Cabinet to review £1.19m funding to provide accommodation for refugee families

Thanet District Council has been allocated £1.19m of government funding through the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF). The objective of the fund is to support accommodation for refugee families from Ukraine and Afghanistan. 

Cabinet members at Thanet District Council are to consider a report into the allocation of funding at their meeting on Thursday 15 June 2023. 

If approved, the council will be required to provide match funding of £1.996m. This will be funded as part of the council’s housing capital programme and the cost will be covered from the rent paid by tenants.

The homes will be newly built and purchased by the council from the developer. This will not impact on the council’s existing approved new build programme. The homes must be purchased by November 2023.

It is expected that in the long term, the homes that are purchased through the LAHF will be relet to people on the council’s housing register.

Cllr Helen Whitehead, Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Housing, said: “As a council we face significant challenges in provision, but we continue to do our best to rise to those challenges. We have a significant need for social and genuinely affordable homes and will work to secure funding for this. 

“Accommodation for all vulnerable members of society needs to be prioritised, and although further funding is needed,  it is essential to use all potential funding to support all residents.

“Support from the Local Authority Housing Fund will allow us to provide homes urgently needed for refugee families. Once no longer needed by these families, the homes will become part of our social housing stock, which continues to be in high demand in the district. 

“This support is in addition to our approved building programme; we will continue to support our vulnerable residents, and provide social and genuinely affordable housing for those who need it, as part of a new, ambitious and determined approach to social housing for Thanet.”