Homes for Ukraine: Risk of homelessness in scheme likely to increase, PAC report warns
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Report questions Home Office and DLUHC on options for permanent
settlement Questions raised around ongoing contract with Palantir
for scheme’s data system In a report published today, the
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) raises concerns that the risk of
homelessness among Ukrainians in the UK is likely to increase, as
more arrangements between Ukrainian guests and their UK sponsors
end or break down. The Government does not have a full and accurate
picture of...Request free trial
Report questions Home Office and DLUHC on options for permanent settlement Questions raised around ongoing contract with Palantir for scheme’s data system
In a report published today, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) raises concerns that the risk of homelessness among Ukrainians in the UK is likely to increase, as more arrangements between Ukrainian guests and their UK sponsors end or break down. The Government does not have a full and accurate picture of homelessness within the Homes for Ukraine scheme which is hampering planning. At the end of August 2023, councils reported that 4,890 Ukrainian households in England who were in the UK on Homes for Ukraine visas had been homeless or come close to being so. Government’s planning assumption was that 50% of sponsorships could break down. However, it does not have complete data on how many relationships have done so; around 30% of English councils do not regularly provide homelessness data to Government on those Ukrainians in the UK under the scheme. The PAC is therefore calling on Government to set out what action it will take to increase the number of local authorities that regularly provide homelessness data returns, and secure an adequate supply of sponsors for the scheme in the future in a cost-effective way. The report had highlighted the uncertainty that had been caused for those Ukrainians who arrived in the early days of the scheme by the lack of a Government decision on whether to extend their visas, which start to expire from March 2025. The Government has made a number of announcements with regard to the Homes for Ukraine visa schemes since the PAC agreed its report. The PAC is calling for further information from Government on whether options for permanent settlement will be available under current plans. There are also questions around the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC) contract with digital services company Palantir. The scheme was set up at speed by Government, and in order to do so DLUHC accepted an offer from the company to provide six months’ free support to create the scheme’s main data system. This six-month trial period was followed by the signing and extending of contracts with Palantir worth upwards of £10m. The Government’s Chief Commercial Officer is on record being concerned about the practice of companies offering the public sector free services to gain a commercial foothold. The report highlights the PAC’s own concerns that DLUHC may find it challenging to run a fully competitive procurement process before the current contract ends. The report recommends Government set out its commercial options in September 2024, when the contract ends. Notes to Editors: Recommendation 1 of this report was drafted prior to the Government’s February 2024 announcements that applications would be opened for 18-month visa extensions to all three Homes for Ukraine schemes, and the closure of the Ukraine Family Scheme. Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “The Government acted swiftly to provide essential support to those of our Ukrainian neighbours seeking refuge from Putin’s barbaric war. Over 140,000 people have now come to stay in the UK as part of Homes for Ukraine at January 2024, and given the circumstances of their arrival it is important that the Government provide as much clarity around their stay here as possible. “It is welcome to see the Government acting in line with our recommendations in this area through its extensions to visas. We look forward to hearing how much more certainty it is able provide to those staying in the UK, particularly in light of the recent closure of the Ukraine Family Scheme. “As the war has continued the challenge now is that thousands of Ukrainian households were homeless or close to it last year. Not only is this a huge problem but our report finds that there is no full oversight of homelessness within the scheme itself. There are of course factors here which make long-term planning challenging, not least the continuing uncertainty in Ukraine itself. But the Government must ensure it has a plan to support those who have sought safety in the UK.” PAC report conclusions and recommendations The lack of a government decision on whether to extend visas granted as part of the scheme is causing needless uncertainty for those Ukrainians who arrived in the UK first. Visas for guests from Ukraine are provided for up to three years, meaning that the visas of those guests that arrived first under the scheme will expire in March 2025. These Ukrainians are therefore facing significant uncertainty about their future and local authorities have reported that some individuals are being turned down by employers and educational establishments due to the time remaining on their visas. Between April and May 2023, 19% of Ukrainians on the scheme did not know where they intended to live, mainly because of a lack of clarity about their visa options. The longer Ukrainians live in the UK, the more they become settled, including children in education. The government is still to make a decision on whether or not to extend existing visas and on potential options for permanent settlement. The Ukrainian Government would like to see their citizens return when it is safe to do so. Recommendation 1: The Home Office and DLUHC should, as part of their Treasury Minute response, set out when they will make a decision about whether scheme visas will be extended and whether there will be options for permanent settlement. They should make these decisions well ahead of the first visas expiring in March 2025. We are concerned that the risk of homelessness among Ukrainians in the UK is likely to increase as more sponsorships end or break down. There is no obligation for UK sponsors to host Ukrainian guests for the whole time they are in the UK, with the UK government only asking them to commit to hosting for a minimum of six months. The government has extended thank you payments into a third year to encourage them to continue their sponsorship. However, there is a risk that a Ukrainian’s relationship with their sponsor can break down. DLUHC’s initial planning assumption was that 50% of sponsorships could break down, but it does not have complete data on how many relationships have done so. By the end of August 2023, local authorities had reported that 4,890 Ukrainian households in England who were in the UK on Homes for Ukraine visas had been homeless or come within 56 days of being homeless. Since the start of 2023, at any one time, between 600 and 800 Ukrainian households have been living in temporary accommodation in England, although DLUHC does not know how many of these households are part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Around 30% of English local authorities do not regularly provide homelessness data to DLUHC on those Ukrainians who are in the UK under the scheme. DLUHC has announced a total of £270 million of funding to support local authorities to invest in homelessness prevention, including to support Ukrainian households that no longer have a scheme sponsor. Recommendation 2: DLUHC should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, set out what action it will take to:
