Home Office has ‘completely failed in its duty of care’ of people seeking asylum says West Berkshire Council

West Berkshire Council has criticised the Home Office’s “neglectful” policy towards the housing of refugees.

Many asylum seekers who had been staying in a West Berkshire hotel for almost two years are now receiving Right to Remain letters.

The Home Office has only given these individuals seven days’ notice to find alternative accommodation which WBC executive member for housing Denise Gaines (Lib Dem, Hungerford and Kintbury) said was nowhere near enough time to achieve this.

She said: “These residents, once granted asylum and given leave to remain by the Home Office, were given just seven days to leave their accommodation and find somewhere to live in West Berkshire.

“A mammoth task for anyone just starting out, let alone someone in a strange country struggling even to speak the language.

“Seven days is nowhere near enough time to achieve this.

“And I urge the Home Secretary to reconsider this ill-conceived strategy and extend the period to something much more realistic and give local councils the funding to support our new residents to establish themselves giving them at least a chance to succeed.”

The council added: “It [responsibility] has now been left to us, with no additional funding, to resolve the consequences of this mammoth task with nowhere near enough time to achieve this.

“But once an application is made, emergency accommodation can be provided should the criteria be met as set out in legislation.”

The council said its housing team had assigned refugees with a case officer to assess their need and priority status – in line with legislation.

These requests are all processed in the same way as any other request for housing support for the sake of parity for the service.

The council – as it stands – has no time frame on when housing may be made available.

It told Newbury Today: “All the appropriate referrals have been made and when a vacancy arises, we will make contact and carry out the necessary assessments.

“We have also offered advice in relation to looking for affordable private rented accommodation in the interim while we carry out our duty as the local housing authority.”

Newbury Today asked whether responsibility can be transferred to another local authority with more housing.

The council advised that homeless legislation states the responsibility falls with the local authority where the person has a recognised local connection.

When asked what it would do if more tents end up outside its offices in the coming weeks the council said it would refer to central Government to alert them of its pressure.

It said: “We are working hard to find suitable accommodation as quickly as we can to ensure the encampment outside the council office doesn't increase in size.

“As a last resort, we would have to follow the civil legal processes of an unauthorised encampment.”