Then Claw It Back!

More than £300m given to English councils to help Ukrainian refugees into accommodation has not been spent, while thousands of them face homelessness. Freedom of information requests to 150 councils in England, shared with the Guardian, identified that £327m – about a third of the £1bn budget – was still sitting in council bank accounts more than three years after Russia invaded Ukraine.

So get it back - Rachel Thieves needs every penny she can get her clumsy hands on, doesn’t she?  

Most of the funds councils have spent have been used to pay staff and partner organisations. Only £22m has been spent on temporary accommodation for Ukrainians and £15m to help them into private rented accommodation.

So the councils are just sitting on the cash? Why? Do they get to spend the interest earned on other things?  

Baljeet Nijjhar of UKrainian Refugee Help, who obtained and collated the FoI data, said: “Local councils are allocated thousands of pounds per Ukrainian arrival, yet the guests we support seem to struggle to access this directly when in need. “The most common issue is inability to rent privately and people often don’t know anyone in the UK who could act as a guarantor, so it’s the local council that they must rely on here to solve this problem. “Our research shows that many councils have significant levels of funds left, but have helped very few people to rent, whereas others have demonstrated a ‘can do’, proactive approach and have helped significantly more.”

Is this just usual local council incompetence or are they benefiting from this in some way? 

Dr Krish Kandiah, the director of the Sanctuary Foundation, which provides support for Ukrainian refugees, praised the British public for their hospitality. “It is now vital that the UK builds on that generosity by ensuring that every Ukrainian has the security and dignity of their own front door,” he said.

Personally, I think it’s vital that they ensure that every Brit has that before we look at providing it for foreigners.