Homes for Ukraine: Future accommodation options

If you have the means to pay rent for private accommodation but cannot afford the upfront cost of a deposit, you can: apply for a Ukraine Rental Support grant to cover your deposit and the first month of rent payment.

You can find tips for accessing the private rental sector on the Council web pages. You will only be eligible for one of the options for support to access Private Rented accommodation. For example, if you are referred to Beam and accepted onto their programme, you will not be able to apply for a Ukraine Rental Grant. 

The Council does not have or maintain a list of Private rented accommodations available. This is because it would change daily as properties are let every day therefore it would be out of date as soon as it was published.

Please go online or to the high street letting agents find available Private Rented Accommodation.

About the Rental Support Grant

This is a one-off payment to support you in finding private accommodation. You will be expected to finance the monthly rent payments yourself without any additional financial support from the Council. 

The grant can cover the deposit (up to 5 weeks rent equivalent) plus 1 month rent for privately rented accommodation. The grant will be subject to suitability and affordability checks completed by the RBK Housing Team. The payment will be paid directly to the landlord if the payment is agreed upon. If you make the upfront payment yourself, the Council will not be able to retrospectively pay the grant to you. 

You will need to ensure that the landlord keeps the deposit in a Government approved tenancy deposit scheme.

Apply for this grant

The grant is available if you are looking to move out from your host under the Homes for Ukraine scheme in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

You can apply for this grant once you have found a potential property by downloading and completing the Application form. Please send the completed form to ukraine@kingston.gov.uk with the subject ‘Ukraine Rental Support Grant application’ followed by the lead tenant’s name. You can expect to receive a decision on your application from a member of the Kingston Housing team within 5 working days once all requested evidence has been submitted.

The suitability and affordability checks

The suitability and affordability checks completed by Kingston Council will be based on income (whether through employment or Universal Credit) and the safety and costs of the property identified. 

When a hosting arrangement ends, either the guest or host will need to fill out this Departure Form to inform the Council of the date that the guest moved out. Alternatively, the guest or the host can email ukraine@kingston.gov.uk providing the guest’s full name and the date when the guest moved out. This then prompts the council to update their records and stop 'Thank You' payments, preventing an invoice being issued.