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News & Events Category: Community

Immigration and Housing: The Facts

As a housing provider working in several local authorities across south Wales, Beacon is aware of growing concerns and confusion surrounding the allocation of new and existing homes to ‘migrants’.
This page contains accurate information on the situation as it relates to the UK and eligibility for social housing through Beacon and other social housing providers.

 

Understanding migration and relevant terms

Emigration just means moving from this country to live abroad.

Immigration just means moving from another country to live here.

Anyone who moves here for any reason is a migrant, but they will have different rights and encounter different processes depending on why they’re moving.

Some reasons for moving are to work, to study, for family reasons or to escape from a dangerous situation. When a migrant is moving for this last reason and using their legal right to ask for protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention, they are known as an asylum seeker. If they are granted asylum, they are given refugee status or humanitarian protection.

If someone remains in the UK beyond the terms of their visa or after an asylum claim has been turned down, they are sometimes referred to as an illegal immigrant.

Migration levels vary from year to year. You can find more information on migration levels here.

 

Common myths about immigration and housing

 

Immigration, housing and other welfare benefits

UK Government is responsible for all immigration into the UK, including Wales, through its visas and immigration department (UKVI). When someone comes to the UK on a visa (to work, study, or join family), they get some, but not all, of the rights available to UK citizens. For example, they can use the NHS but must pay a surcharge (currently £1,035 per year for adults). However, most visa-holders cannot get welfare benefits like Universal Credit or social housing with Beacon, councils or similar organisations.

People who are seeking asylum in the UK have different rights to UK citizens and visa-holders:

  • They do not pay a surcharge for NHS services whilst their claim is being processed.
  • They are not allowed to choose where they live and cannot access social housing. They are housed in temporary accommodation by UK government and this can be anywhere in the UK.
  • They cannot work or claim welfare benefits like Universal Credit or Child Benefit etc. Instead, they receive limited support from the Home Office, which is set according to their housing situation:
    • £9.95 per week, if accommodation includes meals
    • £49.18 per week, if accommodation only
  • Because these payments are so low and they are not allowed to work to earn more money, lots of asylum seekers rely on foodbanks, multibanks and other charities that help people on low incomes with food, clothes, hygiene products and sometimes electrical appliances and phones.

If they are granted asylum, they are given refugee status or humanitarian protection that provides similar rights to those of UK citizens. This can include access to welfare benefits and social housing with organisations like Beacon, depending on the outcome of their claim.

About 71,000 asylum cases (c. 91,000 people) were awaiting an initial decision in the most recent official release (end-June 2025).

 

Key facts about immigration and housing:

Migrants are people coming to the UK for a variety of reasons, either with a related visa or to make a legal claim for asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Most social housing is partially funded through public funding from government.

Asylum seekers do not have recourse to public funds and so are not eligible for social housing with organisations like Beacon.

Asylum seekers are housed in temporary accommodation by UK Government. This can be anywhere in the UK.

If an asylum claim is accepted, refugee status or humanitarian protection is granted, which can include access to social housing, depending on the claim outcome.

If an asylum claim is rejected (and any grounds for appeal are also rejected) or a visa period ends and the person remains in the UK, this is known as illegal immigration.

No-one is here illegally whilst their asylum claim is being processed, regardless of how they arrived in the UK.

 

 

As a housing provider working in several local authorities across south Wales, Beacon is aware of growing concerns and confusion surrounding the allocation of new and existing homes to ‘migrants’.

Unveiling the brand identity for our proposed merger company

RHA Wales and Coastal Housing Group have unveiled the brand identity for our proposed merger company. If the planned merger proceeds as intended, the two companies will move forward from 2nd January 2025 as:

beacon

(noun)

  1. a light or fire in a place that is easy to see, such as on the top of a hill or cliff, that acts as a signal:

As part of the centenary celebrations a chain of beacons was lit across the region.

 

  1. a good example that gives people hope or encouragement:

She was a beacon of hope in troubled times.

