Dear Secretary of State,

Financial support for hosts of Ukrainian refugees

I am writing regarding the Homes for Ukraine and Family visit schemes and calling on you to take urgent action to provide additional support for hosts.

This week we marked six months since Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine which led to many Ukrainians’ having to flee their homeland. The British people generously opened their homes and lives to welcome the refugees.

As the mandatory six-month hosting period comes to end, many host families will be unable to continue to host Ukrainian refugees with the rise in the cost of living in the UK increasing significantly since the end of March.

This will have a negative impact on integration and will put many refugees at risk because they don’t have the resources to rent their own homes, with social housing and the private rental sector already stretched and difficult to access. Local authorities will be further stretched given their already limited resources.

I am also concerned that hosts on the Ukrainian Family Visa scheme, who have taken in refugees as the visa sponsor didn’t have space in their home, have received no financial support. Although they knew that this scheme was different to the Homes for Ukraine, the host took the refugees in willingly and saw that as a contribution they could make.

However, given that the war is continuing longer than anticipated and with winter approaching many families will find that the extra costs of more people in their homes untenable. I therefore urge you to undertake the following actions:

• Increase the amount of the ‘thank you’ payments to £700, particularly where hosts are hosting multiple persons. Increasing payments would be a cost-effective way of encouraging hosts to continue hosting rather than asking for help from the Council to rehouse and causing further upheaval and trauma to guests
• Make available ‘thank you’ payments to hosts on the Family Visa scheme who are housing refugees because the visa sponsor didn’t have space. It is vital to support families hosting under the family scheme rather than continuing to presume on their generosity.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Marsha de Cordova

Member of Parliament for Battersea