Havering in £6.3m bid to London mayor for housing refugees

Havering Council is seeking millions of pounds from the Mayor of London towards housing refugees living in the borough.

The council is bidding for £6.3m of Sadiq Khan’s £126m grant that aims to buy 630 homes for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees living in London.

Any properties Havering manages to buy with the fund will house refugees for at least three years before being permanently added to the council’s social housing stock.

READ MORE: Home Office plans to increase asylum beds at Havering hotel

According to the council, there are currently 124 Ukrainian families in the borough, living either in temporary housing or with sponsor families.

There is a need for about 8,000 homes for Afghan refugees across the UK.

A council report on the bid estimates that most Ukranians need one to three-bedroom homes, while Afghan families need more due to their “larger families”.

The report adds: “Alternative housing solutions are not proving effective for refugee cohorts as private rented accommodation is unaffordable, even with the government support packages available, and hostel and hotel accommodation are not suitable long-term solutions for families.”

If the council finds it has a duty to house the refugee family, it will offer them a “standard” five-year fixed-term tenancy agreement.

The council plans to contribute a further £10m from its housing account to buy 50 homes, if Mr Khan grants Havering the full £6.3m.

The mayor will contribute at most £175,000 for a smaller home and £250,000 for a larger home in the borough.

Havering hopes that providing affordable homes will save money compared to temporary accommodation, which has already cost £59,000 this year to house eleven Ukrainian families.

In the mayor’s guidance on the refugee housing scheme, launched in April, he wrote that Londoners recognise their “legal and moral obligation” to help those forced from their homes.

He added “I am proud of the Refugee Housing Programme and what it says about our city. As mayor, I will always work to uphold London’s legacy as a place of sanctuary.”