Afghan refugees in UK may need new homes built for them due to lack of large properties

Councils are preparing to rent private homes and buy or even build additional properties due to a shortage of large houses needed to accommodate Afghan refugees, The Telegraph can disclose.

Whitehall and local council sources said that the average size of families arriving in Britain as part of the country's resettlement scheme was almost seven people, often including young children.

One family that arrived in the last week is understood to have as many as 12 members.

“To resettle them appropriately we need to find relatively large numbers of three, four, or even five bedroom houses, and those houses are in short supply for councils, or even in the private rented sector,” said a Whitehall source.

Ministers and council leaders are now holding talks about a range of options to accommodate Afghan families, including local authorities renting private homes, purchasing additional properties, or even constructing buildings that could accommodate families in the longer term.

Those arriving in Britain are immediately transferred to temporary accommodation such as quarantine hotels and military-owned properties designed to house the families of British personnel.

Another option for housing Afghan migrants on a long-term basis includes retaining military accommodation that had been due to be sold off.

The disclosure comes after Boris Johnson separately recognised the need to “boost capacity and overall housing supply” in Britain in a report on housing in which he said he wanted to see “a plan for a major scaling up of self-commissioned new homes – across all tenures”.

According to the Government, some 2,000 people have already been “resettled” in the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which was launched on April 1 to offer refuge to Afghan interpreters and other staff who have worked with the UK in Afghanistan.

“We urgently need more offers of support to welcome Afghan families”

Ministers have also set out plans for a new Afghanistan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme which will resettle 5,000 Afghan nationals in its first year – with priority given to vulnerable people such as women and girls – rising to 20,000 in the long-term.

Urgent discussions over how to house those coming to Britain are being held between the Local Government Association and the Ministry of Housing. Local authorities are being urged to come forward with offers of larger council-owned family homes or to help find private accommodation.

One source involved in the talks said the Government wanted to avoid families spending “protracted periods in hotels”, and to ensure those being evacuated are “treated with dignity and respect”.

On Friday, as the Government announced an extra £5 million for local councils to house Afghan refugees, Robert Jenrick, the Local Government Secretary, said: “There is already an enormous effort underway to support those arriving from Afghanistan with close to a third of councils already stepping up to support new arrivals.

“However, we urgently need more offers of support to welcome Afghan families who have stood shoulder to shoulder with the UK, serving our troops and our country so bravely in recent years.

“With this extra support in place, I’m calling on all councils who have not yet come forward, to contact us with a firm offer of support to help our Afghan friends and their families as they build a new life in safety here.”

Those arriving in the country from Afghanistan are being offered Covid-19 vaccinations and health checks at quarantine hotels.

On Saturday, the Home Office was accused of putting Afghan child refugees' lives at risk by housing them in a hotel previously criticised as a danger to children and a fire risk.