Portsmouth City Council hits out at use of hotels for refugees fleeing warzones

Cabinet member for housing Darren Sanders said councils were ‘working to make sense’ of the government programmes and that these difficulties were hampering councils in supporting refugees.

‘It is the hallmark of civilised society, that we should help people who are in the most pain and the most trouble and the city council is leading that,’ he said. ‘The unfortunate thing for many is that they're in hotels, and that's not acceptable. They need safe and secure accommodation.’

His comments were echoed by council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson who described the existence of two separate schemes for Ukrainian refugees as 'ludicrous'.

More than 400 people are being supported by the council, including 146 people from Ukraine. It takes the total for the last five years to 800, almost half of whom are unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

This follows the 2019 declaration of Portsmouth as a city of sanctuary.

Among these are people also supported through two Afghan resettlement programmes, many of whom have been housed under the Home Office-sourced use of the Royal Beach Hotel in Southsea which has been used to provide accommodation since the start of the year.

Separately, the council has leased nine properties from the MoD which house 12 families. In June it was agreed to extend this for a year while discussions are being held around the possibility of another nine houses being used.

This came at the same time as a letter from the former minister for refugees, Lord Harrington, writing to councils calling on them to do more to help resettle Afghan migrants.

Cllr Sanders said the city council had responded to calls to offer support but said many other local authorities were not doing so.

'We have done a lot as a city to make sure that we have a civilised approach,' he said. 'And frankly it’s now the turn of other councils to stump up their fair share.'

Cllr Vernon-Jackson said the council was also facing a ‘cost pressure’ of about £1m a year above the £10,050 the government provides the council for each person it supports as a result of the increased burden on it.