Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to issue Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme personnel and their families housed in bridging hotels with notice of their eviction from their hotel accommodation.

Bridging hotels are not, and were never designed to be, permanent accommodation. That is why dedicated teams across central and local government have supported over 9,000 Afghans into settled homes.

However, around 8,000 remain in hotel accommodation. Long-term residency in hotels has prevented some Afghans from properly putting down roots, committing to employment and fully integrating into communities. From the end of April 2023, individuals staying in hotels and serviced accommodation began to receive legal notice to leave their temporary accommodation by a certain date.

Dedicated cross-government casework teams, made up of Home Office Liaison Officers and DWP staff, are based in hotels and are working alongside local authority officials to provide advice to Afghans, including information on how to rent in the private sector, find employment and English language training.

The government is providing £285 million of new funding to local authorities supporting the Afghan resettlement schemes. This includes £35 million which will go towards increasing the level of support available as well as a £250 million expansion of the Local Authority Housing Fund to help councils to source homes for Afghans currently in bridging accommodation.

This new, generous package of support comes in addition to the existing support available for people on the ACRS and ARAP schemes, including access to welfare system, the right to work and full access to public services.

The move from hotels into settled accommodation is in the best interests of families and individuals and will enable them to benefit from the freedoms of independent living that only suitable non-hotel accommodation can provide.