Home Office incompetence costs billions on asylum hotels

Billions of pounds have been squandered on asylum hotel contracts thanks to Home Office mismanagement and incompetence, a major report has found.

- Holly Bancroft, The Independent

Dame Karen Bradley

Ministers and civil servants have become heavily reliant on the costly use of hotels for asylum accommodation, creating huge contracts for providers with little accountability or oversight, MPs from the Home Affairs Committee have warned. In a damning new report published on Monday, MPs said that the projected cost of the Home Office's asylum accommodation contracts between 2019-2029 has more than tripled, from £4.5bn to £15.3bn.

Millions of pounds in excess profits are owed to the government by two accommodation providers, but the Home Office have yet to reclaim this money, the report found. Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Dame Karen Bradley, said “urgent action is needed to lower the cost of asylum accommodation and address the concerns of local communities”. Migrant hotels became flashpoints of protest over the summer after an asylum seeker in Epping, Essex, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. Epping council sought to close down the hotel, taking their legal fight to the High Court. Dame Karen added: “The Home Office has presided over a failing asylum accommodation system that has cost taxpayers billions of pounds.” She warned against ministers making “undeliverable promises to appeal to popular sentiment”, such as pledging to end hotel use by 2029.