Herefordshire is recognised for its commitment to migration programmes, in late 2020 a cabinet decision was taken to resettle at least 125 refugees by 2025. As part of this overall commitment a decision was made to resettle 85 refugees in the period December 2021 to June 2022.

Since December 2021 a total of 59 Afghan refugees have been resettled in Herefordshire. Resettlement of a further 26 refugees is required to meet the commitment made by the council.

Delays in resettlement activity have been seen across England, this is due to a number of factors predominately size of property required and refusals of offers of accommodation.

Local authorities across England are now being asked to look for properties that can accommodate single people/couples and properties suitable for larger families (4 or more bedrooms) or properties in very close proximity to each other that could accommodate large extended multi-generational families. Properties of this size and nature have been very hard to secure locally impacting on our ability to arrange 85 arrivals by the original commitment deadline. Work with colleagues is ongoing to identify and secure further accommodation through our network of registered housing providers.

Due to extensive work completed with MOD and strategic migration colleagues Herefordshire has seen limited instances of refusals of accommodation however when refusals do happen this creates delays to arrivals. Work has being undertaken by the Government to address the high level number of refusals being seen in the UK. This work has resulted in an enhanced matching process being implemented to build on work already begun to improve the rate at which families accept offers of accommodation, it is anticipated this new process will limit the number of refusals and reduce delays of people resettling locally.