Second Home Owners urged to take in Ukrainian refugees

This probably isn’t what wealthy buyers in one of the UK’s most expensive areas expected to hear, but a plea has gone out to second home owners to offer their properties to Ukrainian refugees.

The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council - which includes high-value locations like Sandbanks, where houses routinely change hands for multi-million pounds - says that the Ukrainian invasion has led to the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.

Councillor Karen Rampton says that the huge outpouring of compassion and generosity from the community towards Ukrainian refugees could be made better still if second home owners and landlords registered with the authority and offered properties to Ukrainian refugees.

She says: “The situation in Ukraine is so distressing. We are aware that many people in the BCP community really want to help and we would like to express our thanks for their fantastic efforts so far. 

“It is great to see the compassion from our residents and we know that there are many incredible efforts already underway to collect and transport belongings to help people immediately displaced outside Ukraine.

“There has been a national commitment for granting visas to help some people settle with existing family in the UK. There may also be an additional resettlement scheme to help rehouse families in self-contained vacant properties.

“We do not know whether the government will be advocating a ‘hosting’ scheme, where households are invited to accommodate people in their homes. This approach has not been advocated in recent years because of the logistics involved, but we need to wait and see.

“Whilst we wait for further national guidance around how BCP Council might need to step in to assist the national housing effort, we are keen to register people’s interest in offering self-contained housing, for if and when we might need it.”