A couple who fled Ukraine for the UK are apparently returning home dissatisfied with rental prices in their host country. Joe Place, originally from Sheffield, returned to the UK with his wife Irina due to the conflict with Russia, but the couple were reportedly met with ‘terrible’ housing and high costs.

‘Anything we got even remotely close to getting was just terrible,’ said Joe, despite the pair doubling their intended budget, and they’ve now decided to call it quits and return to Ukraine. It would reportedly have cost them up to £1,500 a month to rent in the UK, compared with £500 in Ukraine, and landlords were asking for a previous year’s tax statement or six months of income in a UK bank account, which they couldn’t provide.

‘We realized we actually quite like it back here, and we’re OK,’ said Joe on their return. ‘We wouldn’t want to live back in Kiev right now because it’s not safe, but where we are it is very safe,’ he added.