Four Ukrainian refugee families in Wiltshire are now without a home and 17 more families are ‘likely to become’ homeless.

The families are now in temporary accommodation - which is legally homeless, but they are not sleeping rough.

Council Leader Richard Clewer said another 17 were ‘likely to become homeless’ when speaking at a cabinet meeting on November 29.

This follows the minimum sixth-month period during which Ukrainian families were set to stay with their UK hosts ending.

Resettlement case workers are supporting the families to help find longer-term accommodation.

Once a Ukraine family is provided with notice to leave the accommodation they are currently in, the council first try to rematch them with another sponsor.

If this fails, they are encouraged to look for a suitable private let and the Council can assist, if they meet the criteria, with the deposit and rent in advance to secure the property. 

If this is not possible the council provide them with temporary accommodation.

The council’s latest plan to protect refugees from homelessness is to invest the government support fund for Ukrainians into the Council’s housing company Stone Circle which will buy homes to let to refugees.

Cllr Clewer said he wanted to borrow another £20m in order to acquire more houses at the latest Cabinet meeting.

The plans have been criticised by Liberal Democrat councillors who say the government funding would be better spent on giving hosts more money to encourage them to continue and incentivise more to come forward.
Liberal Democrat councillor Gavin Grant further criticised the plans: “Stone Circle has not done much with the loans that Wiltshire Council has already made to it.

“Officers are already under a huge amount of pressure to deliver the day-to-day services of Wiltshire Council, let alone what’s been put on top of them by Stone Circle.

“So, there’s a real question over whether Cllr Clewer’s plan will work.”

But Cllr Clewer said: “That simply isn’t true. We can always put more resources in to speed things up. We’ve discussed it with officers at Stone Circle and we are confident it can be done.

“Something similar is being done by Buckinghamshire now to try to assist with refugee homelessness.

“I don’t know what the Liberal Democrats have got against this. We’ve got money set aside for the next stages of Stone Circle. We’ve looked at it and we’re confident it stacks up.”