London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Homes for Ukraine: 'It's sad, slow and frustrating'

Homes for Ukraine: 'It's sad, slow and frustrating'

Families desperate to give a home to Ukrainians in need have spoken of their frustration and sadness at a process they say is too slow and bureaucratic.

One described "hours and hours and hours" of form filling, while a British businessman who is in Poland to bring a family back to England says it's taking a long time and must be quicker.

There has been an enormous groundswell of support for hosting Ukrainian refugees in homes across the UK.

But in England, families who have applied to be sponsors are complaining that the system is overly complicated and lengthy.

There is frustration that the scheme isn't dynamic enough for the immediate emergency.

Heartbreaking appeals


In Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Rebecca Lewis is hoping to emulate her grandfather who helped families fleeing Germany in World War Two.

The daffodils bursting into life on Marlow's river banks are a far cry from the thunder of shells and the lives that are ending in Ukraine.

Rebecca has rallied the community and helped to organise 30 homes for Ukrainian refugees. They have backing from local businesses and restaurants.

But, ask how many have come and it's a depressing answer. "Zero," she says.

"The Homes for Ukraine scheme is absolutely brilliant because people get to stay for three years, they get to work, they get healthcare, they get skills.

"The problem we're having is bringing all the help from Marlow together with all the refugees coming from Ukraine.

"I appreciate the process has been set up really fast. But there are some issues with the process that are blocking people being able to help these refugees fast enough."

Rebecca describes having to search on Facebook through posts of Ukrainian families pleading for help and homes.

Currently, no organisations or faith groups are allowed to sponsor refugees so it is up to individuals to act, find a family and navigate the process. A few charities are helping.

Those posts are heartbreaking as families try to appeal to those who want to help.

"Tidy with no bad habits," says one. Another says, "I have to leave the country because I have no other way to save my life", and "I can work and want to find a job after coming to you".

Some families who have submitted visa information have found the process complicated and there is no indication of how long it will take for the UK government to issue the visas.

One Ukrainian woman, who fled the country two weeks ago and submitted her application four days ago, has been told it could take up to a week - more if a visit to the visa centre is required.

Rebecca said the applications she made for 37-year-old Mariia and her children Sofia and Vladislav, currently sharing a room in Athens with seven others with no heating and running out of money, took hours and hours.

She says they then tried to help other families. "My husband wrote a document to explain the process. The document is nine pages and it's more than 2,000 words.

"And we recorded a tutorial on Zoom about how to use the process. Even just the tutorial is 40 minutes long."

She says she feels "sad and frustrated" that it's taking this long to bring people over who are obviously in need of safe refuge.

Businessman Steve McLean says it's not been easy to give help


Steve McLean from Hampshire went to Wroclaw in Poland to donate clothes to refugees but found it was homes they really needed.

So he has applied to bring a traumatised family, currently living at a refugee centre, back to the UK.

His community can also provide another 25 homes but it's not proving easy, he says.

"I'm really frustrated. We have applied for one family to come to the UK. But the visa application process has been taking a long time. So I hope they will come to the UK. We're talking to other families at the centre here, I'm putting them in touch with potential hosts."

He said a group in the UK were lobbying their MP to speed up the process. "It needs to be faster and needs to do a lot more," he says.

Steve says that when he tells people at the refugee centre he's from England, "mostly they laugh because they know England is not very good at taking refugees compared to Europe, but I hope we can change that".

He fears the family he has sponsored to come to England will now go to Germany because of the time it takes to get a visa.

There are two schemes for Ukrainians to come to the UK.

The family scheme launched more than two weeks ago for relatives of some Ukrainians already in the UK. It has received 32,500 applications - just over a third of those people have received visas so far.

The Homes for Ukraine scheme launched on Friday but no information has been given about how many visas it has issued.

The visa side is run by the Home Office while the scheme is run by the Department for Levelling Up. Those involved with the scheme are happy it is working and claim some visas have been issued but admit it's not yet running at the capacity they want.

Scotland and Wales have taken a different approach and Scotland is acting as a super sponsor, with Wales set to follow.

In Scotland, this means any Ukrainian can apply without a named sponsor and they will initially be given temporary accommodation.

The UK government said: "We are moving as quickly as possible to ensure that those fleeing horrific persecution in Ukraine can find safety in the UK, and our Homes for Ukraine scheme now allows those without family connections to come here.

"The Home Office has acted to streamline the visa application process so valid passport holders no longer have to attend in-person appointments before arriving, allowing us to welcome people faster."

But into the fourth week of war, with millions forced from their homes, only 12,400 Ukrainian refugees have been given permission to come to the UK.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×