The Home Office’s failure to meet its targets for processing visas is leaving some Ukrainians facing an unacceptably long wait for decisions to be made on their applications. Initially visa turnaround times for the scheme were longer than the Home Office wanted. In March 2022, of the 26,000 applications received, 18% were processed within five working days and 21% took more than 15 working days. To speed up the process, the Home Office introduced measures such as: deferring the collection of biometrics; increasing the number of people from the Home Office and other government departments working on the scheme from around 165 staff in March 2022, to over 1,000 by June 2022 working across all the Ukraine schemes; and rolling out new digital systems to increase flexibility of working and productivity. These measures helped improve visa turnaround times in April and May 2022. However, despite the changes the Home Office implemented, visa turnaround times have taken longer since June 2022. Almost two-thirds (63%) of visa applications were taking more than the 15 working day target to be processed in July 2023, compared to 19% in June 2022. The Home Office asserts that it is building its capacity to process visas in case there is a surge in applications for this scheme as well as to respond to other areas of high demand in the Home Office, such as asylum processing. Recommendation 3a: The Home Office should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, set out what action it will take to meet its targets in future, and what plans it has in place to respond should there be a future surge in applications.
DLUHC is making decisions about future funding of the scheme without a proper understanding of how effective funding has been in supporting those taking part in the scheme to date. Local authorities initially received funding of £10,500 per arrival. Since 31 December 2022, DLUHC has reduced this to £5,900 for each arrival. DLUHC considers that local authorities’ costs decreased once the scheme had been set up. Although DLUHC has mandated local authorities to provide data on the use of its funding for 2023-24, the Department still relies on voluntary reporting on how many people on the scheme are currently experiencing homelessness to inform future funding decisions. Despite the lack of complete data, DLUHC increased funding to prevent homelessness in the 2023 Autumn Statement as it considers it understands the housing pressures local authorities are facing. Similarly, the government announced an extension of thank you payments for a third year in the 2023 Autumn Statement, but could not estimate how many sponsor relationships would have broken down if thank you payments had not been extended. DLUHC asserts that to set up the scheme at pace and respond to emerging issues, it needed to balance getting a full picture of how the scheme operates against over-burdening local authorities. Recommendation 4: DLUHC should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, explain:
The scheme was set up at speed and has helped 141,200 Ukrainians come to the UK, but DLUHC does not know fully what aspects of the scheme have or have not worked and whether overall the scheme has been value for money. DLUHC has gathered some, largely qualitative, information on how well the scheme is working, but it has not yet set a timeframe for a full formal evaluation. DLUHC originally planned to complete an evaluation by autumn 2023, but it paused work on this in spring 2023. DLUHC acknowledges there is a need for lessons to be learned for future resettlement schemes but does not at the moment consider that Homes for Ukraine should automatically be used as a blueprint for other similar events. DLUHC assert that the scheme represents value for money as the cost of accommodation is likely to be lower within the Homes for Ukraine scheme than for other resettlement schemes. However, it does not have clear evidence of the overall value for money of the scheme once other elements of scheme funding have been factored in. Recommendation 5: As part of its Treasury Minute response, DLUHC should set out what plans it has to evaluate the scheme, both while it is still ongoing and at the end of the scheme. These evaluations should include:
DLUHC has not yet assessed what it will do when its current contract with Palantir to provide the scheme’s main data system ends in September 2024. In order to set the scheme up quickly, in March 2022, DLUHC accepted an offer from Palantir, a company on the public sector framework agreement for digital services, to provide six months of free support to create its main data system to manage and monitor scheme data. Following the free six-month trial period, DLUHC signed a 12-month contract with Palantir worth £4.5 million, excluding VAT, without any competitive process. In September 2023, it extended the contract with Palantir for a further 12-months, valued at £5.5 million, excluding VAT. The Government’s Chief Commercial Officer wrote to Palantir noting his concern about the practice of offering services to public sector customers for a zero or nominal cost to gain a commercial foothold, contrary to the principles of public procurement which usually require open competition. DLUHC is conscious of some of the criticism of the way that this contract was set up at the very beginning, and is working on a timetable to extend or re-tender the contract. However, we are nonetheless concerned that DLUHC may find it challenging to run a fully competitive procurement process before the current contract ends in September 2024. Recommendation 6: DLUHC should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, set out its assessment of its commercial options once the current Palantir contract expires. If this includes extending the contract with Palantir, DLUHC should explain how this is justified under current procurement regulations. In particular, how such a decision would be consistent with the Government Chief Commercial Officer’s concerns about departments accepting IT companies' offers to provide free trial periods to gain a commercial foothold. |