Asylum seekers could be moved to pop-up buildings

Asylum seekers could be moved from migrant hotels into popup buildings with plans to be announced “within weeks”, a minister has said as the government scrambles to get a grip on the asylum accommodation crisis.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

Popup buildings have previously been used to tackle prison overcrowding, with rooms including en-suite bathrooms, a bed, desk and television set up in prison grounds.

Housing secretary Steve Reed told the media yesterday that the government is looking at "modular" forms of building to ensure new sites can go up quickly, as part of plans to end the use of hotels "entirely".

The Home Office also confirmed yesterday that two barracks in Scotland and southern England would be used to house around 900 men temporarily. The plans will see men housed at Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex.

Both sites were used to accommodate Afghan families evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 while they were resettled elsewhere, with that work ending earlier this year.

It comes after a scathing report found the Home Office had squandered billions of pounds on migrant hotel contracts as a result of mismanagement and incompetence. A cross-party group of MPs also found officials had failed to recoup millions of pounds in excess profits owed by companies running the accommodation.

One of the accommodation providers, Mears, yesterday said it had now made payments back to the Home Office.