Six-month pilot extended as Government seeks shift from private sector asylum accommodation model
The Local Government Chronicle (LGC) reported on Friday that Dame Angela Eagle, the Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum, announced the Home Office is extending the 56-day 'move-on' trial for newly recognised refugees until the end of the year.
Image credit: UK GovernmentInitially scheduled to run for six months, the trial commenced last December and it doubled the normal 28-day time period given to new refugees to transition away from Home Office asylum support and accommodation.
As reported by the LGC, Angela Eagle told the Local Government Association conference last week: "I can tell you today that we're going to extend that pilot to the end of the year so we can collect a bit more information about it."
Eagle added that the current reliance on hotels for asylum accommodation was not sustainable and the Government wanted to use the pilot to explore how it could move away from a wholly private-sector accommodation model.
"It struck me very much that with the current accommodation contracts, we're spending a whole lot of money, but we're not really getting any assets. … Perhaps we could do something that would be more effective and efficient, and there would be an asset that could be used at the end of it. It's that kind of transformation that I'm interested in talking to all of you about," the Minister was quoted as saying.
The Minister confirmed the extension in the House of Commons yesterday. She was asked if she could provide greater clarity on whether the six-month trial would be extended. Eagle responded: "As it happens, I can. We have extended the move-on trial until the end of the year."
In a debate on asylum support in the House of Lords last month, Labour peer Baroness Lister of Burtersett noted the pilot has been broadly well received. She told the Lords:
Overall, there has been a uniformly positive response, which is not to say that there have not been teething problems—partly due, according to local authorities in my home region of the East Midlands, to the short implementation time and partly due to delays in receiving necessary documentation. There have, inevitably, been variations in how well local authorities have responded to the longer move on period. Nevertheless, in the words of NACCOM—the UK-wide No Accommodation Network which works to prevent destitution among refugees, among others—the extension
"has proven overwhelmingly beneficial for new refugees and the organisations that support them".
One of the organisations in the north-east noted:
"I think the main lesson is the 56-day period is a much more humane and smoother transition process for everyone".
Similarly, London Councils has called it "a vital support", and it suggests that the impact is likely to increase because the 56-day period came into effect later in some boroughs. Feedback from the East Midlands is that it has made a huge difference, and Crisis has also referred to "the overwhelming response" from its services that it should be retained.
The pilot has helped to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping, particularly among single people. Although some refugees have still ended up rough sleeping, it has tended to be for shorter periods, and Crisis staff felt that the 56 days at least "make it possible" to find accommodation. The Glass Door Homeless Charity recorded a significant drop in the number of winter night shelter guests who have Home Office accommodation departure as the reason for their homelessness.