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Search the Public Notice PortalTEN homes initially to be used for asylum seekers will eventually be used to provide accommodation for the homeless, Cumberland Council has confirmed.
The council has been allocated £1.407million from the latest round of the Government’s Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) for capital spending to improve temporary accommodation for eligible families and those arriving under the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP).
However, councillor Gareth Ellis (Wetheral, Conservative) has criticised the move claiming that the homes should go to local families.
He said the money would provide a total of 15 homes and he added: “10 of those homes are exclusively for a refugee housing scheme, not for local families. This is happening at the same time the council is planning £60million in cuts to services over the next three years.
“The £1.4 million grant won’t cover the whole cost. Another council nearby, Westmorland & Furness, took on the same type of scheme, and for every £1 they got from the government, they had to find over £1 themselves.
“If Cumberland has to do the same, the total bill could reach £3million, and there’s no sign the council has that kind of money sitting around, so it will likely have to borrow it. That means local taxpayers will be paying it back, with interest, for years.”
Cllr Ellis was also critical of the recent move by the council to adopt Place of Sanctuary status which he claimed was part of the same push to bring in more resettlement schemes. He added: “And when local people get angry about all this, cuts on one hand, millions for refugee housing on the other, the council doesn’t admit it caused the anger.
“Instead, the same council papers talk about a hate crime plan and a ‘community tension summit, as if the public’s frustration is the problem, rather than the council’s own choices.”
A council spokesman said the ARP was a Government scheme to assist those Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK Government in Afghanistan during the conflict and for certain individuals impacted by the data incident in 2022 to be considered for relocation to the UK.
He added: “This is to provide transitional housing to those arriving under the ARP until permanent housing is found for them. Importantly, it is not funding for housing asylum seekers under the asylum dispersal scheme.
“Cumberland’s allocation is for 15 family homes. Five will increase the council’s temporary accommodation provision for households owed a homelessness duty.
“This will help reduce reliance on B&B accommodation which is extremely costly for the council and disruptive for families especially those with children. The 10 homes will initially support eligible ARP families.
“Importantly, these properties become new affordable housing stock. Once they are no longer required for ARP households, the 10 houses can be used to meet wider housing and homelessness needs across Cumberland.
“The programme therefore leaves a legacy by increasing the supply of affordable housing available to support local people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.”
He said that officers were currently looking at the best way the council could deliver these housing improvements and added: “This is the fourth round of the LAHF and each round has featured different funding conditions and grant rates, so comparisons with schemes delivered by other authorities under earlier rounds may not be directly applicable to ours under round four.
“Until the council has agreed its preferred delivery approach, next steps and completed the necessary finance and governance work, it would not be appropriate to comment on any potential council contribution or borrowing requirement.”
