National Audit Office publishes results of an investigation into £2.1 billion scheme
The independent public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), yesterday published the results of an investigation into the Government's Homes for Ukraine scheme, which was set up in March 2022 to help Ukrainian refugees come to the UK.
The full 62-page report is here and a 13-page summary version is available here.
As the NAO notes, the Homes for Ukraine scheme is jointly run by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and the Home Office, and it enables people in the UK to act as sponsors and host Ukrainian nationals and their families seeking refuge from the war.
Total Government spending on the scheme stood at £2.1 billion by September 2023.
The NAO finds that the scheme successfully met the Government's overall objective of bringing Ukrainians to safety, with 131,000 Ukrainians coming to the UK under the scheme as up to 28 August 2023. Stakeholders spoken to by the NAO were generally positive about the scheme.
There are still challenges to overcome, however, with the NAO highlighting issues around safeguarding, homelessness, and the future of the scheme.
As the majority of Ukrainian people arriving into the UK under the scheme are women and children, safeguarding was identified as a key risk.
The report states: "The profile of arrivals meant that those arriving on the scheme may be more vulnerable to exploitation or abuse, and DLUHC and the Home Office recognise safeguarding as one of the biggest potential risks in the scheme. The taskforce put in place a Safeguarding Strategic Advisory Board (SSAB) from June 2022 to provide assurance on the scheme's approach to safeguarding. The SSAB membership included taskforce members as well as individuals from other government departments, arm's-length bodies and voluntary organisations with an interest in safeguarding issues. The SSAB found that the scheme's overall approach to mitigating safeguarding issues was well constructed and has strengthened over time."
According to the NAO, not many safeguarding issues have been identified so far and fewer than 1% of Ukrainian households participating in the scheme have been rematched due to safeguarding concerns, but data on some issues are incomplete.
Homelessness or the risk of homelessness affected 4,890 households under the scheme at some point between March 2022 and August 2023, according to the report, though data is also incomplete on this issue.
The NAO said: "Local authority data returns on scheme homelessness are voluntary, meaning DLUHC does not accurately know how many people on the scheme are currently experiencing homelessness. Return rates vary, with around 30% of English local authorities regularly not providing homelessness data on the scheme to DLUHC. By the end of August 2023, local authorities had reported to DLUHC that 4,890 households in England on Homes for Ukraine visas had been homeless or come within 56 days of being homeless, 8% of the 65,117 households in England using the visas. Since the start of 2023, at any one time, roughly 600 to 800 Ukrainian households have been living in temporary accommodation in England but DLUHC does not know how many of these households are on the Homes for Ukraine scheme. As more sponsorship arrangements come to an end the risk of homelessness is likely to increase."
Local authorities are employing a range of interventions to try to ensure that Ukrainians have suitable accommodation to move into once initial sponsorships end, including support to rent private sector accommodation. The report adds: "Of those Ukrainians surveyed in spring 2023, who had been in the UK for between eight months and just under 12 months, 45% were still in accommodation provided by their initial host. Thirty-four per cent reported that they are now renting, although some local authorities told us that the affluence of some areas with high numbers of sponsors will make it harder for Ukrainians to move into the private rented sector nearby."
The NAO notes that the overall future of the Homes for Ukraine scheme is not yet clear, though it is set to run for at least another three years, with three-year visas continuing to be approved daily.
Homes for Ukraine visas are valid for up to three years, meaning that the first people to arrive under the scheme will see their visas expire in March 2025. According to the report, it is unclear whether the Government intends to extend existing three-year visas.
The Government told the NAO it is considering any future need for an extension to the scheme and it is conscious of the wishes of the Ukrainian Government to support Ukrainians to return there when it is safe to do so to help rebuild the nation. As the NAO notes, a survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found 52% of Ukrainians in the UK said that they would like to continue to live in the UK, even when they feel it is safe to return to the Ukraine.
The NAO says the Government will need to carefully monitor the scheme's key risks, such as safeguarding, and particularly the threat of rising homelessness as more sponsorships end.
Following the publication of the report, the Local Government Association (LGA) issued a statement saying: "Councils are doing an excellent job of working with local people and partners to keep 189,600 Ukrainian refugees safe and supported across the UK. However, it remains a huge concern that there is no funding for councils beyond the first year and no funding for the 54,900 people that arrived via the family visa route. There are also serious concerns around the growing number of Ukrainians presenting as homeless, particularly those families facing the uncertainty of temporary accommodation.
"We want to work with government to review and confirm funding to ensure all families are helped to find permanent homes, jobs and schools and how best to support new and existing sponsors to open up their homes. This is alongside the need for urgent and joint solutions to pressing housing needs, given the growing demand from across all the schemes that welcome new arrivals to the UK, as well as broader increases in homelessness and housing pressures locally."