The UK is set to take in Syrians from refugee camps in countries like Jordan and Lebanon
Refugees coming to the UK from Syria will not be housed in people's spare rooms, the Local Government Association has said.
The LGA said that although it had been "extremely heart-warming" to hear of people offering rooms, the government had decided they were not needed.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said 20,000 Syrian refugees will be housed in the UK by 2020.
Guidance from the Home Office, external said there was no "need" to use spare rooms.
The LGA's announcement comes after the mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, urged people to open up their spare rooms to refugees.
'Generously offering'
An LGA spokesman said the government considered spare rooms a "short-term solution to a long-term problem".
Cllr David Simmonds, chairman of the LGA's asylum, migration and refugee task group, said: "It has been extremely heart-warming to see so many people offering to help take vulnerable refugees into their homes.
"However, the government has confirmed that the scheme will not involve people putting up refugees in spare rooms, and encourages anyone generously offering to help to donate to a charity helping refugees at home or abroad."
At the weekend, it emerged that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had promised to offer sanctuary to Syrian refugees at Lambeth Palace.
In the archbishop's case, his offer may still be taken up because he is proposing to give a self-contained cottage in the grounds of the palace, rather than just a spare room.
'Unimaginative and defeatist'
Zoë Fritz, a consultant at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, has collected names of more than 4,000 people who have offered spare bedrooms for the refugees.
"There's an acute problem that requires an acute solution. They [the government] are not thinking outside the box," she told the Times, external.
"Of course, there need to be proper checks. I recognise it needs to be safe, and I know it cannot be a long-term solution, but for the government to say 'thanks but no thanks' to 4,200 people is unimaginative and defeatist," she added.
But guidance on the Home Office's website says: "At this point we don't think there will be a need to host Syrian refugees in homes and we're not asking people to come forward with offers of a spare bedroom."
The 20,000 refugees are being taken from camps bordering Syria into the UK via the government's Vulnerable People Relocation Scheme, external (VPRS), which was launched in January 2014.
Before anyone can travel to the UK, a local authority must agree to take them in.
Facts about the Vulnerable People Relocation Scheme
Under the scheme, all of the "paperwork" is done before the refugees arrive. From day one they get housing, have access to medical care and education and they can work
Refugees taken into the UK via this scheme will be granted five years' humanitarian protection, external which includes access to public funds, the labour market and the possibility of family reunion, external, if a person was split up from their partner or child when leaving their country
After those five years they can apply to settle in the UK, external
David Cameron said the scheme would be funded for the first 12 months by the government.
Before the scheme was introduced nearly 5,000 Syrians were granted asylum to the UK in the last four years
- Published4 September 2015
- Published21 September 2015
