which lacked infrastructure to support integration. [30]

2.2 April 2023: Withdrawing bridging accommodation

On 28 March 2023, Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans' Affairs, informed MPs of the government's plans to withdraw bridging accommodation. [31]

From late April onwards, the Home Office began to notify people that their bridging accommodation would end. To avoid creating disproportionate peaks in demand for housing, it has been contacting residents in a staggered fashion. They are given at least three months' notice to quit, with the first group of people due to leave hotel accommodation at the end of July.

On-site multi-agency caseworking teams have been established to help households living in bridging accommodation to find and move into alternative accommodation. The Home Office said that "Particular support will be given to families with children to help them minimise disruption to education, those with medical needs or disabilities and those with other known vulnerabilities or safeguarding needs." [32]

The government has not publicly specified a timeframe for the complete withdrawal of bridging accommodation, explaining that "Finding accommodation is a complex process and … it is right we prioritise the needs of families rather than focus only on pace." [33] In a further update to the House shortly before summer recess, Johnny Mercer emphasised that "the Government remain committed to ending access to costly hotels at the end of the notice periods that we have issued" and that "everyone will be expected to have left bridging accommodation by the time their notice period expires." [34] Currently all notices to quit issued expire by 31 August. [35]

How is the move-on process being managed?

Most households need to find their own accommodation

Most people in bridging accommodation will not receive an accommodation offer from a local authority. Instead, they will be helped to find their own accommodation. If they want to receive integration support after moving, they will need the new local authority to agree to the move.

The 'Find Your Own Accommodation' process is detailed in Home Office policy guidance for Afghan households and support staff.

Some vulnerable households will be offered accommodation and integration support

Some households will be matched to suitable housing offered by local authorities.

New policy guidance on the 'one offer' matching process has been introduced. [36] It replaces the 'enhanced matching process' policy which applied from May 2022 until May 2023.

Under the new policy, only certain vulnerable households will receive an offer of accommodation. Eligible households will only receive one offer (rather than two as previously). There is no guarantee that they will be offered settled accommodation in the same area as their bridging accommodation. The Home Office has advised people to accept what they are offered. It said if they refuse it they will be expected to find their own accommodation. [37]

Offers will be made to households who are expected to find it most difficult to find their own accommodation and integrate effectively, because of a specific vulnerability. [38] Examples of vulnerabilities cited include a mental illness or disorder; a physical or learning disability; a chronic or progressive medical condition; a need to be near a specific medical facility; and households being supported by a local authority on statutory safeguarding grounds. Vulnerable households will be identified by caseworkers based in the accommodation, primarily local authority 'wraparound support providers'.

The Home Office recognises that local authorities might prefer their accommodation offers to be allocated to people already living in local bridging accommodation. It said it will "work closely with local authorities on an individual basis to make any necessary local arrangements if needed", but the Home Office's priority is matching accommodation to the most vulnerable families across the UK. [39] It will prioritise vulnerable households in regions where notices to quit the bridging accommodation have been served.

Vulnerable households may be offered interim accommodation if their new accommodation isn't ready in time

Some accommodation has been offered which won't be ready in time for households' scheduled moving dates. The Home Office introduced a pre- matching process in July so local authorities can match eligible households with offers of accommodation which will become available after their notice to quit has expired. [40] Offers of pre-matched accommodation will count as the single accommodation offer under the one-offer matching process.

The Home Office is encouraging local authorities to prioritise vulnerable households for pre-matching, reiterating that most households will not receive an offer of accommodation under either matching process.

The Home Office will arrange interim accommodation for households that accept an offer of pre-matched accommodation from the end of their notice to quit a bridging hotel and their move into their settled accommodation (but in any case, only until 31 December 2023). The interim accommodation might be their existing bridging hotel or might require them to move elsewhere.

New funding and other measures to support the policy

Local authorities are being given £35 million of new funding to provide increased support to residents. £2.5 million of this funding will fund casework teams based regularly in bridging accommodation. The teams will consist of Home Office Liaison Officers, Department for Work and Pensions work coaches, local authority staff and charity staff. They will be able to provide advice including information about how to rent in the private rented sector, help to find jobs, and signposting to English language classes.

£250 million of additional funding is also being made available to local authorities through Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Local Authority Housing Fund, "with the majority of the additional funding used to house Afghans currently in bridging accommodation". [41]

The fund was first announced in December 2022, with £500 million of funding, to help local authorities provide settled accommodation to people arriving under the Ukraine and Afghan schemes and build a sustainable stock of affordable housing. [42] Johnny Mercer said the Government is making how the funding can be used more flexible, for example to modify adjoining homes to create bigger properties. [43]

The government also announced a Homes Partnership Model pilot scheme in partnership with Barratt Developments and some local authorities. [44] Through the scheme, a small number of new four-bedroom homes across the UK are being provided to Afghan families and there are plans to work with other developers to lease properties for Afghans.

