New report, Moving Forward: local and national solutions for preventing refugee homelessness, sets out local authority principles for practice and recommendations for national government with the aim of enabling refugees to put down roots, find work and contribute to local communities.
Local authorities and voluntary organisations are demonstrating how to prevent rough sleeping among refugees, but are being undermined by Home Office asylum policies, according to a new report from NACCOM and Homeless Link, published today.
The report highlights how local areas are preventing homelessness by working in partnership and using the period before and after an asylum decision to provide clear information and support to help people access housing, benefits, English language learning and employment support.
However, the national policy backdrop is working against this good practice. Policies including the new 42-day asylum move-on period and introduction of a ‘core protection’ model, rules preventing people from working whilst they await a decision on their claim and making refugee status temporary and subject to review every 30 months (for those granted status from March 2026) are undermining the Government’s drive to end rough sleeping.*
To address these issues, the report sets out principles for practice for local authorities and their partners, alongside recommendations for national government. These will enable local areas across the country to replicate the successful initiatives already in place and ensure that they are supported by a national framework that provides refugees with the support they need to put down roots, find work and contribute to local communities.
Summary of the principles for practice for local authorities and their partners (see report for principles in full)
- Preparation and support while in asylum accommodation: Begin support well before an asylum decision is made, providing accessible information about housing, benefits, employment, ESOL, transport and local services. Support should be co-designed with people who have lived experience.
- Post decision navigation: Provide continuity of support and work with people as soon as a decision is received. Run regular drop-ins to resolve issues eg around eVisas and National Insurance numbers. Facilitate coordinated working between local authorities, voluntary sector organisations, AMLOs, the DWP.
- Housing and homelessness support for those not in priority need: Complete a housing/homelessness assessment with people as soon as they receive an asylum decision. Disseminate clear and digestible information about the housing system. Commission specialist supported housing and lodging/hosting schemes, and support refugees to source and maintain suitable PRS housing.
- Partnership working and internal coordination: Build deliberate, trusted partnerships across organisational boundaries. Involve people with lived experience and work with trusted community networks to disseminate accurate information. Dedicate specialist capacity to refugee move-on, establish clear internal referral routes and shared access to systems within local authorities.
Key recommendations for national government (see report for full list)
- Extend the move-on period permanently to at least 56 days, starting from receipt of all essential documentation.
- Provide a single, clear, translated decision communication.
- Create automatic local authority notifications when people are placed in asylum accommodation and when decisions are made.
- Include the Home Office in the Duty to Refer and Duty to Collaborate so that people entering move-on are reliably connected to local support.
- Develop a national joined-up approach to preventing refugee homelessness, across housing, health, employment, benefits and integration services.
- Review immigration policies for homelessness risk before implementation, including proposals that could increase precarity, debt and destitution.
- Give people seeking asylum the right to work after six months and expand ESOL provision.
- Increase social housing supply and improve housing affordability by unfreezing LHA; lifting the benefit cap; scrapping the shared accommodation rate for under-35s.
- Fund local areas properly through adequate, multi-year support for pre-decision, post-decision and housing sustainment work.
Bridget Young, Director of NACCOM, said: “Being granted refugee status should be a moment of safety and relief. Instead, too many people are being pushed onto the streets within weeks of receiving protection. Our report shows it doesn't have to be this way.
“Across the country, councils and voluntary organisations are doing remarkable work to stop refugees ending up homeless. They are preparing people while they are still in asylum accommodation, providing proactive housing support as soon as a decision arrives, and helping people gain the training, skills and experience they need to find work.
“The Prime Minister has rightly made ending rough sleeping his first priority. To meet that goal, the Government must stem the flow of homelessness from the asylum system. That means learning from this local practice and backing it with the changes only national government can make: a longer move-on period for everyone receiving a decision on an asylum claim, clear communication and notification when decisions are made, the right to work for people seeking asylum, and proper funding for the local services already proving what works.”
Rick Henderson, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness services, commented: “It is astounding that with so much at stake for people’s lives and our communities, the Government is not working in a collaborative and coordinated way, but instead continues to produce policies that are creating predictable routes to rough sleeping and destitution among refugees, undermining its own rough sleeping ambitions.
“However, our new report shows that there is much that can be done to ensure that refugees can put down roots, find work and contribute to local communities. Pockets of local good practice demonstrate that by partnership working, acting early and helping people access housing, benefits, English language learning and employment support, homelessness can be prevented.
“Now these local areas need support at a national level, and we are calling on government to act upon our recommendations for change so that refugees receive the support they need and the Government’s drive to end rough sleeping can be realised.”
*The latest data, Statutory homelessness in England: January to March 2026, shows that 6.2% (2,760) of households owed a homelessness relief duty had been required to leave Home Office accommodation.
