Around 77% of refugee households who approach Barnet Council for housing support are being accommodated outside the borough, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Council has been urged to lobby the Home Office for housing support in response to the number of refugees being relocated outside the borough.

Around 77% of refugee households in temporary accommodation, who approach the council for housing support, are accommodated outside Barnet.

Zahra Beg, the council’s cabinet member for equalities, spoke to an overview and scrutiny committee last night (Wednesday 26th) about how “completely isolated” some families felt.

The number of homeless families as a whole in London that end up in temporary accommodation outside the city has risen in recent years due to rising housing costs and a shortage of affordable homes.

Cllr Beg said: “When people are given refugee status they are the same as you and I. They have those rights, so they present to Barnet Homes for accommodation and are assessed in exactly the same way as a homeless family would be.”

Emphasising this was also an issue with local homeless families, she said: “It’s so difficult for them [refugee families] because they have been living here for a couple of years, we are a very welcoming borough.

“They have made their friendships at schools, in the hotels, and suddenly they find they’re ripped out and sent over to Luton or Watford. We’ve had cases where they’re completely isolated, so it’s not an easy journey at all.”

Committee member Kath McGuirk asked officers about the moving of children from refugee households in primary education saying “change of schools for people who are that young is far more detrimental to their future”.

Council officer Jess Baines-Holmes said Barnet had been able to find school places for “all” children entering the borough’s five hotels, used by the Home Office for asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their claim, “remarkably quickly”.

Jess said: “The way we have worked with children, including unaccompanied minors, was recognised in our recent Ofsted report as outstanding practice.”

Speaking on the local housing pressures, Jess said: “All of the costs associated with individuals residing in the hotels are covered by the grants we receive from the Home Office.

“The pressure that is being felt is on our housing services [once asylum seekers are granted refugee status and need housing]. The other costs are covered, and that is a position [housing support] the council has historically lobbied on.”

Commitee chair Danny Rich said: “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the cabinet to consider whether or not it needs to make further representations to the Home Office about the implications [of moving families out of the borough].

“For example if they decided to place the families in Scotland, less people would be homeless in Barnet.

“The committee is at liberty to remind the cabinet that it should consider strongly lobbying the Home Office, because where they place people does have further implications down the line. We might be entitled to extra money if more people are placed in the borough.”

Barnet was awarded ‘borough of sanctuary’ status last year, meaning it will take action to promote the rights and welfare of people seeking safety and protection such as refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.

As of February there are 1,508 people in Home Office hotel accommodation in Barnet, of which 272 are children.

Since 2021 Barnet has resettled 166 people as part of the Afghanistan Resettlement Scheme and welcomed 2,070 Ukrainians via the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. Just over 1,800 have now left the scheme with approximately 55% of that figure staying in Barnet.

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