Council pledges £4m to buy homes for Ukrainian refugees

Council leader Richard Clewer said the council was using the funding in an "innovative way" to help the refugees

Geograph Wiltshire County Council's offices — Council leader Richard Clewer said the council was using the funding in an "innovative way" to help the refugees

Plans to spend £4m buying houses for Ukrainian refugees in Wiltshire might not be enough, given how many people could need help, a council is told.

Wiltshire Council said it was using government cash in an "innovative way" to stop refugees living on the streets.

It acted after fears some people who agreed to host refugees for six months did not wish to continue hosting.

Potentially 879 refugees were in need of accommodation but £4m might only buy 16 homes, councillor Ian Thorn said.

Stone Circle director and Wiltshire Council Liberal Democrat leader Mr Thorn added: "The average house price in Wiltshire is probably £200,000-250,000.

"If we've got around £4m to put in, we can only buy around 16 houses which is a fairly small number given the number of Ukrainian families and that quite a lot of hosts have decided they don't want to be hosts anymore."

Councillor Ruth Hopkinson (Lib Dem) said: "With the best will in the world, it's going to take months to get who knows how many houses and the crisis is now.

"We've got potentially 879 refugee guests needing accommodation now.

"Additionally, we don't know where these new houses will be. They are unlikely to be close to where these people are getting jobs."

At present 879 refugees are being accommodated in 377 Wiltshire households.

The council has received £5.9m in 2022 from the government to help Ukrainian refugees who came to the UK after Russia invaded in February.

Councillor Ruth Hopkinson, who is hosting a refugee, said the commitment was still not enough

Councillor Ruth Hopkinson, who is hosting a refugee, said the commitment was still not enough

It has spent £1.1m of that total, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The remaining cash will be put into Stone Circle Housing Company - a firm which the council created to buy accommodation for the county's residents - which will buy the houses.

Council leader Richard Clewer (Cons) said the council was using the funding in an "innovative way" to help the refugees.

The council had previously promised to put down a deposit and one month's rent for refugees threatened with homelessness who could not afford to themselves.

Additional reporting by Ollie Pritchard-Jones