More than £300m given to councils to help house Ukrainian refugees is still unspent

More than £300m given to English councils to help Ukrainian refugees into accommodation has not been spent, while thousands of them face homelessness.

- Diane Taylor

Freedom of information (FoI) requests to 150 councils in England, shared with the Guardian, identified that £327m - about a third of the £1bn budget - was still sitting in council bank accounts more than three years after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Most of the funds councils have spent have been used to pay staff and partner organisations. Only £22m has been spent on temporary accommodation for Ukrainians and just £15m to help them into private rented accommodation.

Many Ukrainians struggle to find accommodation in the private rented sector because of the need to provide a deposit, something councils can help with but which some Ukrainians say in practice can be slow, bureaucratic and difficult to access.

Finding a UK guarantor can also be difficult and those unable to speak English struggle to negotiate with landlords.