East Sussex councils secure funding for Ukrainian refugees

Councils across East Sussex will be given upfront funding to support Ukrainian refugees.

East Sussex County Council will release £534,600 to district and borough councils supporting the 1,064 Ukrainian refugees currently within the county.

Until now councils have processed payments for refugees and their hosts and claimed the cost back from the county council.

But due to increasing workloads, upfront funding is now needed.

This is partially due to some breakdowns in host-guest relationships leaving some refugees needing new accommodation, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Eastbourne is the temporary home of 108 of those refugees, spread between 50 host families, and the borough will host a "welcome event" for them on Monday.

It will take place between 13:00 and 17:00 BST at Eastbourne Town Hall, and aims to attract more families to act as hosts.

Alan Shuttleworth, Cabinet Member for Direct Assistant Services at Eastbourne Borough Council, said: "The fantastic response to this humanitarian emergency here in Eastbourne and across East Sussex has been heart-warming."

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