An update has been issued on the support for those fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan
New homes have been bought by Wirral Council across the borough(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Three more homes have been bought to house refugees and homeless people in a Merseyside area. A sum of £4.2m is expected to be spent buying up 24 properties, with a further £500,000 refurbishing them.
Wirral Council was awarded funding previously to help house those fleeing from Ukraine and Afghanistan. According to a decision notice published September 23, this was in recognition of the borough welcoming these refugees.
Wirral Council was awarded £2.4m from one round of local authority housing funding to quickly buy 25 properties or up to the budget allocated by the government. The council decided to buy 30 properties but two new builds were not delivered, while the vendors withdrew from a further three.
That left 25 properties available but issues with three of these may mean only 22 properties will be completed. However two more properties have been able to be bought with the current round of funding.
This means 24 homes will be delivered which will be offered to both refugees as well as the homeless. The total spend on properties as it stands is £4.2m while the three properties currently having issues could be bought in another funding round.
A total of £2.8m of council ring-fenced funding has also been used to support the purchases on top of the government grant. This comes from income taken from developers to provide affordable housing in the borough as well as existing funding for refugee programmes.
The notice published by the local authority said: “15 of these properties must be provided to Afghan nationals who have been given settlement status by the UK and have been living in bridging hotels but must now move to settled long-term accommodation. 10 properties must be used as temporary accommodation, helping to alleviate significant homelessness pressures in the borough.”
Unlike some areas, most of the social housing in Wirral is not council-owned with a large percentage of their stock handed over to Magenta Housing in 2005. Handing the funding for these properties over to an organisation like Magenta was considered.
However the council’s preferred option was to buy them itself “so that an income can be generated in the future from rental income and reduce the burden on housing subsidy loss for use of bed and breakfast.” There is an agreement in place for the council to manage these homes too.
Leader of the council’s Conservative group, Cllr Jeff Green, previously welcomed the funding, adding: “We know these families’ lives were put at significant risk when the Taliban retook power and it is heartening we are making good on the debt of honour we owe these brave people.”
In 2023, the UK government gave out £250m to councils across the country in the latest round of funding. When the funding was announced, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs at the time Johnny Mercer said: “I saw first-hand the invaluable contribution many Afghans made to the British military and our international partners, with many more standing by the UK to uphold democratic values. Others were fleeing genuine persecution and rightly came here through safe and legal routes.
“Our commitment to the people of Afghanistan is unwavering, and our new plan, complete with new funding, will speed up the resettlement of Afghans into suitable, long-term housing so they can successfully make Britain their home and find the certainty that brings.
“We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the people of Afghanistan, and I would encourage a whole of society effort to help them rebuild their lives here.”