Thousands of refugees could face homelessness this winter after the Home Office reversed a policy allowing migrants more time to find accommodation before they are evicted from hotels.
Asylum seekers are housed in hotels around the country while they wait for their claims to be processed, but when they receive a successful refugee grant — enabling them to live and work in the UK — they are evicted.
In December last year, Labour extended the time that people had before eviction from 28 days to 56 days after councils and charities raised concerns that thousands of refugees were turning up homeless. However ministers have now reversed this decision, with charities warning that they will face a surge of homeless refugees.
Alex Fraser, British Red Cross director of refugee services said: “Reducing the ‘move-on’ period will increase levels of homelessness and destitution for people granted protection and put additional pressure on local authorities.
“The numbers don’t add up. It takes around 35 days to receive Universal Credit. Local authorities need 56 days to work with households at risk of homelessness. Giving people only 28 days to find work, housing or support isn’t enough time.
“Making people destitute ends up costing the taxpayer more money and causing distress and hardship. We urge the government to review this decision.”
Councils were increasingly swamped by requests for emergency housing help from homeless refugees throughout 2024, data shared with The Independent showed.
There are more than 32,000 asylum seekers living in hotels, government data from June 2025 says.
Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, said: “The 56-day move on period didn’t solve everything, but it did put refugees who have just been granted protection on the same statutory footing as every other citizen in the UK.
“Cutting the move-on period back to 28-days isn’t just bad for newly granted refugees, it’s bad for our communities and extremely bad for councils who are picking up the tab of increasing homelessness.
“Sadly, this regressive move is in keeping with the daily onslaught of policies which are aimed at making life harder for people seeking sanctuary in this country, not fixing the glaring problems with the UK’s broken asylum system.”
A government spokesperson said: “This government inherited a broken asylum and immigration system. We are taking practical steps to turn that chaos around — including doubling asylum decision-making to clear the backlog left by the previous government, and reducing the number of people in hotels by 6,000 in the first half of 2025.
“We continue to work with local councils, NGOs and other stakeholders to ensure any necessary assistance is provided for those individuals who are granted refugee status.”
