A government website launched today where Brits can sign up to take refugees from Ukraine into their homes.
The Homes for Ukraine website opened this afternoon for individual Brits to express their interest in hosting a family fleeing Ukraine. It appeared to crash for some of those loading it.
Refugees will be able to live, work and claim benefits in the UK for three years under a sponsorship visa - up from 12 months under a previous vow.
Sponsors offering a spare room will have to guarantee accommodation for at least six months, in exchange for being paid £350 a month by the government.
Sponsors will be required to "undergo necessary vetting checks", and the £350 payment will not affect benefit entitlements or council tax status, it was announced.
But it was branded a "DIY asylum scheme" after a key detail of how it will work was missing today.
While visa applications under the scheme will open on Friday, they will only be for people who know by name which Ukrainian or Ukrainians they intend to take into their home.
Brits who want to accommodate a refugee, but don't know any Ukrainians, cannot yet be matched to those fleeing the war.
Matching of strangers to Brits who want to give up a spare room will happen in future as part of a "phase two" of the scheme.
But Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove was unable to name the date when phase two would begin.
Pressed to give a timescale, the Tory Cabinet minister said only “we are working this week with civil society” and “we will update the house in real time over the next few days”.
Government sources insisted this was a sensible approach because matching Brits with refugees would be time-consuming.
Charities and non-governmental organisations are expected to help connect Brits and refugees, rather than the Government acting as an intermediary.
But Shadow Levelling-Up Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "A press release is not a plan and we are deeply concerned about the lack of urgency."
She told Mr Gove: “He can’t seriously be asking Ukrainian families who are fleeing Vladimir Putin, who’ve left their homes with nothing, to get on Instagram and advertise themselves in the hope a British family might notice them.”
It comes after the government faced fury over the slow start to the separate visa scheme for Ukrainians with family in the UK to come here for three years.
Mr Gove said the other scheme being run by his colleague, Home Secretary Priti Patel, has now had 4,000 visas granted - out of more than 2million who have fled the war.
A string of MPs including Keir Starmer, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Grant Shapps, Ed Davey, Louise Haigh and Ben Wallace are among thousands of generous Brits who plan to sign up.
Downing Street said Boris Johnson is not expected to take in a Ukrainian refugee into No10 due to "unique circumstances", of the site being high-security and it also being an office.
Sponsors will be vetted but not undergo the full DBS checks imposed on teachers, for example.
Michael Gove told MPs: "We are working with the Home Office. We don't believe we need to have full DBS checks in order to make sure that someone is an appropriate sponsor.
"It will often be the case that very light-touch criminal checks will be sufficient and then local authorities can be supported in order to make sure that people are safe."
Sponsors in the UK can be of any nationality with any immigration status, as long as they have at least six months leave to remain within the UK.
Mr Gove said: "Ukrainians arriving in the United Kingdom will also have access to the full range of public services, doctors, schools, and full local authority support."
Mr Gove also said "we are doing everything we can" to facilitate Scotland and Wales acting as "super sponsors".
SNP home affairs spokesperson Stuart McDonald said: "We will do whatever we can to support this initiative.
"But we do very much regret that it is only phase one today, things are still not going fast enough."
Lib Dem Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: “Families and communities across the UK have been crying out for the chance to sponsor refugees for years.
"It shouldn’t have taken weeks of appalling humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine for the Government to finally listen.
“Even after the Government’s welcome U-turn and side-lining of Priti Patel from this scheme, the vast majority of Ukrainian refugees trying to get to the UK are still trapped in bureaucratic limbo, unable to come here. Michael Gove couldn’t even say when people will start to arrive under his new scheme.
“Ministers should do what the British people are urging them to do now: allow Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK today, without first having to apply.”
