It’s designed to reduce the backlog of historic UK asylum decisions in a very short time. The 1999 Asylum and Immigration Act created the first nationwide system for the resettlement of asylum seekers. Belfast had the second highest number of asylum seekers relative to its population – 78 per 10,000 people. It predicted an extra 1026 homeless households to accommodate – in addition to its current underlying budget pressure of £16.7m. Ever since Glasgow’s council housing was transferred in 2003, we’ve failed to accept the council should be building and acquiring social and emergency housing to meet its statutory duties.

Source: The Times October 16, 2023 11:16 UTC