Have you ever seen this poster on social media?
Gloucestershire County Council runs the Homes for Refugees (HFR) scheme. This scheme is modelled on the Homes for Ukraine scheme and allows a host to house a refugee for up to 3 months and receive £600 per month in return. Full details on the HFR scheme are available here. Gloucestershire County Council describe the scheme as follows…
"The Homes for Refugees (HFR) scheme has been created to provide short-term supported accommodation for refugees who have received a positive decision on their asylum claim and have been granted leave to remain in the UK.
Hosts provide a spare room for a short time as a stepping stone to help refugees in their first few months, while securing suitable employment and long-term housing. Gloucestershire County Council will offer hosts £600 per month to cover any increased household expenses."
This scheme was launched in early 2024 after the Home Office began processing and prioritising the asylum claims of those who had been in the country longer than 18 months and were still awaiting an initial asylum decision. Gloucestershire has seen a rise in homelessness in recent years and many of those homeless are refugees.
According to Gloucestershire County Council, the number of homeless refugees has increased 10 times between 2022 and 2024. This chart shows the increase in recent years.
The HFR scheme was designed to allow Gloucestershire County Council to reduce the number of homeless refugees and to house them with willing participants, as housing refugees (and asylum seekers) in social housing, house in multiple occupation (HMO), hostels, hotels and other settings is deeply unpopular with voters. However, there must be hosts willing to receive a refugee (and subsequent payment) for this plan to work.
- The HFR scheme is open to any host if they own their own property or have permission from their landlord to partake in the scheme
- Hosts are subject to a housing inspection, DBS check and must have leave to remain lasting six months or more (this means non-British citizens can house refugees and receive this payment)
- Hosts must provide a room, cooking and bathing facilities for the refugee
- The host receives £600 per month and can host the refugee for up to 3 months
- The refugee is provided support from the council to help them find employment, long-term housing and access benefits like universal credit
If an asylum seeker receives a positive decision from the Home Office, they are granted refugee status, humanitarian protection or some other form of leave to remain and must then exit Home Office accommodation. Those who receive a positive decision from the Home Office are allowed to work, access welfare and social housing.
We hear often that "refugees are welcome" and if that is the case, this is an easy opportunity for someone to make £1,800.
Gloucestershire is home to some 670,000 people per the latest ONS estimates. During the 2025 Gloucestershire County Council elections, 49,565 votes went to the Liberal Democrats, 45,904 to Reform, 27,110 to the Greens, 37,815 to the Conservatives and 15,432 to Labour.
One might argue over which parties are pro-asylum, but the Greens are undoubtedly a pro-asylum party, so there is a sizeable pool of people who might be expected to take up such an offer and house a refugee for these payments.
I was curious how many have signed up for the HFR scheme. I submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request to Gloucestershire County Council on 30 July 2026 and requested the following information:
- How many households have signed up for this scheme so far, broken down by year.
- How many households have signed up for the scheme and later left the scheme, for whatever reason. If it is not possible to break this down by year, please provide the cumulative total figure (e.g. since the scheme was launched, 7 households have signed up and later exited).
- How much money has been paid out under this scheme, broken down by year.
Gloucestershire County Council responded on 20 August 2026 and provided the following information:
- 16 households have signed up for the HFR scheme so far, all of which were in 2024. No household has signed up for the HFR scheme in 2025 or 2026, at least up to the point the FOI was answered.
- All 16 households have completed and subsequently left the scheme.
- A total of £23,484.48 has been paid out by Gloucestershire County Council for the HFR scheme. This breaks down into £20,957.86 in 2024, £2,526.62 in 2025 and £0 in 2026. This works out to £1,467.78 per host on average.
It should perhaps not be a surprise that the scheme has had such a low take-up. Pro-asylum advocates often preach that refugees are welcome and how they'd be happy to live next to or accommodate one, we see a repeated pattern where stated preference does not match revealed preference.
For example, Rachel Millward is the deputy leader of the Green Party in England and Wales. In November 2025, she opposed plans to house 600 asylum seekers in her constituency.
Hari Reed is the CEO of Asylum Welcome. In June 2026, she opposed plans to house 1,250 asylum seekers near Piddington, stating that she was 'concerned' by the move and that it may lead to 'friction and community tension'. From the same article, Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, voiced his concerns over the proposal, however he must have a short memory, as in August 2025, he signed an open letter calling for 'unity and compassion' and to 'stand together in solidarity with people seeking asylum'. In November 2023, he also signed a parliamentary motion to make Oxfordshire a 'place of sanctuary for those fleeing torture & death'.
Time and time again we see the same pattern; pro-asylum campaigners are happy to have asylum seekers and refugees housed somewhere, just as long as it isn't anywhere near where they live. Even if it is near where they live, when offered payment for housing those they claim are welcome, few take up such an offer.