Summer 2023 update

Johnny Mercer gave a further update to the House on 18 July 2023. He said that "many hundreds of individuals" have moved out of hotels into settled accommodation, but did not provide a more specific figure, or provide updated figures for the number of Afghan households in bridging hotels, how many have received notices to quit, how many have found homes under their own initiative and how many vulnerable households have been matched with an offer of accommodation from a local authority. [45]

The Minister gave a mixed picture of progress, saying that whilst many households and local authorities had acted on the government's message, there is "more to do". Mr Mercer "implored" local government to access the central government support and urged Afghans in bridging accommodation to "help themselves", adding "I see no reason why anybody living in a hotel today should not be able to make use of their right to work and access to benefits and the flexible funding available to local authorities to find suitable, settled accommodation and live independently of central Government support." [46]

He also urged landlords to make offers of accommodation, commenting that there is a particular need for one-bedroom properties and larger properties. The government has previously rejected calls to establish a scheme for Afghans like Homes for Ukraine, but Mr Mercer confirmed that it is now considering a proposal. [47] However he cautioned that resettled Afghans are a "fundamentally different cohort" to Ukrainians in the UK, commenting that Ukrainians are more likely to want to return to Ukraine in the future. [48]

Read more

• Home Office, Support for Afghans to find settled accommodation, 26 July 2023

• Shelter, Housing rights of people resettled in the UK from Afghanistan, 2 May 2023

• GOV.UK, News, 'New support for Afghans in UK hotels to find settled housing', 28 March 2023

• Home Office in the media, UK government support for resettled Afghans in bridging accommodation factsheet – April 2023, 24 April 2023

2.3 Reactions to withdrawing bridging accommodation

John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary, described the March policy announcement as "giving [resettled Afghans] the cold shoulder" and "serving eviction notices on 8,000 Afghans, half of whom are children, with no guarantee that they will be offered a suitable, settled place to live." [49]

In response, Johnny Mercer acknowledged difficulties with the Afghan resettlement schemes' track records, but defended the new approach, which he said was "tackling difficult problems" and "striking the balance" between making it as easy as possible for people to move out of hotels and ensuring that they understand that they could not remain in taxpayer-funded hotels "ad infinitum". [50]

Stakeholders continue to express concerns about the risk of households becoming homeless following the withdrawal of bridging accommodation.

The Local Government Association said in July that local authorities are finding it "extremely challenging" to secure appropriate accommodation for families in bridging accommodation, citing an acute shortage of housing and the short timeframe until the end of notice periods. [51] It further reiterated that councils "remain hugely concerned that large numbers of families … may have to end up presenting as homeless, particularly larger and multi- generational families." [52]

There have been calls for Afghans to have an element of choice over their housing and warnings that failure to take individuals' needs and preferences into account may result in people not accepting an accommodation offer and becoming homeless. [53] Responding to concerns raised by Alison Thewliss, SNP Home Affairs Spokesperson, about what the Home Office might consider to be a 'reasonable' accommodation offer, Johnny Mercer said the government would be balancing competing priorities:

The truth is that we will have to balance very difficult competing priorities when individuals have been in hotels for a long period and may be in school or may have specific health needs, and a suitable offer is made elsewhere in the country but they do not want to leave that location. We will do everything we can to make sure that they can stay where they have local roots and so on, but that has to be balanced off. If there is a choice between them staying in a hotel in that area and going into suitable accommodation, I am afraid the priority will be to get them into suitable accommodation. [54]

2.4 Implications for future Afghan resettlement and relocation scheme arrivals

The government does not want future arrivals to go into bridging accommodation. [55] In late March 2023 it confirmed that, going forward, it would only make travel arrangements for people who have suitable accommodation in place. [56] It has advised applicants waiting overseas that they can "either wait until accommodation is found …, or … arrange their own accommodation, possibly with help from friends and family members who may already live in the UK. Whichever option chosen; eligible people should wait overseas until granted permission to enter and issued a visa to come to the UK." [57]

Johnny Mercer has said that concern for eligible people still in Afghanistan or neighbouring countries was one of the "driving motivations" behind the effort to move people out of bridging accommodation:

One of the driving motivations behind this difficult piece of work is that there are people stuck in Afghanistan and we have a duty to get them over here. We simply cannot do that if we just continue loading hotels and building pressure in our local communities, at huge cost to the taxpayer. That is one of the primary motivations, and the moral case, for what we are doing. [58]

Around 4,300 people have been found to be eligible under the ARAP scheme but have not yet travelled to the UK. Around 650 of them are still in Afghanistan; the remainder are in third countries. [59] At 5 June 2023, approximately 257 principal ARAP applicants and 1,231 dependents were being housed in hotels (funded by the UK Government) in Pakistan and 10 principal applicants and 30 dependents were in hotels in other countries. [60] Between April 2022 and March 2023 the government spent approximately £15 million accommodating ARAP and ACRS eligible people in hotels in Pakistan pending their travel to the UK. [61]

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[61] PQ UIN 175502, answered on 17 April 2023