A fifth of homeowners would welcome a refugee

The research, carried out by Opinion Matters, surveyed over 1,000 UK homeowners and found that 17% who have a spare room would consider housing a refugee in their spare room. eMoov asked “If you have a spare room in your property, would you consider allowing refugees to use it for a small time period?”

The results showed that of those homeowners who have a spare room, 14% would accommodate a refugee for between one and three months, 2% under a month and 1% for a period of over three months.

The growing crisis which has spread across Europe, has seen Prime Minister David Cameron come under pressure to act, and for Britain to do their part to accommodate a proportion of the refugees fleeing their war torn countries.

Although this latest research may only highlight a temporary solution to housing those refugees entering the country, a long term solution is still required across Europe.

Russell Quirk, founder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, had this to say: “Those that receive refugee status in the UK will be provided with somewhere to stay, however it is estimated some 200,000 additional asylum seekers are still living destitute in the UK.

The British public have a great tendency to club together in times of need and the sentiment of our research highlights this.
Although it isn’t as straight forward as taking in ½ a million refugees and housing them in spare rooms, it is humbling to see how many home owners would consider opening their doors to complete strangers out of the kindness of their hearts.”