Clearing the UK’s asylum backlog has led to rising refugee homelessness
New figures show the number of small boat arrivals to the UK in 2024 was up 25% on the previous year. While public attention remains on how people get to the UK, less discussed is what happens to them once they arrive and are later granted refugee status. The reality is that many are becoming homeless.
The consequences of this are in plain sight, for instance in Manchester, where council offices have been surrounded by tents erected by refugees for months. Some tents were initially erected as a protest against the council’s inability to provide rough sleepers with housing.
Many of the people living in tents in Manchester are from countries such as Sudan and Eritrea. Recent reports have also documented a sharp increase in rough sleeping among newly recognised refugees.
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When a person is granted refugee status, which can take several months to over a year, they are given a time limit, known as the “move-on period”, to transition out of asylum accommodation provided by the Home Office and find their own housing. Until last month, this period was 28 days – the current government has temporarily extended it.
Anyone familiar with Britain’s housing and welfare systems understands that securing social housing or accessing universal credit within 28 days is nearly impossible.
Ironically, government efforts to improve the asylum process have contributed to the rising homelessness. One factor is the asylum backlog – some 137,000 applications that had not been decided as of early 2022, leaving people in limbo.
The backlog of unresolved cases placed significant pressure on asylum accommodation. Many applicants were housed in unsuitable and neglectful conditions, such as on boats like the Bibby Stockholm and in former army barracks.
To address the backlog, the former Conservative government hired additional caseworkers and changed the way the move-on period was calculated. This sped up decision-making, but left some refugees with only seven days to find long-term accommodation.
The current government has now reversed this decision, as well as confirming that the move-on period has – at least temporarily – been doubled to 56 days.
Asylum claims for applicants from specific conflict-affected countries, such as Sudan, were also expedited. A substantial number of claims were approved in a short period. But as more people were given a decision quicker and evicted from hotels, the number of people needing housing support from councils increased.
According to a report by the Independent, 2023-24 saw a 251% increase from the year before in the number of people becoming homeless after leaving asylum accommodation.
The housing struggle
The Home Office accommodates asylum seekers across the country to prevent undue strain on individual councils. Once they are granted refugee status, they are quickly moved on from this accommodation. New refugees who do not have family to stay with must navigate Britain’s complex social housing system, or the private rented sector.
Due to housing shortages in many local authorities, the place they are eligible for social housing may not be where they had been accommodated and building their support networks.
Social housing operates on rigid eligibility criteria that prioritise the most vulnerable applicants. Refugees — disproportionately single, young men — often struggle to meet these. And local connection rules require refugees to apply for social housing in the areas where councils have accepted responsibility for them.
Many refugees find their “official” local connection is tied to areas they have never set foot in. As a result, they are faced with an impossible choice: uproot their lives to move somewhere they have no real connections, or risk becoming ineligible for housing in the place they call home.
Read more: 'When you get status the struggle doesn’t end': what it's like to be a new refugee in the UK
Changing the policy
Granting someone refugee status is an official recognition that they are in need of protection. But the state is failing to provide this protection through its current policies.
The tents emerging in Manchester and elsewhere in the UK are a stark indicator of the failure of the move-on policy and the structural barriers preventing refugees from gaining stability.
Initial signs suggest that the Labour government is taking steps towards reform with its 56-day move-on pilot (the time period recommended by the Refugee Council). This is a welcome change, but the government will need to ensure it is coordinated with localised social housing shortages and waiting lists.
Newly recognised refugees need support to navigate housing and welfare systems, access translation and interpreting services, and secure employment or education opportunities.
The current system sets refugees up to fail, undermining the government’s aims of integration and social cohesion. Without urgent reform — such as permanently extending the move-on period, increasing the availability of social housing and providing adequate funding to local councils — the crisis will only deepen.
William Shankley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.