MP's shock over 'secretive' Home Office and asylum seeker ban plans

A DEAL brokered more than a decade ago to stop asylum seekers being housed in north Manchester could be lifted.

- JOSEPH TIMAN

The moratorium on asylum seeker accommodation in certain Manchester postcodes was put in place during the last Labour government.

But Serco – the company contracted by the government to house asylum seekers in the north west – wants to lift the ban, according to Manchester council.

It comes as the government tries to cut the use of hotels as asylum seeker accommodation which it claims is costing the taxpayer £6m a day. In a bid to cut costs, it has recently started housing some people on a barge in Dorset.

Serco has refused to comment on its request to lift the moratorium on asylum seeker accommodation in north Manchester, while the Home Office did not address the claims directly.

Blackley and Broughton MP Graham Stringer, who negotiated the moratorium nearly 20 years ago, has accused the government of being ‘secretive’, claiming he has not been contacted about lifting the ban.