Dozens of Ukrainian refugee households have faced homelessness in Buckinghamshire, new figures show.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March, refugees from the war have been invited to stay in the UK under the Ukrainian Sponsorship and Family schemes.

The former sets up refugees with hosts in the UK for an initial six months, who receive support from their local council and a stipend of £350.

However, as the cost-of-living crisis starts to bite and the initial hosting period comes to an end, it is feared that many more refugees could become homeless nationally.

New figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities show across both schemes, 41 refugee households had been made homeless or put at risk of homelessness in Buckinghamshire as of September 23.

Buckinghamshire Council did not submit data for August.

Homelessness was avoided or relieved for nine refugee households in Buckinghamshire.

Stan Benes, a trustee for Opora, a charity which helps Ukrainians settling in the UK, said that Government support has "too often fallen short", and that charities and other organisations have been left to fill in the gaps.

In Buckinghamshire, a breakdown of the hosting arrangement was the main reason for homelessness in 29 cases, and 11 because their accommodation was unsuitable.

Opora is also concerned that there are many more homeless refugees than the figures suggest – almost 30% of councils did not provide data for September.

The DLUHC said it has been in contact with councils that have repeatedly not submitted data on homelessness, and is currently looking into how it can increase response rates.

Separate DLUHC figures show 1,354 Ukrainian refugee households due in Buckinghamshire – from 1,628 successful applications – had arrived in the UK by October 4 under the sponsorship scheme.

This was up from 1,267 arrivals on September 6, when 1,596 visas had been issued.

In the month to October 4, 96,800 refugees had arrived in the UK, with 136,600 visas approved under the scheme.