Where will the refugees coming to the UK live?

[Meeklynamechanged]

In no way a goady thread, I fully support helping the people fleeing such horrid circumstances, but genuine question.. where will they live? Where do we put people?

Where I live we have people waiting 10 years for a council property. Most areas around the UK have a huge deficit in available housing that doesn't meet demand.

With so many families stuck in overcrowded hostels and B&B's, families of 5 in 1 bed flats, I can't see where all of the required the housing will come from?

@MariposaLilly oh.... so the US isn't a cesspit as well then? Look at Detroit, Philadelphia some rural trailer park type areas.....the USA has EXACTLY the same problems as well

@AttaGirrrrl

I’d take ‘family of five in a one bedroom flat’ over ‘being killed for going to school’, so I don’t think it much matters where refugees go, so long as it’s somewhere safe.

The council won't house a family of 5 in a one bed flat, it'd likely be a 3 bed house they'd need. I agree with your sentiment but there's not enough social housing available, even one beds flats.

London is going to be full of empty shops in prime real estate areas. Either pull some down and build or get busy converting.

It’s easy to sit here and posture about letting out your spare room and basking in those good feelings about how wonderful you are

Especially when done from behind a keyboard, knowing perfectly well you'll never be called upon to do whatever it is being "offered"

As I mentioned on another thread I've chaired so many meetings like this, where folk shout about what we've GOT to do and insist they'll be right there in the front line ... only come the day they're nowhere to be seen

@FinallyDecided

A lot of people who are homeless here have drink and drug problems. In part the reason they are homeless maybe? As there are plenty of schemes to get people off the streets. Whilst I do feel for those who are in the throes of addiction and self sabotage I would not want to have them living in my house. An Afghan refugee who is fleeing a war torn country? Yes, I would offer them a room as a temporary measure.

Do you think they land here, probably apart from their families and for certain from the life they knew- the language and the places they are familiar with and just settle in?

They will be sent to the North or Midlands, as per usual. They won’t stay in the south or other countries in the UK. The thing is, the last few governments haven’t done anything to improve resources and amenities for a growing population (we need more schools, hospitals, dentists, GP surgeries, better road layouts etc). Nor have they clamped down on buy to let property owners (not many affordable housing options on the market).

All very nice offering spare rooms but that doesn’t solve a homelessness problem we already have in the U.K. my local authority uses badly maintained B&Bs to accommodate the homeless. These B&Bs are not the type one would stay in on holiday. Obviously we need to accommodate Afghanistan’s but putting an 18 year old in my spare room does not help long term.

The current situation in Afghanistan is entirely of the U.K.’s and US’s making though

I love this as an example of how everything bad has been caused ENTIRELY by the West. Nothing to do with the Taliban then?

Biden's rapid withdrawal has allowed a problem that was already there to flood back in. But the thing is, the problem (the Taliban) actually was already there. And its the people who form the Taliban who have responsibility for the existence of the Taliban.

@Maireas

Thank you & yes you are right

It seems unfair that there's pressure on kind and well meaning individuals to open up a spare bedroom instead of an organised support plan. I've just emailed my MP about it, but I'm not feeling optimistic.

@Hellotoallmyfans

Well I did wonder whether pvt landlords would help, it's just the ones where I live won't touch people on benefits with a barge pole and want guarantors.

They are extremely discriminatory towards people deemed in need of government support, even people who work but have their wages supplemented by UC are regularly turned down.

We are private landlords - it's how we earn a living to feed and clothe our family and keep a roof over our own heads. If you ran a business and (from experience) knew you had little to no chance of being paid for the service you provide, would you still provide it? Our would you want to ensure at least a decent chance of being paid?

People who make comments like those above usually have precisely no experience of the matter they are talking about.

Why do you think you would have little or no chance of being paid ? I have been on benefits for thirty years. I always paid my rent on time.

