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?

And invoke a law to make use of all the second, third and so on homes

Well, you'd need to start with the Royal Residences - unfair to start anywhere else. Vast properties with room enough for many hundreds of refugees - let's see them lead by example for once

This is the nastiest post I have ever read on MN

You must live a very sheltered life then.

My suggestion is no more unrealistic than kicking the royals out of their unused palaces or taking over second homes.

42.4 per 1,000 homes sit unused in The City of London, making it the British council with the highest proportion of empty houses. It is also the only London council to feature in the national top 10.26 Jul 2021

Simple answer, if we don't offer an organised refugee system to a country we appear to have created a power vacuum in, these people wash up traumatised and half dead on the beaches. We will just have to find spaces by reassigning land use, creating plans for employment and utilising the skill sets of these people. My dad used to say JFDI and I feel this applies here.

Our local authority are taking 3 families. They took a similar number of Syrian refugees. It's not ideal as it's a very rural area and sprinkling people around the UK isn't probably very good for helping them settle but I suppose it's better than nothing.

In the new build apartments going up on every corner. Where else?

30 years’ waiting list for disabled Londoners in Wandsworth.

The list just got longer, didn’t it.

@PenCreed

We're lucky enough to have have two spare rooms, we offer one of them to refugees and have done for a few years now. They get the support and help from the agencies that place them, all we have to do is make small talk and occasionally feed them.

There are at least two charities that do it.
Room for Refugees: www.roomforrefugees.com
Refugees at Home: www.refugeesathome.org

We're on a break at the moment as we hosted two people (one after the other) through lockdowns and it was a bit intense, plus we need to do some work on the house, but will be hosting again later in the year.

Thanks for those links, PenCreed.

Former mill towns in the north west. Cheap housing. There are lots of asylum seekers housed in the NW.

Honestly lots of them get to live nowhere. If you have children, you have a right to be housed & £35/week per person. But the standards for that housing are very minimal and you’re completely at the whim of the government to be moved around and your children forced to change schools at a moments notice. If you do not have children you get £35/week. It’s appalling but there also isn’t an easy solution.

They will possibly be put to the top of the housing list in the area they get sent to

Years ago when I viewed a property I was placed first last minute as had got my priority banding changed just before the bidding deadline ( they told me on the phone so couldn’t then Take it back) the housing manager spoke to me and explained that a family of 6 in B and B were desperate for somewhere and would I consider declining as morally although I was first they had greater need and they were in two minds what to do but wanted to see if I’d step aside . They were a refugee family so I think they just automatically go to the top to be housed as quick as possible. I felt quite emotional about it and they really put pressure on me to ‘do the right thing’

Many thousands of Brits left the U.K. at the end of 2020 to establish their residency in the EU before the cutoff date. Thousands arrived here in France and that's just 1/27 EU countries (I can't quote the source as it's a private FB group). Something like 140,000 of us have done the U.K. and ourselves a massive favour and settled in France in the last 20 years or so. Plus many fruit pickers and lorry drivers originally from the EU went home, didn't they? That should have made some room.

one of my MIL's friends rented to a Syrian refugee, they had a big 5 bedroom house with empty rooms. They were a kosher household so it probably wasn't easy- they supplied a microwave and sink so it was kinda like a bedsit and rent was very cheap.

I think we older folk can say goodbye to a triple lock pension now and for evermore. Before anyone jumps down my throat, this will cause hardship to many

@percheron67 aid should be provided only after we make sure there is/and will be sufficient funding for fellow UK nationals in need. Not a popular opinion on MN though

I volunteer for a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers once they arrive in the UK.

You'd be horrified if you saw the state of the housing they are placed in. Honestly, it is horrendous, they are often barely habitable. Remember also that these poor souls arrive with nothing - all their furniture, clothing, kitchen utensils, bedding etc etc are ones that have been donated. The complete lack of provision is shocking.

Many, many asylum seekers/refugees are re-located to the centre of one of our grimmest, poorest and most rundown cities as that is where the housing is cheapest in the country. Families are placed in HMOs, sharing bathroom and kitchen facilities with other families, or in desperately neglected and rundown homes. These places are filthy to begin with and don't improve with overcrowding.

The parent(s) are so often just shells of themselves, having seen such tragedy in their home country. The journey is horrendous and many families are torn apart and broken before even making the trip.

What I can't emphasise enough is that the reality is NOT what the media would lead us to believe. They DO NOT get amazing housing, loads of benefits etc. The 'normal' rules don't apply, they don't jump the queue, they are living below the poverty line and applications for their leave to remain can take YEARS. They rely on food donations, food banks, charities and kind hearted neighbours to just survive. Mental health suffers because they're so isolated (as they're not permitted to find employment until they have leave to remain) and many do voluntary work themselves just to get out the house.

As a nation, we should actually be embarrassed and ashamed at the 'refuge' we provide as it isn't even the bare minimum. No one is anywhere near living the life of Riley. Far, far from it.

Refugees/asylum seekers are usually put in the roughest accommodation at least for a while, some even in b&bs where they have to go out and walk the streets.

If anyone can spare room, it will help.

@memberofthewedding

The Scottish First Minister is always saying that they have an under-population problem so they can go up there. Plenty of empty little islands off the Scottish coast. Of course the wifi may not be up to much.

