Care homes to be used for asylum seekers

Asylum seekers will be housed in disused care homes and student digs under a Home Office plan to find 800 new accommodation sites and cut a bill that has risen to £8m a day.

- Diane Taylor

Home Office sources have confirmed to the Guardian that fundamental changes to asylum accommodation are under way in an attempt to save millions spent every day on hotel accommodation.

There are currently about 35,000 asylum seekers being accommodated in hotels - a reduction from a high last year of more than 50,000 people.

In 2023-24, the Home Office spent approximately £4.7bn on asylum support, of which about £3.1bn was spent on hotels.

The previous government hoped that mass accommodation sites such as ex-military bases and the Bibby Stockholm barge moored in Portland, Dorset, would save taxpayers money and remove the optics of asylum seekers leading a life of luxury in hotels. But at a meeting of the cross-party public accounts committee on Monday Home Office bosses admitted that mass accommodation sites on former military bases had not worked as well as planned.

National Audit Office reports found that sites like the Bibby Stockholm barge, which has now been decanted, did not represent good value for money.