Resource

Our Housing and Welfare team supports clients who are at risk of homelessness, most commonly after being granted leave to remain and having had their asylum support accommodation discontinued by the Home Office. After staying in temporary accommodation provided by their local authority (usually for many years), a small number of our clients are offered social housing. For this extremely vulnerable and multiply marginalised cohort of people, the chance to have long-term social housing can transform their lives, providing life-long security for them and their families.  

This submission looks at the consultation on reforms to social housing allocations, proposed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. It is our position that the implementation of the proposed ‘UK connection test’ will have a significant adverse, potentially discriminatory, impact on people and their families applying for social housing who are refugees, survivors of trafficking and others with leave to remain who would be excluded under the proposed changes. It is also our position that this proposed change will make no positive difference to the multiple housing crises facing all residents of UK and is in fact likely to have a negative financial impact local authorities and other agencies. Click on the arrow below to read the full response.