HOUSES across Wiltshire will be bought by Wiltshire Council for Ukrainian refugees facing homelessness as the government’s six-month hosting plan ends.
Wiltshire Council has said it will use government funding to buy homes and lease them to the county’s Ukrainian refugees to keep them off the street. This follows fears some refugees may become homeless as some Wiltshire residents who agreed to host refugees for six months will want their homes back.
The council previously promised to put down a deposit and one month’s rent for refugees threatened with homelessness who could not afford to themselves, but cllr Ruth Hopkinson, who is hosting a refugee, said the commitment was not enough.
Council leader Richard Clewer said, “As the six-month minimum time expires there will be some Ukraine nationals who face an uncertain future. We are going to use the government funding in an innovative way to purchase homes that can be used for Ukraine nationals.”
The council received £5.9 million this year from the government for the Ukrainians and have spent £1.1 million. The funds will now be put into Stone Circle Housing Company which will buy the houses. Stone Circle was created by Wiltshire Council years ago to buy housing for the county’s residents. Cllr Hopkinson said this commitment is still not enough.
She explained, “With the best will in the world, it’s going to take months to get who knows how many houses and the crisis is now. We’ve got potentially 879 refugee guests needing accommodation now.
“Additionally, we don’t know where these new houses will be. They are unlikely to be close to where these people are getting jobs. “Take my lady, who’s got a job in Corsham. If Wiltshire Council buy a house in Calne, she’s not going to be able to commute between the two on minimum wage.
“What Hampshire have done is given an additional payment to hosts as an incentive for people to keep refugees. Other councils are actively engaging with estate agents to facilitate the letting of properties.”
Currently 879 refugees are being accommodated in 377 Wiltshire households.
Stone Circle director and Wiltshire Council liberal democrat leader Ian Thorn added, “The average house price in Wiltshire is probably £200,000-250,000. If we’ve got around four million to put in, we can only buy around 16 houses which is a fairly small number given the number of Ukrainian families and that quite a lot of hosts have decided they don’t want to be hosts anymore.”
