Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Acknowledged
DLUHC reduced per-person funding for local authorities, assuming decreased Homes for Ukraine setup costs.
Conclusion
Total central government funding for the scheme was £2.1 billion by the end of September 2023. DLUHC provided £1.9 billion of the funding, of which most (£1.1 billion) had gone to local authorities to support each Ukrainian on the scheme in their first year in the UK. DLUHC set this funding initially at £10,500 per Ukrainian, and then reduced it to £5,900 for all arrivals after 31 December 2022.18 We asked DLUHC why it had reduced the amounts per person paid to local authorities. DLUHC explained that one reason was that local authorities had incurred a lot of costs in setting up the scheme, for example in setting up new systems and getting the right staff in place. DLUHC’s assumption was that these set-up costs had decreased as the scheme had gone on. Although local authorities taking part in the scheme have received funding from DLUHC since March 2022, DLUHC only made it mandatory for them to report back on how they had spent the money from 2023–
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the funding provided for the scheme and states that it will extend thank you payments and provide further funding to devolved administrations and local authorities for homelessness prevention.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
By the end of September 2023, the government had provided £2.1 billion in funding for the scheme. The government announced in the Autumn Statement in November 2023 that it will extend thank you payments for another year and provide a further £120 million funding to the devolved administrations and local authorities in England to invest in homelessness prevention.