90% OF COUNCILS TO HOUSE MIGRANTS BY END OF THE YEAR

MORE than 90% of councils will be housing asylum seekers by the end of this year, we can reveal.

- Michael Knowles

Unemployed male migrants will be living “at taxpayers’ expense in communities across the country”, critics warned, as Home Office documents detailed how many could be moved into each region.

Almost 40,000 people are set to be given taxpayer-funded homes in London, the East of England, South East England and South West England, as ministers ramp up efforts to close migrant hotels.

In total, the Home Office needs to find “dispersal accommodation” for more than 66,000 asylum seekers. And current plans only allow for enough space for another 46,640, creating a shortfall of almost 20.000.

The Home Office is exploring the use of military bases and abandoned properties to prevent hotels being taken over.

But the number of cash-strapped local authorities housing migrants has increased from 82% in the summer and is projected to hit 92% “by the year’s end”.

Shadow Housing Secretary Sir James Cleverly told the Sunday Express: “Labour promised to end the illegal migration crisis. Instead, nearly every council is being forced to host asylum seekers.

“That means more young unemployed men housed at taxpayers’ expense in communities across the country.

“Keir Starmer and his Government lack the backbone to solve this problem. They have no idea how to stop the boats —as we’ve seen with their farcical ‘one in, one out, one back in again’ returns deal — and local residents are forced to suffer the consequences.

“What’s more, this all means greater pressures on social housing at a time when many British nationals are struggling to find affordable accommodation.”