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'No homes' available in Conwy county for asylum seekers

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Asylum seekers are not being resettled in Conwy county as the council has been struggling to find houses for them, a report has revealed.

In January 2017, the council agreed to become a "designated dispersal area" to help rehouse Syrian refugees.

But one year on, a council report said it has not started the scheme as it has not been able to find any accommodation.

Conwy council said it was "committed to receiving families".

However, two families of Syrian refugees have been rehoused in the county since the local authority signed up to the separate Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (SVPRS) in January 2016.

But the council had hoped to resettle five families during 2016-2017 but was unable to secure suitable accommodation - although two families did pull out.

In January last year, the council then voted to implement an Asylum Seeker Dispersal pilot scheme - separate to the SVPRS - after being asked by the Home Office to help ease pressure on Wales' four existing dispersal areas.

Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and Wrexham were experiencing a "chronic shortage of accommodation" for those that needed to be rehoused.

The Home Office wrote to all 18 Welsh local authorities who did not house asylum seekers to ask them to start taking people in - and Conwy was the first to formally agree.

Last year, six Syrian families held a cultural event to thank a Powys community for welcoming them to their town

But the report, being considered by a council committee on Thursday, said 12 months on, the pilot has not started taking people in.

The council said the main issues with finding properties were "affordability, suitability of properties and landlord's choice" but that it was "continuing to source accommodation".

Clearsprings Ready Homes, the accommodation provider for the Asylum Seeker Dispersal pilot scheme, is also "continuing the search to secure a property for this purpose", the local authority added.

The report stated the council's housing manager was in contact with the UK and visa immigration team, who will review the position again.

Nearly 400 people were re-homed across Wales under the SVPRS by the end of 2016.