Written evidence submitted by Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity, University of Oxford [HCE 023]
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Housing Conditions in England Call for Evidence
Submission by the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity, University of Oxford
Jacqueline Broadhead and Lucy Leon
Background
This submission draws on the ‘Understanding Migrant Destitution’ research and knowledge exchange project, led by the University of Oxford.
Understanding Migrant Destitution in the UK is a UK-wide research and knowledge exchange project (2022-2025), funded by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, exploring migrant destitution in the UK. It highlights the scale and changing face of migrant destitution and the key role of local authorities in providing a parallel welfare safety net for some groups of vulnerable migrants.
This submission draws on the evidence gathered as part of this research which included a survey of all UK local authorities, analysis of secondary data, a literature review of existing research, qualitative research in a number of local authorities and focus groups with those with lived experience. All names have been anonymised.
Private Rented Sector
It is vital that people subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition are included in the provisions of Awaab’s law. Currently those supported by local authorities’ social services departments under Section 17 of the Children Act (1989) are provided with temporary accommodation, as they are unable to access homelessness assistance as a result of their immigration status.
As a consequence of this, applying Awaab’s law only to the social housing sector means excluding those children in situations similar to Awaab from the protections which are set out in this law. Research highlights that Awaab’s case sits at the intersection between housing policy and migration policy, an often invisible area. In Awaab’s case, it is likely that the family had been granted refugee status because they were able to access social housing (Kelbert and Parhar 2024.) However, the background of the family as asylum seekers aligns the case with a much wider question of migrant destitution and the exclusion of migrant children (as well as adults) from mainstream housing provision.
Children in migrant and asylum-seeking families living in the UK are at a disproportionately high risk of poverty and destitution (Pinter and Leon 2025.) In 2020, it was reported that a fifth of destitute households were migrants (JRF 2020.)
The numbers of people subject to the NRPF condition are growing. Around 3.3 million people in the UK held visas with the NRPF condition in 2023, over double the number of people in 2020. Additionally, between 594,000 - 745,000 people in the UK without immigration status are subject to the condition by default (Broadhead and Leon, 2024.) Most people subject to the NRPF condition are self-sufficient, but a significant number are destitute and this includes many dependent children or adults with significant care needs. There is a lack of robust data on this group, but research in 2021/22 found that local authorities supported an estimated 18,000 people in this group, a 150% increase on similar research conducted in 2012/13 (Broadhead and Leon 2024.)
This had an annual support cost of £102million for local authorities, who receive no funding from central government to support this statutory provision. As a consequence of this, and alongside the overall pressures on temporary accommodation, local authorities are under pressure to reduce spending. In our research one local authority described themselves being at ‘saturation point.’
“In housing, we are at saturation point with our emergency accommodation. We just haven't got enough to provide it… [Adult Social Care] too are at saturation point and can't cope with what I would call business as usual demand. So now we're asking them to provide additional support for people with no recourse. And they can't do it because there isn't anywhere to put them.” (Housing Manager, England)
Another described the pressures that arose from receiving no funding to support this cohort:
“Any accommodation you're providing is 100% your cost. You're not going get any contribution from housing benefit or Universal Credit to help with your housing costs” (Housing Manager, England) (Broadhead and Leon 2024)
This overloading may lead to gatekeeping of services, or of the procurement of sub-standard accommodation. Extending Awaab’s law to temporary accommodation would be a significant step in mitigating these pressures and in reducing the risk of a ‘two tier’ system, which would likely adversely impact migrant children from similar backgrounds to Awaab.
Temporary Accommodation
As outlined above, people subject to the NRPF condition are unable to access homelessness assistance and mainstream benefits. They also face additional barriers, linked to migration governance which prevent access to suitable accommodation. This includes right to rent checks, which the Association of Directors of Children’s Services notes have led to a rise in families presenting as homeless to local authorities (Broadhead and Leon 2023.)
