Ukraine resettlement: letter to local authorities about funding

Dear colleague,

Further to my letter of 25 July which included allocations for Scottish Government funding for resettlement teams, I am pleased to be able to write to you with details of local authority allocations from the £30 million fund to support displaced people from Ukraine.  

Background

In December, a UK-wide one-off fund of £150 million was made available to help councils support Ukrainians into their own homes and reduce risks of homelessness. This funding was announced alongside significant cuts by the UK government to general tariff funding and a removal of the education tariff.

In June, Scotland’s share was confirmed as £30 million, and it was agreed by Scottish and UK Government that this money would pass to Scottish Government for onward distribution to local authorities.

The Scottish context – strategic objective

The Super Sponsor Scheme has created a unique context in Scotland whereby the provision of Scottish Government funded welcome accommodation has enabled Scotland to welcome a greater share of displaced people from Ukraine per head of the population, which is reflected in Scotland’s share of this UK-wide funding.

COSLA and Scottish Government have recently agreed strategic priorities for the future of the programme and alongside continued partnership and collaboration, these include reducing reliance on welcome accommodation. These priorities will be published later this month as part of the Warm Scots Future Strategic Policy paper.

As part of a Scotland-wide response, the £30m fund is intended to help councils support all arrivals, including guests in short-term accommodation, to settle in Scotland and move into longer-term settled accommodation, reducing the reliance on hotels and other temporary accommodation. 

In line with this, the strategic objective for the £30m fund in Scotland is: “As part of a Scotland-wide response, to help local authorities support people displaced from Ukraine into sustainable longer-term settled accommodation, including the private rented sector and social housing, and providing on-going employability and wider integration support advice and coordination”.

To support the collective achievement of this objective, local authorities are encouraged to use the funding to deliver the following outcomes:

1. support displaced Ukrainians into settled accommodation– work across local authority boundaries to identify suitable accommodation for displaced Ukrainians including making best use of hosting and social housing, improving access to the private rented sector, bringing void properties back into use and exploring other strategic housing opportunities as appropriate 
2. reduce the welcome accommodation estate – in line with ongoing discussions between local authorities and Scottish government to agree regional/local closure of welcome accommodation hotels and other short-term accommodation
3. support the wider integration of displaced Ukrainians – ensure that displaced Ukrainians living in welcome accommodation, settled housing and hosted accommodation are supported to build independent lives in Scotland including promoting employability and access to advice and services

While there is an expectation this funding will help councils support Ukrainians into accommodation and reduce the risk of homelessness, funding is not ring-fenced, and councils are able to exercise full discretion locally to support other groups.

Distribution methodology

The distribution methodology was considered by the Settlement and Distribution Group in August 2023 and the following split was subsequently agreed by COSLA Leaders at their meeting on 25 August.

• 50% to be based on the number of displaced people from Ukraine in each local authority area: The data for this is taken from the post-reconciliation tariff claims for 2022/2023
• 50% to be based on the adjusted Strategic Housing Investment Framework (SHIF) indicator formula: This was agreed in 2022 as the fairest means of distributing Preventing and Responding to Homelessness funding and takes wider housing pressures into consideration. The indicator consists of: 5% equal share; 15% homelessness numbers; 35% market pressure; 5% dispersion; 20% income deprivation; 20% households in SIMD most deprived

A table detailing individual local authority allocations is held at Annex A.

In line with the Verity House Agreement, the funding indicated will be included in the 2023/24 Local Government General Revenue Grant as part of the March 2024 redetermination. While there is no reporting requirement against this funding, we ask that local authorities fully utilise the Warm Scottish Welcome App and associated tools. They have been created to ensure highly sensitive data can be shared securely and to minimise the potential risk of cyber-attack and human error. As discussed at the recent Delivery Board these tools are critical to reducing the administrative burden on Scottish Government and council teams, improving core operational activity, such as safe-guarding and working towards providing a single source of truth to understand the programme’s performance and future resource requirements.

In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding the funding and policy, please contact the Ukrainian Resettlement Finance & Funding team who are happy to help.

Yours sincerely,

Fraser Dick

Head of Ukrainian Resettlement Finance

Annex A: Individual local authority allocations from £30m funding to support Ukrainian resettlement

	Total Allocation of £30m
Aberdeen City	£2,144,163
Aberdeenshire	£926,960
Angus	£533,154
Argyll and Bute	£558,999
City of Edinburgh	£4,500,781
Clackmannanshire	£224,158
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar/Western Isles	£128,909
Dumfries and Galloway	£898,029
Dundee City	£922,913
East Ayrshire	£521,322
East Dunbartonshire	£332,724
East Lothian	£433,200
East Renfrewshire	£243,456
Falkirk	£591,844
Fife	£1,554,628
Glasgow City	£4,322,898
Highland	£1,492,129
Inverclyde	£403,137
Midlothian	£439,319
Moray	£330,788
North Ayrshire	£793,662
North Lanarkshire	£1,386,923
Orkney Islands	£97,402
Perth and Kinross	£755,729
Renfrewshire	£1,001,087
Scottish Borders	£569,589
Shetland Islands	£88,789
South Ayrshire	£671,510
South Lanarkshire	£1,372,602
Stirling	£612,859
West Dunbartonshire	£449,255
West Lothian	£697,081
Total	£30,000,000