A shortage of self-contained accommodation in St Albans means it is going to be “extremely difficult” to find somewhere for Syrian refugees to be housed - and they will have to wait until after Christmas.

At a St Albans District Council meeting on November 5, members of the local services scrutiny committee said the council was making quite a bit of progress on relocating refugees in St Albans but that they were still in the process of making a bid to the Home Office for funding.

The council has committed to supporting around 10 refugees a year for up to five years – which could be 10 individuals or two to three families – and the Home Office announced that additional funding would be provided for the full five years.

But Rebecca Hillman, principal policy and development officer, said the council still had not had any firm offers of accommodation from churches or from private landlords.

She said: “We’re making contact with local churches, for example St Peter’s Church, to see if they can assist with any accommodation.

“We haven’t had any firm offers of actual accommodation from churches yet but they’re keen to assist.

“We haven’t had very much response at all from the private sector – we were hoping we might have private landlords coming forward – so far there hasn’t been anything suitable.”

District Cllr Robert Donald described the project as “very frustrating” because the Home Office scheme is “rather prescriptive” in terms of acquiring self-contained accommodation.

He said: “There’s no doubt we could actually get the accommodation in people’s homes tomorrow, but the Home Office scheme doesn’t allow for that.

“We know there’s a shortage of self-contained accommodation in St Albans, that’s why we’ve got more than 1,000 on the waiting list.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult to get the accommodation.”

While the Home Office is hoping to resettle some refugees before Christmas, Ms Hillman said St Albans was not in a position to do this.

Ms Hillman said that St Albans District Council is welcoming any Hertfordshire authority to join it.

She said: "Watford and Welwyn Hatfield are very keen to work with us.

“We’re also hopeful that Dacorum, Three Rivers and Hertsmere may be prepared to work with us as well.

“Obviously, if we can develop a partnership with five local authorities, each local authority taking 10 refugees each, then that gives us the number that we need.”

The council is currently looking at putting together a bid with Watford.

She added: “By the time we’ve done that the other authorities will join us because we’re hoping we can have five authorities we can put the bid together on behalf of because that increases our chances of being accepted by the Home Office.

“We are hoping to do something as soon as possible in the New Year.

“It is dependent about getting this bid in to the Home Office and dependent on getting the other authorities to join us.”