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.
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.
Many Ukrainians struggle to find accommodation in the private rented sector because of the need to provide a deposit, something councils can help with but which some Ukrainians say in practice can be slow, bureaucratic and difficult to access. Finding a UK guarantor can also be difficult and those unable to speak English struggle to negotiate with landlords.
British Red Cross research earlier this year found that Ukrainian refugees were more than twice as likely as British people to experience homelessness. Using data from across Britain, the Red Cross research estimates that more than 6,400 Ukrainian families will experience some form of homelessness this year.
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.”
She called for targets to be set for council spending of government money earmarked for Ukrainians and for interventions from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to get more people into private rented accommodation more quickly.
Solomiia Baranets, a Ukrainian refugee and trainee lawyer who runs the Ukrainian Employment Integration Project to help people find jobs, said she had struggled to get housing for herself and her family and was trying to help others in the same situation.
“The status of Ukrainians here is not stable. I have two children and a disabled mother. I contacted more than 50 landlords. They were very polite but they never came back to me. The council did not help me. I had to help myself.”
Stan Beneš, the director of Opora, an organisation that supports Ukrainians in rebuilding their lives, said: “The quality of council support for Ukrainians is often a postcode lottery. Since the Ukraine visa schemes began, councils have had significant discretion over how to use government-allocated funds, and whether to top them up from their own budgets.
“Differences in council structures, resources and priorities across the UK have widened the gap. While some Ukrainians still receive a high level of support, an ever-growing number are struggling. These barriers are further compounded by the trauma of war and forced relocation.”
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.
An MHCLG spokesperson said: “Councils are given a set amount of funding per arrival and it’s not unusual for this to be spent over the duration of their time in the UK rather than all at once. Ultimately councils are best placed to understand the needs of their local communities and explain how this money is spent.”
