Asylum barge and hotel contract awarded despite election pledge to end use

The government has awarded a contract that allows hotels and barges to house asylum seekers up until September 2027, despite Labour vowing to end the practice.

- MILLIE COOKE

The wide-ranging agreement – which covers transport, accommodation and venue bookings for the public sector – includes services for asylum seekers, released prisoners and rough sleepers.

The transparency document, seen by The Independent, says it includes the provision of commercial accommodation, including hotels, serviced apartments, holiday parks, staff blocks, halls of residence, barges and cruise vessels.

The contract, advertised ahead of the election, was awarded by the Cabinet Office in October 2024 – just months after Labour won a historic landslide election victory promising to end the use of hotels and barges to house asylum seekers. The contract runs up until September 2027.

The agreement, known as a “call off contract”, is agreed in advance so that government bodies are able to purchase goods or services from a supplier under a pre-existing framework agreement, without needing to go through a full procurement process each time. The government said it has no intention of using the contract to keep hotels open.

A government source said of the contract: “We’re trying to cover every possible use that you can think of, even if there’s a 0.01 per cent chance of it being used. You’d rather have it in there than not. No one has a crystal ball. In extreme cases, it may be needed from a procurement perspective.”