31/05/2026
“Andy Burnham is set to spend more than £700,000 to help migrants claim benefits, get housing, and access public services.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority, run by the mayor, will spend the money on schemes to help refugees overcome "barriers to accessing housing, welfare and local services".
Greater Manchester currently hosts more than 8,500 people in asylum support accommodation, including hotels and lodgings throughout the city.
Mr Burnham's allies have suggested he would place responsibility for providing asylum accommodation on local authorities if he were to become Prime Minister by terminating multi-billion pound Home Office contracts with private companies housing migrants.
The Safe Transitions community guidance says: "People with asylum backgrounds are disproportionately represented within homelessness and rough sleeping services, often due to limited understanding of UK systems, fragmented transition support and barriers to accessing housing, welfare and local services."
The total value of the contract for developing the new guidance is almost £370,000.
Greater Manchester will also place refugees in homes as part of a "Refugee Lodging Scheme". The scheme was established to prevent homelessness among refugees who only had 42 days to find an alternative to Home Office accommodation after being granted asylum.
More than 18,000 people have no permanent address in Greater Manchester, according to homelessness charity Shelter.
And in the borough of Manchester alone, more than 9,500 people are homeless, half of whom are children.”