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National
James Robinson

Councillors told the number of Ukrainian refugees living in Northumberland

More than 250 Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression have made their home in Northumberland, councillors have been told.

The figure of 255 was unveiled to members of Northumberland County Council's cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday.

It was also revealed that there are currently a further 548 Ukrainian nationals looking for accommodation in the county, with a total of 199 hosts registered across the county.

Read more: The County Durham granddad risking his life to deliver aid to the people of Ukraine

The council's head of housing and public protection, Philip Soderquest, said that the scheme had been going well, although some arrangements hadn't worked out.

Speaking at the meeting, he said: "We've seen a number of situations where the relationship between the host and the guest has broken down. There are 30 individuals where there's no support from hosts.

"We're also coming to the end of the first six month period for some of the first arrivals, which is what hosts had to commit to."

The report was brought to cabinet to ask members to approve spending in advance of Government funding arriving. The Government is providing £10,500 per person to councils in order to provide support to people arriving from Ukraine.

However, to date no payments have been received from Government. It has indicated that payment of the grant would be made three months in arrears, with first payments expected in June.

The council is expecting £2,677,500 in payments for those individuals who have already arrived.

Despite the issue, Audrey Kingham - the council's interim director of children's services - said: "It's working really well. We've had some really good successes."

To date, 119 children have been placed in schools in Northumberland. Furthermore, Mrs Kingham revealed that one English teacher from Ukraine was in the late stages of achieving employment with the council, while another was expected to start the process soon.

At the end of May, the Home Office said that 65,700 Ukrainians had arrived in the UK fleeing the war in their native country following Russia's invasion earlier this year.

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