£3m Funding Approved For Refugee Accommodation In Adur And Worthing

Tuesday, 12 December 2023 06:40

By Thomas Hanway, Local Democracy Reporter

Nearly £3million will be used by Adur and Worthing councils for new refugee accommodation with support from the national government.

Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council received £559,066 and £809,083 in funding from the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) respectively, to support refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine in the two districts.

Funding of £1.7million was approved by the Worthing cabinet at a meeting on December 5, and £1.1million by Adur’s cabinet on December 7, to be supplemented through borrowing.

Worthing will look to secure one-four bed and five-two bed homes, and Adur will look for one-four bed and two-two bed homes – with the grant requiring at least one four-bed home to be purchased

Refugees were found as one of five priority groups in Adur and Worthing, with 99 refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine needing homes in Adur and 159 in Worthing.

Adur councillor Emma Evans (Con, Buckingham) said the council could find homes next to each other, to foster a support network adding this scheme was the ‘right thing to do’.

The LAHF is a £500million grant aimed at finding 4,000 homes in council areas across England for refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine – according to a report to council cabinets, the UK has seen 170,000 refugees since conflicts in the two countries started.

The LAHF money is only available until March, 2024, when the councils need to have purchased the new homes, otherwise it could lose the funding. The homes could be used by the councils as additional temporary and emergency accommodation when they are no longer in use as refugee accommodation.