Fifty hotels will be closed to asylum seekers by January, the Government has announced.
The LGA has written to Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, raising concerns around the challenges those leaving hotels may face finding affordable, long-term accommodation, given acute housing shortages and rising demand for homes across the country.
The letter also called for a joint and funded approach, nationally, regionally and locally, to manage the move on from asylum accommodation.
Separately, the LGA has raised concerns about councils being asked to commit to hosting a particular number of arrivals or proposing a cap, as per the Government’s recent announcement of an annual refugee cap, coming into effect in January 2025.
Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the LGA, said: “Councils have a proud history of supporting humanitarian efforts and continue to work hard to help deliver a wide range of government asylum and resettlement schemes.
“Combined pressures from these many schemes are growing on councils and there continues to be an issue across the refugee and asylum system.
“We need a joined-up approach to the cumulative pressures on local services from all asylum and resettlement programmes. This needs to include urgent solutions to our pressing housing needs in the short and the long term across all the schemes that welcome new arrivals to the UK.”
