Michael Gove, the Communities Secretary, who launched the Homes For Ukraine scheme, is said to be seething.
Asked whether the Home Office was not fit for purpose, a source said: “On this, yes. It is quite clear that is the case. I have never seen Michael so animated over an issue over so many days.
“There’s deep frustration over the fact that ministers have been asking some specific things for quite some time and they have not been delivered. There is a breakdown in communication between ministers and officials.”
Some 32,000 people have applied for the homes scheme, of which 10,000 have been approved – but only several hundred refugees have arrived in the UK. Officials at the Communities Department are puzzled as to why early applicants are still waiting when those who applied a week after, or even later, have been granted.
Peter Young, a 74-year-old retired chemical engineer, who has applied with his wife Nancy to host 24-year-old Alexandra Verbitskaya from Odesa in their south coast bungalow, broke down as he described their plight as a “triumph of bureaucracy over humanity” to The Telegraph.
“We are so frustrated that we are trying to help and in effect we are torturing Alexandra because we cannot tell her anything,” said Mr Young.
Sabrina O’Brien and her husband Tony have been in contact with their guest family, Lillia and Vitalii Kucher and their two daughters Victoria, 14, and six-year-old Ilona, since March 4 and applied to the Homes For Ukraine scheme on March 18.
On Wednesday, she totted up 73 emails and 52 calls to the Government or its agencies since March 5 and said: “We are still fighting. There is no excuse, no accountability for these agencies.”