 

Beacons have illuminated human history as symbols of hope, guidance, and connection. They have been used consistently, by countless cultures, to communicate across vast distances, their glow uniting people, providing direction, carrying messages, and marking cultural celebrations.  Whether lit on inland mountaintops or coastal cliffs, their enduring presence reflects a shared understanding, a shared purpose and the human desire to connect with others.

RHA and Coastal have been progressing the planned merger since November 2023 and have reached a number of significant milestones including the appointment of the merger company board, CEO and Executive Team designates.

Read more about what the merger could mean for tenants.

Christmas Support & Festive Cheer

We understand that the festive season can be challenging for many. We know that people are struggling with the cost of living crisis and energy bills rising.  Our RHA Wales colleagues worked hard to fundraise during 2023 to ensure we are able to help to offer some festive cheer this Christmas.

Our festive hampers are offered to those identified by our Housing and Payment Advisors as well as offering everyone into help themselves to our community fridges.

The festive hampers include:

* Items for Christmas dinner

* Treats for families like selection boxes, chocolates and mince pies

* Food cupboard staples to batch cook

*Pet food for furry companions

*Toiletries, sanitary products and home essentials

We’re also providing winter warm packs are through funding from the local authority. Our front line staff  identify those in need, and offer to those struggling with heating or aren’t appropriately clothed for the cold weather.

Through working with generous partners we have donated the hampers this week to tenants and community members, our colleagues and our awesome tenant volunteers made sure hampers were delivered to doorsteps in time for Christmas. Ensuring those in need were provided with festive food and gifts for their children, it’s been lovely to brighten Christmas day for those who need a helping hand.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and thank you all for your donation, support and volunteering.

Fundraising and working with partners and awesome volunteers to donate almost 100 hampers to those in need this Christmas!

Beacon – Greener RCT

In this time of climate emergency, we are delighted to have received UK Government funding which enables us to launch our new exciting Greener RCT project.

We are offering educational activities and opportunities that address the importance of working to combat climate change. We are working across our counties, in partnership with local businesses, schools, colleges, the construction industry and community groups championing change through collective climate action.

Thank you for supporting us and making such a difference!

They did it!

We are incredibly proud of our staff, tenants and volunteers who walked massive 21 miles, from Tonypandy to Cardiff on Thursday 20th of July, to raise funds for food donations to help those in need this winter season.

Through your generous support, donations, and sponsorship then we can support even more people this year. A massive well done to our colleagues from Finance, Maintenance, IT, Com Dev, Development and Customer Advice and everyone who helped with our fundraising efforts.

They have raised over £3000, and donations are still coming in! 

We actively support community members and tenants each and every week and now, for the fifth year running we wanted to fundraise to help provide even more food hampers in Winter 2023. In December 2022 we provided 90 food hampers through the money raised by our colleagues who worked hard doing a 24 hour Danceathon. This year, thanks to your generousity we can help even more people in our communities.

 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE &  GET UPDATES ON OUR JUST GIVING FUNDRAISING 

Community Clean-Ups

As a responsible landlord, we balance the needs of our tenants whilst improving our natural environment. Our TENANT COMMITMENT promises to listen to tenants views and plan our services to make improvements that meet their priorities.

Colleagues from our Sustainable Tenancies Team spent the day with our tenants of Ty Bethania in Treorchy as we understood that fly tipping what an issue and we could help them improve the outdoor space.  We took the opportunity to give their garden a clean up, decluttered and got everyone involved whilst chatting about our other services.
Community clean-ups are a great way of disposing of non-household rubbish and ensuring they can feel proud of where they live and enjoy outdoor spaces. We worked together to take action to improve their environment, learn more about recyling and created meaningful change.

We had such a warm welcome and tenants helped us load up the skip and got the opportunity to declutter some of their unwanted (non-recyclable) items. Working together we made such a difference to their outside space.  Gone was all the unwanted clutter and rubbish from their garden and surrounding paved areas and now its back to its warm welcoming and usable space for the tenants to enjoy.

Community gardening project secures funding

We are pleased to have been awarded £9,800 in funding from National Lottery Awards For All Community Fund, to help get tenants involved and more active in their green spaces – sharing gardening skills, growing their own and taking care of our natural environment.