I think you will find the scottish islands are in a similar situation to many places in the UK that are holiday destinations. There are lots of 2nd homes, empty villages, no social housing and families living with parents as they can't find a house to rent never mind buy!

sweetgingercat

StoneofDestiny
Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Windsor, Balmoral, Kensington Palace etc etc - loads of spare rooms that lie empty most of the year. A great use for them

That's a marvellous solution!
—————————————
Classic! Funny but less amusing is it’s actually true. But it’s one rule for emperors with extended family members possibly not above the law so in hiding seeking refuge and others in exile - while common subjects have to make their own billions to live as lavishly. I am assuming there is no charity from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Mountbatten-Windsor to help those less privileged!?

On a more serious note - how about the rural remote parts of the UK with depopulation?

Or alternatively the British overseas territories in the South Atlantic with military bases?

@Fferny1

Please don't lump the Aghan refugees in with the Hong Kongers. Though many of these will be educated as well. The 200,000 people estimated to be moving from HK will be very well educated, university graduates as an absolute minimum & wealthy. A tiny flat in HK is worth over a million. They're already cash buyers in Hale Barns and the affluent areas of Manchester. Don't worry the UK will not be supporting them. Hopefully they will bring money into the UK.

Exactly. The Hong Kongers are a highly educated, highly skilled diaspora, who will be self sufficient as well as filling many unfilled jobs in the STEM fields. Refugees from elsewhere will make up for the the low skilled labour shortage elsewhere. Unfortunately, we have a labour crisis in this country where the Brits with no qualifications or media studies degrees have unrealistic expectations of the job market. They simply don’t want want low skilled work and not enough are qualified for the high skilled work. So the Hong Kongers are needed as much as any other migrant group, if not more. Many will think that bringing people in is a humanitarian mission but it’s to plug the labour gap.

My suggestion is no more unrealistic than kicking the royals out of their unused palaces or taking over second homes

It's not unrealistic to use public property, that many of the royal residences are, to house people escaping from danger!

I think it should be part of the permanent solution for the housing problem, but even in the short term it's a reasonable solution.

Don't forget in WW2, the government commandeered large houses to create hospitals, soldier accommodation etc.

On the same basis we could use the unused Nightingale Hospitals.

My husband is a house clearer, has his own business. He works for a charity that houses Syrian refugees. Contrary to popular belief, they are basically put in slums. Bedsits you wouldn't put a dog in. They get 35 pounds a wk to live on. But they'd rather that, than their old lives.

@Supersimkin2

30 years’ waiting list for disabled Londoners in Wandsworth.

The list just got longer, didn’t it.

There are almost 400 councils in the UK. They'll be taking on average a dozen refugees a year. We aren't going to be giving houses to the dreaded single men - they'll share accommodation. So 2-3 houses in total. And councils can state their case to be excluded.

There are lots of generous statements on the thread. There are people offering space which will change and save lives. But we aren't opening the floodgates here. No problem seeing royals or third home owners inconvenienced, but it's hardly going to be necessary to restructure housing for 5000 people a year.

Sorry to hear Wandsworth's disabled residents are being treated so badly. I don't think we can blame refugees or migrants for that.

@Twatterati

I volunteer for a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers once they arrive in the UK.

You'd be horrified if you saw the state of the housing they are placed in. Honestly, it is horrendous, they are often barely habitable. Remember also that these poor souls arrive with nothing - all their furniture, clothing, kitchen utensils, bedding etc etc are ones that have been donated. The complete lack of provision is shocking.

Many, many asylum seekers/refugees are re-located to the centre of one of our grimmest, poorest and most rundown cities as that is where the housing is cheapest in the country. Families are placed in HMOs, sharing bathroom and kitchen facilities with other families, or in desperately neglected and rundown homes. These places are filthy to begin with and don't improve with overcrowding.

The parent(s) are so often just shells of themselves, having seen such tragedy in their home country. The journey is horrendous and many families are torn apart and broken before even making the trip.

What I can't emphasise enough is that the reality is NOT what the media would lead us to believe. They DO NOT get amazing housing, loads of benefits etc. The 'normal' rules don't apply, they don't jump the queue, they are living below the poverty line and applications for their leave to remain can take YEARS. They rely on food donations, food banks, charities and kind hearted neighbours to just survive. Mental health suffers because they're so isolated (as they're not permitted to find employment until they have leave to remain) and many do voluntary work themselves just to get out the house.

As a nation, we should actually be embarrassed and ashamed at the 'refuge' we provide as it isn't even the bare minimum. No one is anywhere near living the life of Riley. Far, far from it.

wouldn't it make sense for there to be a volunteer register of some sort to clean and repair these places free of charge, making them habitable for refugees

i think families sharing bathrooms and kitchens is ok? its what we expect homeless people in this country to do. and it may be comforting to have people from their home country around them

20,000 over 5 years so hardly swamped
Let’s be honest none of them will be sent to the naicer parts of London or Home Counties, more like up here in the poorer parts of the north due to cheaper housing costs etc. Haven’t got an issue with them coming btw. As a country we should be pulling our weight re refugees and asylum seekers. We have no social housing because of the type of parties we vote into power, ones that value tax cuts and free market competition over decent public services....

The Hong Kong British Overseas National passport holders are indeed very much
highly educated to at least high level university graduate level and entrepreneurial. These people currently reside in a very advanced international trading hotspot that has seen unfortunate if foreseeable imposed legal changes. They are wealth creators and doers and so would be highly desirable to assist their next destination home be it UK, Canada or elsewhere. They add a bonus to local businesses not a drain on society. Many are already cash buyers in core central London! They don’t need charity!