This has also led to “a significant proportion of people subject to the NRPF condition access[ing] unsuitable and overcrowded accommodation. Parents have reported having to sleep on the floor or a chair, as well as letting their children sleep in a room with people that are not their family members, whilst 6% of single women have reported being street homelessness with their children (Woolley, 2019). Recent safeguarding adult reviews into the deaths of vulnerable adults with NRPF have raised concerns about the issues in finding long-term accommodation…Indeed, non-UK nationals feature disproportionately in rough sleeping figures and the ‘Everyone In’ provision shone a spotlight on the number of people facing homelessness with NRPF, highlighting how many people were below the radar and unable to access support. Almost half (46%) of frontline workers in homelessness, surveyed by the Frontline Network in 2021, were working with people who had experienced homelessness due to their immigration status.” (Broadhead and Leon 2023)
Housing managers highlighted that accommodation was often sub-standard and that some families chose sub-standard accommodation in order to be moved from hotels and B&Bs with no cooking facilities and which were unsuitable for children.
“We try to do that as best as we can, but I'm not going sit here and lie to you. We're not able to always meet that standard just because of limited accommodation and some of our citizens prefer to have standard accommodation that might not meet that standard because at least they've got cooking facilities, they've got access in the community than to, instead of a hotel, where it's just a one bedroom and no cooking facilities live. Accommodation is difficult and I'm sure it's the same everywhere.” (NRPF Team Manager, England)
Everyone we spoke to had been initially placed in a hotel or B&B – for some this had only been for a few weeks, but others had ended up spending months in hotels, often with no cooking facilities and trying to feed young children
“I was in a hotel for 8 months before they gave me temporary accommodation. They gave us breakfast but there were nowhere to cook. The council asked the charity to buy me a microwave. Social services don’t even have a £50, so the charity found one but then the hotel said we can’t have a microwave!” (Issa, parent)
The research also found that people described the low quality and poor conditions of the accommodation they were provided with but that they were often too fearful to complain, in case of repercussions for their immigration case (Broadhead and Leon 2024).:
“You are scared to complain about the house. The kitchen ceiling is falling down, there is a lot of mould in my son’s room, and damp everywhere. But I can’t complain as they might try to deport me. I can’t complain anymore because I’m scared.” (Efua, parent)
Families highlighted the impact on their physical heath from being placed in poor housing, with a lack of checks on suitability before moving people in and not following-up when they were issues, impacting their health:
“I have very young kids but the council still leave us in a hotel. There are no means of cooking, sterilising, freezing food. We are not allowed to microwave. Both kids were admitted to hospital due to the conditions of the hotel where we were placed. I know the council has a lot to do and a lot of pressure but it’s not fair that kids have to live like this for so long. I’m on the waiting list for therapy for myself. We don’t have a cot. My young baby keeps falling out of bed.” (Zainab, parent)
“The people who put you there don’t bother to check what it’s like. It was only because [a charity] became involved that they would listen. We had mould in the house, the kids were covered in rashes. They never sanitised accommodation or beds between people moving in and out. We had rain pouring down in our ceiling but they did nothing. If you complain they won’t do anything unless you get an advice organisation to help. They never turn up to check the accommodation they put you in.” (Monica, parent)
Some people had experienced frequent moves, with no explanation and feeling like they couldn't complain or question it, in case their support was terminated:
“Last winter, they said they needed to move me but I didn’t know why. They moved me from South London to North London. You don’t ask questions and if you refuse, you’re back on the streets. You don’t have a choice on the borough and they can even move you outside London. For them it’s a problem solved as they just need to fill their bed-space vacancies.” (Michael, in his 70s)
References
Broadhead, J. and Leon, L. (2023) Understanding Migrant Destitution in the UK: Literature review COMPAS, Oxford
Broadhead, J. and Leon, L. (2024) Understanding Migrant Destitution in England COMPAS, Oxford
Kelbert, A. W., & Parhar, R. (2024). Awaab Ishak and the devaluation of migrant, working-class life. Race & Class, 66(3), 3-16.
Pinter, I. and Leon, L. (2025) ‘Updated evidence briefing: Poverty among children affected by UK government asylum and immigration policy’ COMPAS, Oxford
Woolley, A. (2019) Access Denied: The cost of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ policy, The Unity Project.
August 2025