Look up Swale Borough Council on Facebook. It is asking empty home owners to step forward and help accommodate Afghanistan’s. Swale, although in the south east, has one of the highest levels of deprivation. Unemployment is also high. Homelessness on the council is a huge growing issue.

So no they will not all end up in the north. But it will be huge pressures on already deprived areas.

That's what happens, @Feelingoktoday
the pressure is added to areas of deprivation, then it's just a smaller piece of the pie for poor and disadvantaged. Then there's resentment, which adds to problems.

I read an article in local newspaper saying Birmingham mayor Streetly is in discussions with government to privately accommodate 80 families. Government will find centrally and give money to Birmingham to cover schools and strain on hospitals etc. We have to put them somewhere. We can't leave them to the Taliban. I am furious with Biden, Johnson and other NATO countries for abandoning them. I am a foster carer and have a spare room so I could offer an unaccompanied child a home but I know they prefer to place with Muslim families for religious needs.

@wednesdayweather
True, but it’s also true the Taliban arose from the fanatical mujahideen which was directly funded and supported by the CIA.

You could also say that the failure to secure the peace a whole two decades post Western invasion, lack of strategy and end game, made the Talibans job a lot easier.

Of course it’s not “all the west’s fault”. But if you invade an entire fucking country and start dropping thousands of bombs on cities, you better have a really good fucking plan. Scampering out with tail between legs amid airport carnage in 2021 isn’t quite that.

I'd hope that they will be bumped to the top of the housing list. I'd much rather my taxes went towards funding accommodation for refugees then a person who has been born into the UK but has made no attempt to work or give anything back to the system.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

It’s easy to sit here and posture about letting out your spare room and basking in those good feelings about how wonderful you are

Especially when done from behind a keyboard, knowing perfectly well you'll never be called upon to do whatever it is being "offered"

As I mentioned on another thread I've chaired so many meetings like this, where folk shout about what we've GOT to do and insist they'll be right there in the front line ... only come the day they're nowhere to be seen

Here here! People are so quick to spout how wonderful they are whilst faceless and hiding behind a keyboard

Not read the full thread but I assume there are quite a lot of houses vacated by EU citizens who've gone either home or to other EU countries. I don't think it will be that hard to find room for 20,000 people (although not sure how many will come from Hong Kong too).

Time to look at all the empty houses across the country (reportedly around half a million!) and bring them back into use. Instead of concreting over the countryside to build poor quality new ones.

@DancingQueen85

I'd hope that they will be bumped to the top of the housing list. I'd much rather my taxes went towards funding accommodation for refugees then a person who has been born into the UK but has made no attempt to work or give anything back to the system.

And how many of those do you actually think there are. The benefits system is a horrible thing to navigate - very few people would choose it.

@DancingQueen85 why do you think people on the housing list haven't/aren't working? What a bizarre thing to say.

@EmbarrassingAdmissions
They are converting them, in fact planning law changed to enable this. The problem is that often these conversions by bypassing planning are not necessarily fit for purpose (some have been converted to windowless bedsits which is entirely legal but really unpleasant)
It takes time and resources to convert them and at the moment there are global construction material shortages (multi factorial reasons for this current industry crisis) so construction is slow/stopped and costing a lot lot more than usual. I expect conversions will for the immediate future be limited to those that can recoup some of those conversion costs.
Shops/commercial buildings are often not insulated to the same standards as homes and need upgrades in plumbing and electrics so it's not just a matter of throwing up some walls.

[quote Sadiecow]@PalmsandCharms yes and calling them do gooders and wanting to make themselves look better!

Just because they want to help.

Outrageous isn't it? [/quote]
Wow! You really don't give up do you.

Like I said earlier, you're a bully.

@DancingQueen85

I'd hope that they will be bumped to the top of the housing list. I'd much rather my taxes went towards funding accommodation for refugees then a person who has been born into the UK but has made no attempt to work or give anything back to the system.

You lack any understanding as to how the housing list works. There are young people that are kicked out of their family homes, disabled people who will never work, returning military that need help, relationship breakdowns where people are sofa surfing for months.