Ukrainian refugee crisis: Hundreds rehomed in Northumberland, but not all 'matches' working out as planned

The figure was revealed at a recent meeting of Northumberland County Council’s cabinet committee.

However, it also emerged that although the rehoming scheme was going well, some arrangements had not worked out and around 30 refugees were no longer living with their original hosts.

The council’s head of housing and public protection, Philip Soderquest, said: “We’ve seen a number of situations where the relationship between the host and the guest has broken down. There are 30 individuals where there’s no support from hosts.

“We’re also coming to the end of the first six-month period for some of the first arrivals, which is what hosts had to commit to.”

A further 548 Ukrainian nationals are currently looking for accommodation in the county, with a total of 199 hosts registered.

The report was brought to cabinet to ask members to approve spending in advance of government funding arriving. The government is providing £10,500 per person to councils in order to provide support to people arriving from Ukraine.

However, to date, no payments have been received. The government had indicated that payment of the grant would be made three months in arrears, with first payments expected last month.

The council is expecting £2,677,500 for refugees who have already arrived and have received shelter.

Despite the issue, Audrey Kingham – the council’s interim director of children’s services – said: “It’s working really well. We’ve had some really good successes.”

To date, 119 children have been placed in schools in Northumberland. Furthermore, Mrs Kingham revealed that one English teacher from Ukraine was in the late stages of achieving employment with the council, while another was expected to start the process soon.

At the end of May, the Home Office said that 65,700 Ukrainians had arrived in the UK fleeing the war in their native country following Russia’s invasion earlier this year.

According to the Northumberland County Council, it is the largest resettlement programme the authority has helped to co-ordinate, having recently led the response to calls from the government to house more Afghan refugees.