More than £300m given to English councils to help house Ukrainian refugees still sits in council bank accounts, a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request has revealed.
FOI responses from 150 councils found that £327m – about a third of the £1bn budget – has gone unspent, while thousands of refugees face homelessness.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: ‘Councils are given a set amount of funding per arrival and it's not unusual for this to be spent over the duration of their time in the UK rather than all at once. Ultimately, councils are best placed to understand the needs of their communities.'
The Local Government Association declined to comment.
