Council passes plan to buy north Northamptonshire homes for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees

A North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) plan to buy 30 homes and use them as temporary accommodation for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees has been approved.

NNC will use £3.7m of its own cash and a £3.2m Government grant over the forthcoming financial year.

It will seek to buy homes on the open market in Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough and Rushden so people are close to amenities. The council could also look to buy homes that were previously sold as part of the Right to Buy scheme.

NNC will seek to buy two one-bedroom homes, 20 two-bedroom homes, four three-bedroom homes and four four-bedroom homes.

At a meeting yesterday Cllr Matt Binley (Con), NNC’s executive member for housing, communities and levelling up, said the money that will be spent has come from its fund for temporary accommodation so has been “only slightly repurposed”.

He said some families have “struggled” to move out of hotels because of their size and a lack of suitable accommodation.

He told the executive that of the 374 Ukrainian refugees that arrived in North Northamptonshire last year, 181 remain there.

Others have either returned to their homeland, moved out of north Northamptonshire but remain in the UK, made their own arrangements and/or are looking to rent a property themselves.