Scarborough awarded £700,000 grant to buy homes for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees

Scarborough Council has accepted £744,000 of Government funding to acquire nine homes for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees who have settled in the area.

The grant from the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities is provided as match funding to enable registered providers to acquire the homes at a total cost of around £1.16m.

The homes, which should be ready by November this year, can only be allocated for their intended purpose and will provide “a legacy within the total social housing stock” once refugees return home.

In August 2021, 92 Afghan refugees, including 64 children, arrived in Scarborough with a further 150 temporarily housed at two separate hotels by September the same year until permanent accommodation elsewhere in the UK is arranged – which prompted an outpouring of support and donations to charities in the town.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday February 14, Cllr Carl Maw, member for stronger communities and housing, said: “What I need to point out is that were this funding to provide housing for everybody, we’d have done exactly the same and taken that.

“This is the money that is on offer and we have some families who have put down roots within the area and now call this their home.”

In North Yorkshire, only Scarborough and Harrogate Borough Councils have been awarded funding from the Government.

The authority has said that the notice for the grant was “very challenging” but hopes it will “help mitigate some of the pressure on sponsors, refugees, and the council”.

Eight of the homes will be for Ukrainian refugees and one four-bed home will be for Afghan refugees, with 60 Ukrainian and 28 Afghan households located in the borough of Scarborough.

Not a member of the cabinet, Cllr Heather Phillips asked whether the authority was doing anything else to help Ukrainian refugees, adding that “maybe they need a little bit extra”.

Speaking at the meeting, she added: “Having a home and your family is most important to them, so I think this is a cracking idea from central Government and hopefully we’ll see something move forward positively and quickly.”

The plan was approved unanimously by members of Scarborough Council’s cabinet.