The leader of Swindon Borough Council has warned that some rough sleepers may be returned to the streets after lockdown is lifted if government immigration rules are not changed.

Under the government’s Everybody In initiative, the borough council has paid for hotel accommodation for all rough sleepers.

But under government rules, some immigrants to the UK – EU citizens and those from outside the EU with no right to reside – may not have public money spent on them.

That means those that have been housed under coronavirus emergency measures cannot be housed by local councils as those measures are relaxed.

Council leader David Renard, is housing spokesman for the Local Government Association. Speaking in his LGA role he said: “There is a real risk. The law around no recourse to public funds as it applies to these people means that as a local authority we are legally unable to spend public funds on them.”