The council has undertaken to resettle 85 Afghan refugees from December 2021 to June 2022 under the ARAP and ACRS schemes. The Council has made a commitment to the Home Office and Armed Forces partners to support arrivals of around 53 refugees in 12 families during December 2021 and January 2022. The accommodation for the refugee families has been made available by two registered housing providers and the Diocese of Hereford. The landlords will supply unfurnished and generally without floor coverings.

The council has entered into a contract with Refugee Action to support refugee families and Spring Housing is its sub-contractor, providing tenancy support and housing management and preparing and equipping families’ accommodation. However, the costs of furniture, floor coverings and general fitting out of the housing are not included in the contract. Spring Housing recommends purchasing new items for refugee’s accommodation, for durability and pursuit of best practice.

Contracting with Spring Housing is the best and most appropriate option because;

• The arrangements must be implemented immediately to support December 2021 arrivals of refugees and the council have only recently been told that these arrangements have not been included in the contract between Refugee Action and Spring Housing. Therefore there is not sufficient time to undertake a procurement process.
• Spring Housing has niche expertise in setting up and equipping accommodation for refugees and can deliver the products/services using their existing commercial relationships at competitive rates and in the tight timescales required
• The costs of Spring Housing’s staffing and management time have already been provided for within the contract with Refugee Action and therefore using a different provider would result in these costs being repeated.
• The costs of contracting with Spring Housing are for purchase of new items and any decorating only, along with negligible travel expenses.
• There is therefore no commercial benefit to Spring Housing of the proposed supply contract as it will be delivered at cost with no overheads added.

It is proposed that under the terms of the contract, the items purchased would become the property of the council at the end of the refugee family’s occupation, but would be provided to refugee families for their use on an indefinite basis.