Michael Tomlinson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Tomlinson on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent steps his Department has taken to help councils to house refugees.

Richard Harrington

Those who have been granted refugee status or humanitarian protection must qualify under local rules set by the relevant local authority and have sufficient priority under the local authority’s allocation scheme to be eligible for social housing, just as anyone else.

At the Spending Review the Government committed £129 million to assist with local authority costs over years 2-5 for those local authorities who are resettlling refugees under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. This is unringfenced funding and it will be for local authorities to decide how to use the funding to support the refugees they resettle.