THE council has said it is ready to extend a ‘warm welcome’ to anyone coming to the conurbation from Ukraine, as residents are asked to open their homes to refugees.

A government scheme, Home for Ukraine, was launched earlier this week and asks people to register if they have a spare room or self-contained property they can offer for at least six months to people fleeing the war.

So far more than 120,000 households across the UK have registered interest in opening their home to refugees.

Ahead of the government’s scheme, BCP Council had asked residents to register interest with them - they are now redirecting residents to sign up through the official government website. 

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A BCP Council spokesperson said : ‘Last week, BCP council launched an appeal for landlords to register if they were interested in offering their homes to Ukrainian refugees.  

“At that point we were waiting for national guidance and we wanted to make sure we were capturing people’s interest and were prepared should we need it.” 

On Monday, the government launched a national campaign for people to register homes – Homes for Ukraine and a subsequent website which is live for people to register if they have a spare room or separate self-contained property they want to offer for at least six months.  

The national website provides information on what is required and how the scheme will work.  

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“Now that this is up and running we would like to signpost interested individuals and organisations with accommodation to offer in the BCP area to register with the national scheme rather than with us locally,” the spokesperson said.

'New arrivals will be warmly welcomed'

“The council will be working very closely with the government from here to coordinate arrivals into BCP although we do not yet know the process or scale of this. 

“We’ll be working with our partners to make sure that the new arrivals will be warmly welcomed and supported whilst getting what they need to settle, whether that’s schooling for children, health care, job searches or language courses.”

Councils will get £10,500 per refugee for the first year to help with education, English language support, safeguarding and social care services.