Responsibility for asylum accommodation must be returned from private companies to local authorities, the charity Refugee Action has said.
In 2019, the Home Office paid £4bn to three contractors, Clearsprings Ready Homes, Mears and Serco, to provide accommodation to people seeking asylum over 10 years.
On top of this, the Home Office spent £2.28bn in the year to March 2023 on hotel accommodation – and said it currently spends more than £8m a day housing asylum seekers in hotels.
Corporate Travel Management was also paid £1.6bn this year to run asylum accommodation services, including the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, which is due to house asylum seekers again after lying empty for two months following a legionella outbreak.
Refugee Action’s head of campaigns, Asli Tatliadim, said: ‘The asylum accommodation contracts have been a licence to print money for these contractors but the gravy train must stop.
‘It’s time the Government funded local authorities to run the system on a not-for-profit basis and spent every penny of this public money on protecting refugees and strengthening services that all of us rely on.’
A Government spokesperson said: ‘Despite the number of people arriving in the UK reaching record levels, we continue to ensure the accommodation provided meets all legal and contractual requirements whilst also providing value for money for the taxpayer.
‘We remain committed to ending the use of expensive hotels for asylum seekers. That is why we are moving asylum seekers into alternative, cheaper accommodation and clearing the legacy backlog.’
The contractors were contacted for comment.
Yesterday, it withdrew its controversial plans to house asylum seekers at the Stradey Park Hotel in Furnace, Llanelli.
