Asylum accommodation costs set to triple, says watchdog

Accommodation for asylum seekers volition outgo the payer triple the magnitude the Home Office archetypal claimed, according to caller figures.

Contracts signed by the Conservative authorities successful 2019 were expected to spot £4.5bn of nationalist currency paid to 3 companies implicit a 10-year period.

But a report by spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) says that fig is present expected to beryllium £15.3bn.

The NAO says ministers person "few levers" to power the rising costs, which person mostly been driven by an summation successful the fig of asylum seekers housed successful hotels.

The mean yearly outgo of asylum accommodation is present expected to beryllium higher than the magnitude ministers anticipation to prevention from cutting the wintertime substance payment.

The NAO report, which was commissioned by Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee, says the fig of asylum seekers successful paid-for accommodation accrued from astir 47,000 successful December 2019 to 110,000 successful December 2024.

Three quarters of each the wealth spent connected asylum accommodation presently goes connected hotels, contempt them lone accounting for astir a 3rd of each the asylum seekers being housed.

The NAO says that backstage providers who motion deals with the authorities whitethorn nett much from hotels than different types of accommodation.

In 2019, Conservative ministers signed 7 determination contracts with 3 companies - Serco, Mears and Clearsprings - to assistance location asylum seekers.

The NAO says the 3 companies made a combined nett of £383m connected asylum accommodation contracts betwixt September 2019 and August 2024.

A ample portion of the other costs is accounted for by Clearsprings' declaration successful the southbound of England, which has risen from £0.7bn to an expected £7bn.

Clearsprings' laminitis and director, Graham King, has antecedently donated to the Conservative Party, done different companies helium has owned.

Home Office figures released successful February showed the fig of radical claiming asylum successful the UK had reached its highest level since records began successful 1979.

A Home Office spokesperson said the Labour authorities "inherited an asylum strategy successful chaos" and criticised the Conservatives for signing "disastrous contracts that were wasting millions successful payer money".

They said determination were present less asylum hotels unfastened than since the predetermination and that measures taken were "forecast to prevention the payer £4bn by the extremity of 2026".

The Home Office has an optional interruption clause adjacent twelvemonth successful the contracts with the 3 companies, but it's understood these volition not beryllium triggered.

A elder Home Office root said the main driving unit down the rising accommodation costs was the summation successful radical crossing the transmission connected tiny boats.

They said the borderline has "slowly but surely been handed implicit to radical smuggling gangs", which meant the Conservative authorities had to rapidly motion contracts that were "not successful immoderate authorities fit".

The root said that ministers were successful interaction with Serco, Mears and Clearsprings "very regularly" and that the Labour authorities wants to "hold their feet to the fire".

They refused to speculate connected whether immoderate of the 3 companies would apt beryllium progressive successful asylum accommodation contracts aft 2029.

The main enforcement of the Refugee Council told the BBC that "hotel owners person had a large payday" and it was "clear determination person been peculiarly important profits made successful the southbound eastbound owed to the fig of hotels and the higher outgo of lodging successful the region".

Enver Solomon praised the authorities for "processing claims again" but called connected ministers to determination distant from the existent strategy and alternatively "work successful adjacent concern with section authorities" to location asylum seekers.

Decisions taken by Boris Johnson's authorities to halt processing galore asylum claims are seen arsenic a large driving unit down the archetypal summation successful asylum seekers needing to beryllium housed.

Rishi Sunak's authorities began to process much of those asylum cases, but his assertion to person cleared the backlog was rebuked by the UK's statistic watchdog past year.

The fig of hotels successful usage dropped sharply during Sunak's clip arsenic premier curate and has remained akin since Labour came to powerfulness past July.

In November, Home Office curate Angela Eagle admitted that much hotels were being utilized successful immoderate parts of the country, but the authorities insists the wide fig has dropped somewhat since the wide election.

Conservative shadiness location caput Chris Philp claimed the usage of asylum hotels had "soared" connected Labour's watch.

Reform UK has said it volition research each options - including ineligible challenges - to forestall the usage of hotels successful assembly areas it present controls.

Sarah Pochin, the newly-elected Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, said: "The colonisation detonation is making america each poorer, fuelling crime, and putting section communities astatine risk."