Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support is available to British citizens and residents who were evacuated from Afghanistan and returned to their own homes, which are now overcrowded or otherwise unsuitable due to additional family members and dependents who were evacuated with them.

A significant cross Government effort is underway to ensure the thousands of Afghans and British nationals who were evacuated to the UK receive the support they need to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education, and integrate into local communities.

We are working at pace to source appropriate accommodation as quickly as possible for those evacuated from Afghanistan. In the interim we have ensured that support is provided to all evacuees, including British nationals, temporarily accommodated in bridging hotels.

British Citizens are provided with bridging accommodation for as long as is needed. We encourage any British Citizens who have left bridging accommodation to return so that support can be provided to them.

In bridging accommodation, we are providing all new arrivals from Afghanistan, including British Citizens with cash cards to give them subsistence support whilst their Universal Credit claim is processed.

In the social rented sector, Local Authorities (LAs) are advised to allocate properties in line with current statutory bedroom standards to avoid overcrowding. By law, LAs must ensure that certain groups receive ‘reasonable preference’ (priority) when allocating social housing, including people who are homeless, in overcrowded housing or who need to move for medical and welfare reasons. They can also give ‘additional preference’ (high priority’) to people in urgent housing need, including people occupying overcrowded housing which poses a serious health hazard.