Our Homegrown gardening project started in 2020 during the pandemic and aims to get more people involved in healthy gardening activities and growing their own fruit and vegetables. This recent funding success allows us to expand our partnership with Cambrian Village Trust and offer community gardening session in more communities, which will enable people to get creative with their outdoor spaces, share gardening tips, learn to grow their own and be more active in nature.
We already have several community gardens which are perfect spaces to bring tenants together to plant flowers, trees, vegetables and encourage our local wildlife. So this funding allows us to enhance our offer and further support climate action and better wellbeing through green social and educational activities.
Our Homegrown initiative is part of RHA’s Optimize wider commitment to creating, restoring, our local environment and enhancing nature in the communities in which our tenants live.

Small actions making a big difference

At RHA we know how important it is to keep connected with our tenants and to understand what their priorities are. As a responsible landlord, we balance this with the needs of the local community. Noticing that litter or fly tipping is a problem is the first step in us taking action to create a cleaner environment.

At the end of April, we visited tenants at our Cyncoed scheme in Ynysbwl with our colleagues from our Sustainable Tenancies and Community Involvement (Get Involved) teams. We were grateful to be supported with a representative from the local authority refuse awareness team who got involved and helped us create meaningful change.
It was a lovely community-based day and a great opportunity to meet tenants who we’d not said ‘hello’ to in person before as they have recently joined us.  It’s been a challenging few years with the pandemic so being able to meet face to face and resume normal in person connections with tenants and their housing officers is never underestimated and so important. Taking part in a small community or neighbourhood clean-up like this may not sound significant but it makes a big difference. These initiatives not only help us keep the environment safe and clean but also help in reducing pollution and litter. All of these small actions contribute to us all valuing our communities.

We worked on improving their local surroundings, cleaned up communal spaces and provided two large skips which we filled.  We sorted litter and other discarded materials into three categories: landfill, recyclables and composting. All our tenants were encouraged to use the skips for removing any unwanted household items that they were unable to remove themselves or needed help with. It was a great way to get together and declutter communal and personal spaces.

Carbon Literacy Success

At RHA Wales we take our commitment to carbon literacy very seriously and we are proud that 100% of our staff have completed Cynnal Cymru / Sustain Wales carbon literacy training which covers how we can work together on climate change, our carbon footprint and how we can all play a vital part in protecting our planet for future generations. 

Our staff now have an awareness of the carbon dioxide costs of their work habits, everyday activities, and individual actions. They better understand how climate change is affecting them geographically and us as an overall housing sector, as well as the measures we need to take to mitigate this.
In 2022 all 73 of our staff completed the training and 50 of those are now accredited as Carbon Literate, all acquiring the knowledge and skills to lower their carbon footprint.
As an employer and a housing provider we have a responsibility to do all we can to reduce our carbon footprint, and in 2023 we aim to become a Carbon Literate Organisation, working towards achieving the Silver Accreditation by supporting the development of a Carbon Literate workforce and continuing to work with the Carbon Literacy Catrefi Cymru Network.
Climate action is important to all of us and is a globally defining challenge of our generation. As a responsible business we believe we need to invest and act to protect our future generations and the damage being caused to our planet.

Regeneration in the heart of Treherbert

Abertonllwyd House is a prominent building located in the heart of Treherbert which was built in the 1920’s. We have owned the building since the mid-1980’s and it was previously a mix of bedsits and flats which became less in demand over time, with high void rates, meaning that the building had been empty for several years. Empty properties are a wasted resource and so we began to explore opportunities to bring this building back into use. Due to our close partnership working with RCT Council, we were able to identify an opportunity to re-purpose this building to assist the Council to meet a local housing need.

Work on this project started in October 2021 with P&P Builders with a total cost of £980,000, with the Welsh Government providing £630,000 in Social Housing Grant funding. Additional funding was secured through the Welsh Government in April 2022, which allowed the Council and RHA to redesign and redevelop the building as housing for people who have experienced homelessness in order to provide high quality accommodation that would provide an alternative to the use of temporary accommodation.

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Got a question? Get in touch! [email protected] 01443 424200 CF40 1BE